Spanning-Tree Configuration Guidelines - Cisco WS-C2960-24LC-S Software Configuration Manual

Configuring Spanning-Tree Features

Spanning-Tree Configuration Guidelines

If more VLANs are defined in the VTP than there are spanning-tree instances, you can enable PVST+
or rapid PVST+ on only 128 VLANs on the switch. The remaining VLANs operate with spanning tree
disabled. However, you can map multiple VLANs to the same spanning-tree instances by using MSTP.
For more information, see
If 128 instances of spanning tree are already in use, you can disable spanning tree on one of the VLANs
and then enable it on the VLAN where you want it to run. Use the no spanning-tree vlan vlan-id global
configuration command to disable spanning tree on a specific VLAN, and use the spanning-tree vlan
vlan-id global configuration command to enable spanning tree on the desired VLAN.
Switches that are not running spanning tree still forward BPDUs that they receive so that the other
Caution
switches on the VLAN that have a running spanning-tree instance can break loops. Therefore, spanning
tree must be running on enough switches to break all the loops in the network; for example, at least one
switch on each loop in the VLAN must be running spanning tree. It is not absolutely necessary to run
spanning tree on all switches in the VLAN. However, if you are running spanning tree only on a minimal
set of switches, an incautious change to the network that introduces another loop into the VLAN can
result in a broadcast storm.
Note If you have already used all available spanning-tree instances on your switch, adding another VLAN
anywhere in the VTP domain creates a VLAN that is not running spanning tree on that switch. If you
have the default allowed list on the trunk ports of that switch, the new VLAN is carried on all trunk ports.
Depending on the topology of the network, this could create a loop in the new VLAN that will not be
broken, particularly if there are several adjacent switches that have all run out of spanning-tree instances.
You can prevent this possibility by setting up allowed lists on the trunk ports of switches that have used
up their allocation of spanning-tree instances. Setting up allowed lists is not necessary in many cases and
can make it more labor-intensive to add another VLAN to the network.
Spanning-tree commands control the configuration of VLAN spanning-tree instances. You create a
spanning-tree instance when you assign an interface to a VLAN. The spanning-tree instance is removed
when the last interface is moved to another VLAN. You can configure switch and port parameters before
a spanning-tree instance is created; these parameters are applied when the spanning-tree instance is
created.
The switch supports PVST+, rapid PVST+, and MSTP, but only one version can be active at any time.
(For example, all VLANs run PVST+, all VLANs run rapid PVST+, or all VLANs run MSTP.) For
information about the different spanning-tree modes and how they interoperate, see the
Interoperability and Backward Compatibility" section on page
For configuration guidelines about UplinkFast and BackboneFast, see the
Configuration Guidelines" section on page
Caution Loop guard works only on point-to-point links. We recommend that each end of the link has a directly
connected device that is running STP.
Catalyst 2960 Switch Software Configuration Guide
15-12
Chapter 16, "Configuring MSTP."
17-10.
Chapter 15 Configuring STP
"Spanning-Tree
15-10.
"Optional Spanning-Tree
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