Advanced Setup; Spanning Tree - IBM BladeCenter Installation And User Manual

Advanced Setup

The main menu is divided into two sections, Basic Setup and Advanced Setup.
The Advanced Setup menus are organized into seven main categories: Spanning
Tree (see "Spanning Tree"), Forwarding (see "Forwarding" on page 101), Class of
Service (see "Class of Service" on page 101), Mirroring (see "Mirroring" on
page 103), Multicasting (see "Multicasting" on page 104), VLANs (see "VLANs" on
page 107), and Link Aggregation (see "Link Aggregation" on page 110).

Spanning Tree

To globally configure the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) on the switch, select
Spanning Tree on the main menu and press Enter. The following window opens:
The STP operates on two levels. On the switch level, the settings are globally
implemented, and on the port level, the settings are implemented on a per
user-defined group basis.
Note: The factory default settings should cover the majority of installations.
The user-changeable parameters in the switch are as follows:
Status: <Disabled>
Max Age: [20]
Hello Time: [2]
Therefore, it is advisable to keep the default settings as set at the factory
unless it is absolutely necessary to change them.
Toggle to Enabled to implement the Spanning Tree Protocol on the switch.
The maximum age can be set from 6 to 40 seconds. At the end of the Max
Age, if a BPDU has still not been received from the root bridge, your switch
will start sending its own BPDU to all other switches for permission to
become the root bridge. If your switch has the lowest bridge identifier, it will
become the root bridge.
The Hello Time can be set from 1 to 10 seconds. This is the interval
between two transmissions of BPDU packets sent by the root bridge to tell
all other switches that it is indeed the root bridge. If you set a Hello Time for
your switch, and it is not the root bridge, the set Hello Time will be used if
and when your switch becomes the root bridge.
Note: The Hello Time cannot be longer than the Max. Age. Otherwise, a
configuration error will occur.
Chapter 6. Configuring the switch module through the Telnet interface
99