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14 Feb

Rapid Spanning Tree

Rapid Spanning Tree

Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (IEEE 802.1w) was introduced to dramatically speed up STPs convergence when network changes occur. RSTP can revert to 802.1D (common spanning-tree) to inter-operate with legacy bridges on a per-port basis. A rapid version of PVST+, RPVST+ is a per-VLAN implementation of rapid spanning-tree.

RSTP Port States

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Discarding Merges the former disabled, blocking, and listening states Prevents the forwarding of frames Seen in both stable/active and synchronization/changes Learning Receives frames to populate the MAC table Seen in both stable/active and synchronization/changes Forwarding Forwarding ports determine the active topology An agreement process between switches occurs before frames can be forwarded Only seen in stable/active topologies Note: In every RSTP port state, BPDU frames are accepted and processed. Operational Status STP Port State RSTP Port State Port Included in Active Topology Enabled Blocking Discarding No Enabled Listening Discarding No Enabled Learning Learning Yes Enabled Forwarding Forwarding Yes Disabled Discarding Discarding No

RSTP Port Roles

Root port (active) On non-root bridges only Best port towards the root bridge Only one per switch Is always in forwarding state in an active/stable topology Designated port (active) On root and non-root bridges All ports on root bridge are designated ports

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Receives and forwards frames towards the root bridge as needed Only one per segment Alternate (inactive) Offers an alternate path towards the root bridge, but is in discarding state in an active topology Present on nondesignated switches and becomes designated if path fails Backup (inactive) An additional switch port on a redundant (and designated) link It has a higher port ID than its redundant peer port, so it assumes the discarding state Disabled port No role in spanning tree

RSTP Link Type

In common spanning tree, it took 50 seconds before a port could be placed in forwarding state after a network change. RSTPs biggest advantage is its ability to rapidly transition alternate ports to a forwarding state. To do this, the protocol relies on two variables, link type and edge port. Link type Point-to-point or shared Determined by duplex mode of port Full Duplex assumed to be point-to-point Half Duplex assumed to be shared Point-to-point links are considered candidates for rapid transition to forwarding state Link type can be manually configured if desired The link types cannot be determined until the port role is first established. Roots ports Dont use the link type parameter Make rapid transition to forwarding state as soon as it recieves a BPDU from the root bridge and puts nondesignated ports in blocking state (called sync) Alternative and backup ports Do not use link type in most cases Simply go through RSTP operation process Designated ports Most common use of link type parameter Only allows rapid transition to forwarding if point-to-point

RSTP Edge Ports

Edge ports are assumed to connected to an and host and bever another switch. Edge ports immediately transition to rapid forwarding sate when enabled. Edge port the RSTP equivalent of PortFast allowed to transition directly into forwarding state designated through manual configuration Does not generate a topology when link transitions to enabled or disabled status If edge port receives a BPDU, looses edge port status and become a normal STP port and generates a topology change notification (TCN)

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RSTP Topology Changes

In 802.1D spanning tree, when a switch detects a topology change, it first notifies the root bridge. The root bridge then sets the TC (topology change) flag on the BPDUs it sends out, which gets relayed throughout the switched network. When a switch receives the notification, it reduces its bridging-table aging time equal to the forward delay. That allows the outdated topology information to be flushed from the switches. This modle works well, but the problem is that it takes a minimum of twice the forwarding delay for bridges to transition back to forwarding state. RSTP solves this. In RSTP, only non-edge ports that are transitioning to forwarding state cause a topology change notification to be sent out. Unlike with 802.1D, ports moving to blocking state do not cause a TC BPDU to be sent.

Synchronization
Synchronization is term used to describe the RSTP network convergence process. Nonedge ports begin in the discarding state. It then performs a handshake to determine the state of each end of the link. Each switch assumes that its port should become the designated port for the link, and so it sends a proposal message (a configuration BPDU) to its neighbor switch. When a switch recieves a proposal message, the following events occur: 1. If the sender has a superior BPDU, the local switch realizes that the sender should be the designated switch (thus have the designated port) and its own port should then become a new root port. 2. Before the switch agrees to anything, it must sncronize itself with the topology. 3. All nonedge ports are moved to discarding stae to prevent loops from forming. 4. An agreement message is sent back to the sender, affirming the new designated port choice. This also lets the sender switch know that it is in the process of syncronizing itself. 5. The root port is moved into forwarding state. The senders port can begin forwarding. 6. For each nonedge port in discarding state, a proposal message is sent to the respective neighbor. 7. An agreement message is expected and recieved. 8. The nonedge port is moved to forwarding state. Because the recipient of a sync prosal isolate itself from the rest of the network (all other nonedge ports are temporarily in blocking state), the nearest neighbors must also syncronize themselves. This creates a rippling wave of sayncronizing switches throughout the network which occurs very quickly. Because timers are not used, changes occur at the speed of BPDU transmissions.

Bridge IDs
In 802.1D, each switch was required to have a unique bridge ID, consisting of a priority value + MAC address. PVST+ and PVRST+ also require the BID, but they must also include VLAN information within the BID because a unique instance must run for each VLAN on each switch. Tp accomplish this, a portion of the
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priority field is used to carry the VID. Old bridge priority: Priority value (default 32,768 increments of one) + MAC address New bridge priority: Priority value (default 32,768 increments of 4,096) + Extended system ID (12 bit field carrying the VID) + MAC Address Remember that if the priority value is not manually configured, the root bridge for each VLAN will be determined by lowest MAC address. Also, keep in mind that the priority value you configure is only half of the actual priority value used by the switch because the VLAN ID is also attached. Heres an example: Default priority field for VLAN 11: 32768 + 11 = 32779 Higher priority for VLAN 11: 28672 + 11 = 28683

RSTP Compatibilty with 802.1D

802.1w and PVRST+ are backwards compatible with common spanning tree, but loose the fast convergence benefit for that particular segment. If a switch recieves BPDUs that do not reflect its current operating mode, for two times the hello time, it switches STP modes.

Spanning Tree Load Balancing

The default STP mode on current Cisco switches is PVST+. That means that all VLANS will elect the same root bridge and a topology change will impact all VLANs the same. ALl redundant links would also be blocked in exactly the same manner. One way to use STP to load balance across redundant uplinks between switches is to change the port priority for the active VLANs to intentionally force half the VLANs to prefer one link and the other half to prefer the other link. By lowering the port priority for a VLAN on a redundant links interface, traffic for that VLAN would begin to use that link and place one of the interfaces on the other uplink into the blocking state. An Example

Switch A Configuration: Switch A# conf t Switch A(config)# interface fa 0/1 Switch A(config-if)# spanningtree vlan 1-10 port priority 20

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Switch A(config-if)# switchport mode trunk Switch A(config-if)# interface fa 0/2 Switch A(config-if)# spanningtree vlan 11-20 port priority 20 Switch A(config-if)# switchport mode trunk In this example, VLANs 1-10 would traverse the left link (priority of 20 is less than default of 32)and use the right link as a backup only, while VLANs 11-20 would prefer the right uplink and use the left link as a backup only. This way both uplinks are being used, but only one for each VLAN. Make sure you understand how this works because this is a very common implementation design.

PortFast
Spanning Tree Portfast causes layer 2 switch interfaces to enter forwarding state immediately, bypassing the listening and learning states. It should be used on ports connected directly to end hosts like servers or workstations. Note: If it isnt enabled, DHCP timeouts can occur while STP converges, causing more problems. To configure PortFast Switch# conf t Switch (config)# int fa 3/1 Switch (config-if)# [no] spanning-tree portfast To verify PortFast on an interface: Switch# sh spanning-tree int fa 3/1 portfast PortFast can be configured globally on an access switch for all interfaces to save configurations. Also, it only applies to access interfaces, not trunks. Use the spanning-tree portfast trunk command if it is required on a trunk. If you do so, make sure to disable it explicitly on uplink interfaces. To configure PortFast globally: Switch# spanning-tree portfast default

Switchport Mode Host

To configure PortFast and disable both channeling and trunking negotiation on an interface: Switch (config-if)# switchport host

RPVST+ Configuration
1. 2. 3. 4. Enable RPVST+ globally on all switches Switch(config)#spanning-tree mode rapid-pvst Designate and configire a primary root brigde Switch(config)#spanning-tree vlan 2 root primary Designate and configire a secondary root brigde Switch(config)#spanning-tree vlan 2 root secondary Verify the configuration Switch#show spanning-tree vlan 2

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