Span Tree - nothing to do with coconuts...
1. What does the Spanning Tree Protocol achieve?
A) Determines a loop free topology
B) Sets up a meshed switched topology
C) Creates bridge loops and broadcast storms
D) Disseminates VLAN topology
2. What does the following statement do?Switch(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast disable
A) Disables spanning-tree on the switch port
B) Disable spanning tree on the switch
C) Changes the spanning-tree switch to portfast mode
1. Answer: A
2. Answer: A
Portfast is a method of disabling STP on a switch port.
Summary
STP (Spanning
Tree protocol) is used at layer 2 to prevent routing loops for frames on
switches with multiple connections. Without STP, imagine 2 switches
connected together with 2 separate Ethernet cables, a frame passes from
one switch to the other over cable number 1. Switch 2 by default sends
the frame out all ports except the one it came from so then this same
frame is routed back via the second cable to the first switch, first
switch then looks at the address and routes the frame back out the first
cable to switch 2 and around it goes again.
This is a routing
loop, also known as "race tracking", and the frame will eventually cause
the interface buffers on the switches to overflow, causing traffic
degradation, increased CPU and ultimately switch crash.
STP
prevents this from happening by blocking ports between switches,
allowing traffic to pass over one link only. It has to be remembered
that STP works vlan by vlan, so you can balance traffic across multiple
links by the use of weighting, to allow some vlans on one trunk and
others on the other. Very useful protocol.
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