Spanning Tree question Connecting switch running MSTP to a switch running RPVST

[Davit2005]

We had an issue where a loop formed when we connected switches running RPVST to the aggregation switches (logically separated) running MSTP that effected devices on vlans not even provisioned on the links to the RPVST switches. I may of seen something like this before but did not get much further with it as another solution was found.

 

Has anyone else had this issue and if yes how did you resolve it on the switches. Spanning tree is not my strongest subject although I know what we have setup regarding MSTP more or less i.e. multiple instances with the roots on different switches to give some load balancing and redundancy.

[RedwayNetworks_Michael]

RPVST and MSTP are different versions of spanning tree, both separate VLANs traffic, but do it in a different way, which can cause issues when the two are run side by side. It also becomes more complex to manage. I would personally use one or the other but not both on the same network.

[Davit2005]

RPVST and MSTP are different versions of spanning tree, both separate VLANs traffic, but do it in a different way, which can cause issues when the two are run side by side. It also becomes more complex to manage. I would personally use one or the other but not both on the same network.

 

Thanks Michael, hopefully suggestions by external will fix the issues when we connect their switches to ours. Not going to lose too much sleep over it

Edited October 28, 2022 by Davit2005

[RedwayNetworks_Michael]

No problem at all, if you do have further issues feel free to contact me on my details below and i can get an engineer to jump on a quick call with us too.

 

Have a great weekend

[FN-GM]

What’s the reason for connecting 2 types of spanning tree? Is this a new switch or are you trying to bridge 2 already functioning networks together?

 

If it’s the latter could you route between them? This whole separate them and the 2 spanning tree systems wouldn’t be in contact with each other.

Edited October 29, 2022 by FN-GM

[Davit2005]

What’s the reason for connecting 2 types of spanning tree? Is this a new switch or are you trying to bridge 2 already functioning networks together?

 

If it’s the latter could you route between them? This whole separate them and the 2 spanning tree systems wouldn’t be in contact with each other.

 

It is a new project/solution where unfortunately the supplier had assumed we had stacked aggregation switches in the datacenter. They have like a hyper-converged setup with storage and high power 1U servers which includes using their switches which have 100Gb uplinks as opposed to ours which are all 10Gb max.

 

I don't think routing is an option as we'd have to re-ip our servers, the current plan is to simply migrate the VMs from current blades/SAN to the new solution, this is joint effort between networking and systems teams. But it is a worthy point.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Davit2005

[FN-GM]

So this is a storage switch? In theory they wouldn’t need to connect to the main network?

[Davit2005]

From what I can make out it is using iSCSI (or similar) storage and they use the same switch. But yes you are correct, previously I've managed and administrated SAN FC switches and quite a few years back ran a iSCSI storage for ESXi on 2 redundant switches/controllers/NICs separate from our own network. The highspeed 100Gb will connect multiple datacentres I'm assuming for storage/HA etc. Edited November 8, 2022 by Davit2005