How to know if FAS is using spanning-tree?

[Quang-Chinh]

Hello team,

Customer is preparing an upgrade of their network switches CISCO N5K and the network team is asking if the NetApp filer/arrays are using spanning-tree.

Could you please help us to know how to check this?

Thank you for your help.

Regards,

Quang-Chinh

[TMACMD]

No

 always set the ports facing any host device to port-fast enabled (commands varies on switches) or type edge 

 nexus (for a trunk port, for example)

 spanning-tree port type edge trunk

[TMACMD · Accepted solution]

Any switch ports facing hosts (a Netapp is a host, a server is a host, even a mgmt port on a switch is a host, basically, any link that is not another switching port) should have portfast enabled. This allows spanningtree to skip over the port for any stp setup as it knows it will be an edge port (aka an end host) and allows the port to be available quickly. Otherwise, there could be up to a 45 second delay for stp to initialize and realize that the other side is a host and not a switch. 

[ttran]

Hello @Quang-Chinh ,

@TMACMD is correct. Here is a reference guide, although not exactly for the Cisco N5K, but still relevant: Deploy Cisco Nexus 31108PC-V .

Regards,

Team NetApp

[Quang-Chinh]

Thank you for these additonal information 🙂