× NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
Reply

Re: Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

thapchild
Aspirant

Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

I just installed 3 GS752TPS switches in a stacked environment.  These switches supply a 20,000 square foot office building for various tennants.  These Tennants all run on seperate Vlans, but can range in size from 4 ports to 24 ports of the switch.

 

I want to prevent a tennant from creating a loop using their own switches.  I want to eliminate as much equipment as possible so there are no switches other than these in the network, but if a tennant who thinks they are a wiz goes and buys some cheap $25 4 port switch at walmart to hook up his printer, desktop, or IP phone I don't want him some how creating a loop crashing the entire building.

 

I understand that's how STP works, and why it was invented.  I have never deployed it before.  Would someone mind walking me through the proper steps and best practices?  My google searches come up with different terms than STP (also including STP) and seem to be aimed towards Cisco switches.

Model: GS752TPS(B)|ProSAFE 48-Port Gigabit Stackable Smart Switch with PoE and 4 SFP uplinks
Message 1 of 8

Accepted Solutions
Carl_z
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

Hi thapchild,

Welcome to the community!

 

By default GS752TPS have enable RSTP. And I think the default settings can meet your requirements. Once there is a looped switch  connected to the GS752TPS , the port on the GS7582TPS that connected to the looped switch would be disabled by RSTP.  So the looped switch would not affect the entire building.

To make sure stp have been enabled,you can check it by following steps,

Step1. Go to "Switching/STP "   Spanning Tree State should be enable ,STP Operation Mode RSTP(STP is also ok,by default it is RSTP)

step1.png

Step2. Go to "Switching/STP/Advanced/CST Port Configuration"   Port STP status should be "Enable"

step2.png

 

 

 

For more details about STP feature of GS75TPS, you can refer here,  page 122 to 134.

 

 

 

Best Regards

Carl

Netgear Employee

View solution in original post

Message 2 of 8

All Replies
Carl_z
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

Hi thapchild,

Welcome to the community!

 

By default GS752TPS have enable RSTP. And I think the default settings can meet your requirements. Once there is a looped switch  connected to the GS752TPS , the port on the GS7582TPS that connected to the looped switch would be disabled by RSTP.  So the looped switch would not affect the entire building.

To make sure stp have been enabled,you can check it by following steps,

Step1. Go to "Switching/STP "   Spanning Tree State should be enable ,STP Operation Mode RSTP(STP is also ok,by default it is RSTP)

step1.png

Step2. Go to "Switching/STP/Advanced/CST Port Configuration"   Port STP status should be "Enable"

step2.png

 

 

 

For more details about STP feature of GS75TPS, you can refer here,  page 122 to 134.

 

 

 

Best Regards

Carl

Netgear Employee

Message 2 of 8
thapchild
Aspirant

Re: Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

On my GS752TPS it's actually not enabled by default, which is why I was asking for proper deployment.

 

Here is a screen of the default settings for GS752TPS:

 

 STP1.PNG

 

Thank you for the detailed instructions.  I will see if I can research the differences between STP RSTP and MSTP before deploying to ensure I use the operation mode that best suits my environment.

 

Would enabling "rstp" have any detremental effects of the multiple Vlans?  We don't want any data to pass between different vlans.

 

Once I set this, if the Topology changes is there anything I need to do to update it? or is it a "set it, and forget it" type system?

Message 3 of 8
Carl_z
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

Hi  thapchild,

 

Stp would not take vlan into consideration.  It just take effct base on ports.

Here I also have a question to make sure from you.  Do you have any other switches connect to GS752TPS ?   If there some other switches , please provide us with simple topo about how they connected before do any stp configuration.

 

It better to keep us posted befor you make any topology changes if your are not very suce about it .

 

Best Regards

Carl

Message 4 of 8
thapchild
Aspirant

Re: Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

Thanks Carl.

 

There is one other "dumb" 8 port switch connected.  It's connected to a port on a Vlan, and runs 4 devices. (lack of ports in the office is the reason for the switch).  

Message 5 of 8
Carl_z
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

Hi  thapchild,

 

OK,I think "RSTP" would work for your scenario.   You can enable RSTP on your GS752TPS.

 

Best Regards

Carl

Message 6 of 8
thapchild
Aspirant

Re: Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

Thanks for the help Carl.

 

I enabled RSTP, then went to CST Port Configuration and enabled STP status on all the ports per your instructions.

 

In order to check if a port is causing a loop, if I go to CST Port Status, the last colum is labeled "Port Forwarding State".  If a port were causing a loop would this state be set to "Discarding"? or "Disabled".

 

It looks currently that ports that aren't in use are set to "Disabled" as all my ports either say "Forwarding" or "Disabled".

 

I'm wanting to know how I can check the status for loops, or look at a history where it would say that a loop has been deteced or was detected in the past.

 

 

Message 7 of 8
Carl_z
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Help understanding, and proper deployment of STP (loop protection).

Hi  thapchild

 

Sorry for late to back, but I was on vacation for the last couple of days.

 

If a port ware casuing a loop, it state would be set to "Discarding".

 

You are right , ports that aren't in use are set to "Disabled".

 

For current state , you can check at "CST Port Status", the state of  "Discarding" means a loop on the port.

For history, you can check at "Monitoring/Logs/Memory Log", if there was a loop detected,there would have logs.

 

Regards

Carl

 

Message 8 of 8
Top Contributors
Discussion stats
  • 7 replies
  • 12582 views
  • 1 kudo
  • 2 in conversation
Announcements