Switch Administration Guide
- Switch 1.3.0
- Product Overview
- Package Contents
- Technical Specifications
- Supported SonicWall and third-party SFP and SFP+ Modules
- Physical Interface - 8 Port Switch
- Physical Interface - 10 Port Switch
- Physical Interface - 24 Port Switch
- Physical Interface - 48 Port Switch
- Device Management
- Connecting the Switch to a Network
- Capacity Matrix
- System Management
- System
- Switching
- Routing
- Security
- VLAN
- Logging
- Diagnostics
- System Maintenance
- Switch Troubleshooting
- SonicWall Support
Global Settings
Global settings are available under Spanning Tree Protocol Settings Tab. The Root Bridge serves as an administrative point for all Spanning Tree calculations to determine which redundant links to block in order to prevent network loops.
All other decisions in a spanning tree network, such as ports being blocked and ports being put in a forwarding mode, are made regarding a root bridge. The root bridge is the “root” of the constructed “tree” within a spanning tree network. Thus, the root bridge is the bridge with the lowest bridge ID in the spanning tree network. The bridge ID includes two parts; the bridge priority (2 bytes) and the bridge MAC address (6 bytes). The 802.1d default bridge priority is: 32768. STP devices exchange Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs) periodically. All bridges “listen” for Hello BPDUs (Bridge Protocol Data Units) transmitted from the root bridge. If a bridge does not get a Hello BPDU after a predefined interval (called the Maximum Age), the bridge assumes that the link to the root bridge is down. The bridge then initiates negotiations with other bridges to reconfigure the network to re-establish a valid network topology.
Name | This name uniquely identifies the MSTI (Multiple Spanning Tree Instance). Enter a descriptive name (up to 32 characters) for a MST region. The default is the MAC address name of the device running MSTP. |
Revision |
Displays the Spanning Tree Configuration Revision. Default revision is 0. Decimal values cannot be configured. |
Hello Time |
Displays the Switch Hello Time. This is the amount of time between each bridge protocol data unit sent on a port. The default is 2 seconds. |
Forward Time |
Displays the Switch Forward Delay Time. This is the time (in seconds) the Root Switch will wait before changing states (called listening to learning). The default is 15 seconds. |
Max Age |
Displays the bridge Switch Maximum Age Time. This is the amount of time a bridge waits before sending a configuration message. The default is 20 seconds. Ensure to calculate the Max Age using the following formula:
Max Age ≥ 2*(Hello Time + 1 second). |
Max Hops |
Displays the BPDU Hop count. The max hop count is the maximum number of hops the BPDU can traverse before getting discarded and also before the information held for a port is aged out. The default count is 6. |
Select whether to enable or disable the Spanning Tree function for the Switch and click Update to update the system settings.
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