So before updating my switches I did not use bridging, just the master/slave port setup. My network is very flat/switched, no vlans , nothing but switches until it converges on the core CR switch (3 ports, port 24 all 700 hosts- port 23 connected to 10.10 on router, port 22 connected to PPPoE router/server) . For about 10 years now life was pretty good until recently when we updated the switches to 6.42 (previously running 6.32’ish). Overnight my network turned into garbage. So now I’m trying to figure out how to get it running great again under 6.42. Ok so this part I should not have included because it obviously distracts from the question I am asking…
So all of my ports are in a bridge now to replace the old master/slave setup ? It appears there is no way for a port to not be in a bridge ? The new system seems to have chosen a random port on each switch/bridge to designate as “root”. Each of my switches (except the core switch) has several ports connected to Access Points and a single port (always Port 1) that connects to the backhaul. So port 1 is the only port that any of the other ports ever need to talk to , should Port 1 be the root ? Does it matter ? Should it matter to me which port is root ?
Sooooo if port 1 is the only port that any of the other ports ever need to talk to , should Port 1 be the root ? Does it matter ? Should it matter to me which port is root ?
A “root port” is a port that is facing towards the root bridge, you shouldn’t be worrying about which port is the root port, what you really should be worrying about is which ports are blocked and which ports are forwarding. You should always configure your STP related values manually, this will prevent a new bridge/switch to become the root bridge, from your description it sounds like you have left all STP related values to defaults (priority=0x8000) and after a reboot/upgrade the network converged to a state where crucial ports are blocked (alternate or backup ports), this can also happen if you have misconfigured your devices (most commonly VLAN interfaces are in a bridge with physical interfaces and RSTP enabled) or network contains devices that don’t fully comply with IEEE 802.1W.
There are multiple practices how you should configure RSTP, but most common method is to set the lowest bridge priority on the bridge that is the closest to your router, commonly this is the core switch, each bridge downstream should have a lower priority than the previous hop, this way you will ensure that the right port is the root port on downstream switches and will ensure that crucial ports are not blocked. Wiki will soon be updated with a new article about RSTP convergence, which will cover some RSTP tips and weak points.