Tag: Troubleshooting

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Cisco Route : PPP

By default Cisco uses HDLC encapsulation on Serial interfaces. We are going to setup a simple PPP link with Authentication.

R1#show int serial 0/0   

Serial0/0 is up, line protocol is up

  Hardware is GT96K Serial

  Internet address is 10.1.1.1/24

  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1544 Kbit/sec, DLY 20000 usec,

     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255

  Encapsulation HDLC, loopback not set

  Keepalive set (10 sec)

  Last input 00:00:09, output 00:00:07, output hang never

  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never

  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0

  Queueing strategy: weighted fair
R2#show int serial 0/0

Serial0/0 is up, line protocol is up

  Hardware is GT96K Serial

  Internet address is 10.1.1.2/24

  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1544 Kbit/sec, DLY 20000 usec,

     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255

  Encapsulation HDLC, loopback not set

  Keepalive set (10 sec)

  Last input 00:00:05, output 00:00:06, output hang never

  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never

  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0

  Queueing strategy: weighted fair

We have to change that to PPP encapsulation on both sides, other wise there will be a encapsulation mismatch and the Interface will remain up but the line protocol will be down.

R1(config-if)#encapsulation ?

  frame-relay  Frame Relay networks

  hdlc         Serial HDLC synchronous

  lapb         LAPB (X.25 Level 2)

  ppp          Point-to-Point protocol

  smds         Switched Megabit Data Service (SMDS)

  x25          X.25
R1(config-if)#encapsulation ppp
R1(config-if)#

*Mar  1 00:05:27.739: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial0/0, changed state to down

R1(config-if)#exit                             

R1(config)#exit

R1#sh int serial 0/0

Serial0/0 is up, line protocol is down 

  Hardware is GT96K Serial

  Internet address is 10.1.1.1/24

  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1544 Kbit/sec, DLY 20000 usec,

     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255

  Encapsulation PPP, LCP Listen, loopback not set
R2(config)#int serial 0/0

R2(config-if)#encapsulation ppp

R2(config-if)#exit

R2(config)#exit

R2#sh int serial 0/0

Serial0/0 is up, line protocol is up 

  Hardware is GT96K Serial

  Internet address is 10.1.1.2/24

  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1544 Kbit/sec, DLY 20000 usec,

     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255

  Encapsulation PPP, LCP Open

We should move from HDLC to PPP because PPP has some features that HDLC doesn’t for example, Authentication options, error detection and error recovery features.

Password Authentication Protocol (PAP)  and  Challenge Authentication Protocol (CHAP)

PAP is very passive authentication, where as CHAP actively asks who are you?

PAP also sends username and password in Clear Text.

Here is how to configure CHAP on both routers

The username is the Hostname of the Peer Router you are authenticating to. The passwords must match.

R1(config)#username R2 password TPW

R1(config)#int serial 0/0

R1(config-if)#ppp authentication chap

 

R2(config)#username R1 password TPW

R2(config)#int serial 0/0

R2(config-if)#ppp authentication chap

Most likely if there is a issue its with the passwords mismatching, but you can always use the command:

R1#debug ppp authentication
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Ruckus : Using Multiple RADIUS Servers

I have recently been configuring Network Access Control with 802.1x, and I had been having issues with using multiple RADIUS servers on Ruckus ICX Switches. The main issue being:

RADIUS Authenticate over SSH to switch using Microsoft NPS RADIUS Server
RADIUS Authenticate using 802.1x or MAC-Auth using DOT1x RADIUS Server

In Ruckus ICX switches there isn’t any concept of AAA groups like in Cisco, where you can designate specific RADIUS traffic to go to various different RADIUS Servers.

I have found 2 work arounds, I did however also call support and spend 1 hour troubleshooting with them and they didn’t have an answer for me.

Some Basic Setup Information

Microsoft NPS RADIUS Server : 1.1.1.1
DOT1x RADIUS Server : 1.1.1.2

Here are my AAA Authentication Commands:

SSH@tpw-sw1# sh run | inc authentication
aaa authentication web-server default radius local
aaa authentication enable default radius local
aaa authentication dot1x default radius
aaa authentication login default radius local

Here are my 2 work arounds:

WORKAROUND 1

SSH@tpw-sw1(config)# radius-server host 1.1.1.1 auth-port 1812 acct-port 1813 default key RADIUS1SECRET
SSH@tpw-sw1(config)# radius-server host 1.1.1.2 auth-port 1812 acct-port 1813 default key RADIUS2SECRET dot1x mac-auth

If you use the 1.1.1.2 RADIUS server first in the list you cannot authenticate to the switch at all, even over super-user-password. So the only way I have it working is to have the DOT1x Radius Server listed 2nd but calling out DOT1x and MAC-AUTH.

WORKAROUND 2

The other method I found is to apply a command at the interface level:

SSH@tpw-sw1# conf t
SSH@tpw-sw1(config)# int ethernet 1/1/1
SSH@tandy-lab-sw1(config-if-e1000-1/1/1)#use-radius-server 1.1.1.2

I hope that this helps, I spent a day trying to figure it out 🙂

 

 

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The Packet Wizard : Migrating from Cisco 6500 to Ruckus ICX

Just a quick post this week, I have been busy migrating from Cisco 6500 to Ruckus ICX. Here are some before and after photos and a video of the all important turn off. The main thing I learned in this migration is to chose your ports that are different, do Trunk Ports, Wireless, Printers, anything that is unique or requires a slightly different configuration do them first, then the regular desktop/user ports are just easy swaps.

The before picture we had already started to move the patch panels.

Listen to that power noise drop when it turns off. Turning off Cisco 6500 after Migration

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Cisco Switch : Dynamic ARP Inspection

Dynamic ARP inspection, starts with a man in the middle attack, with the rogue user and PC sending a gratuitous ARP to say the MAC address for your default gateway is this, then the user accessing anything using the default gateway is sending all its traffic to the rogue users pc, which is then copying all the packets before sending it on to its destination.

 

DHCP snooping must be enabled, for DAI to be enabled.

 

Here is how to configure DAI:

tpw-sw1(conf)# ip arp inspection vlan 10
tpw-sw1(conf)# int gi0/1
tpw-sw1(config-int)#ip arp inspection trust


How to Check and Verify DAI:

tpw-sw1# show ip arp inspection
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Cisco Switch : Storm Control

Storm Control can shut down an interface that is causing a Unicast, Multicast or Broadcast Storm. It works with Rising and Falling Thresholds. If a specific type of traffic hits the rising Threshold it will block that type of traffic until the number of packets it see’s is below the set falling threshold. This can be in Percentage, Bits Per Second or Packets Per Second

Here is how to enable its various options:

tpw-sw1(conf)# int gi0/1
tpw-sw1(config-int)# storm-control broadcast level 10 5 - this command means if I see more than 10% broadcast traffic I will block until I see it fall under 5%
tpw-sw1(conf)# int gi0/1
tpw-sw1(config-int)# storm-control multicast level bps 20m 10m - this command means if I see more than 20Mbps multicast traffic I will block until I see it fall under 10Mbps
tpw-sw1(conf)# int gi0/1
tpw-sw1(config-int)# storm-control unicast level pps 50k  - this command means if I see more than 50,000 unicast packets per second, I will drop traffic until I see it fall below 50,000 packers per second, that is what happens if you do not put a falling threshold. Both rising and falling threshold is 50,000
tpw-sw1(conf)# int gi0/1
tpw-sw1(config-int)# storm-control action shutdown

Check and Verify

tpw-sw1(conf)# show storm-control broadcast

tpw-sw1(conf)# show storm-control multicast

tpw-sw1(conf)# show storm-control unicast
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Cisco Switch : DHCP Snooping

DHCP seems like a seemingly innocent, but common protocol, that can be used against our network. Since we know the DHCP discovery packet is a broadcast packet, just looking for a DHCP server and the host doesn’t care what DHCP server sends a DHCP OFFER back, it will accept the first offer, the DHCP offer includes information such as IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, DNS information. What if the first offer that is returned is a Rouge or Malicious DHCP server? Does that mean all traffic from that host using the Rogue DHCP servers gateway could be looking at all of the traffic passing through it? Yes! We can prevent this from happening with a feature called DHCP Snooping.

DHCP Snooping is going to snoop or listen into DHCP traffic to make sure that DHCP conversations go to the correct interface and allow that traffic to pass, otherwise it will be dropped. The interfaces to a known good DHCP server will be ‘trusted’ and all other interfaces will be untrusted, therefor the switch will know if DHCP conversations are happening on an untrusted interface then the traffic will be dropped and the interface will be put into err-disabled mode.

By default the switch considers all ports untrusted. We have to enable DHCP snooping globally, then trust at the interface level. IP ARP inspection and IP source-guard are dependent on DHCP snooping being enabled.

Enabled DHCP Snooping 

tpw-sw1(config)#ip dhcp snooping

 

Enable DHCP Snooping on a VLAN

tpw-sw1(config)#ip dhcp snooping vlan 10

 

Trust Interface with DHCP server on it

tpw-sw1(config)#int gigabitEthernet 1/1

tpw-sw1(config-if)#ip dhcp snooping ?

  information  DHCP Snooping information

  limit        DHCP Snooping limit

  trust        DHCP Snooping trust config



tpw-sw1(config-if)#ip dhcp snooping trust

 

DHCP option 82

When packets come in on an untrusted port with option 82 set, those packets are not dropped. The switch will insert its own DHCP option 82 information (the switches MAC address), and when the packet is returned it will make sure its own DHCP option 82 information is in the reply if it is, it will remove its option 82 information and forward the packet normally, if not it will drop it.  This check is enabled by default.

Turn off the validity check

tpw-sw1(config)#no ip dhcp relay information check

 

Turn on Option 82

tpw-sw1(config)#ip dhcp snooping information option

 

Show Commands

tpw-sw1#sh ip dhcp snooping

Switch DHCP snooping is enabled

DHCP snooping is configured on following VLANs:

10

DHCP snooping is operational on following VLANs:

10

DHCP snooping is configured on the following L3 Interfaces:

Insertion of option 82 is enabled

Option 82 on untrusted port is not allowed

Verification of hwaddr field is enabled

Verification of giaddr field is enabled

DHCP snooping trust/rate is configured on the following Interfaces:



Interface                    Trusted    Relay Info policy     Rate limit (pps)

------------------------     -------    -----------------     ----------------

GigabitEthernet1/1        yes                               unlimited

 

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Cisco : SPAN and Remote SPAN

As part of the CCNP Switch you get introduced to a topic called SPAN and Remote SPAN. This feature allows Network Engineers to capture packets flowing to and from a Interface or VLAN and mirror or forward those packets to a Packet Capture Analyzer software such as Wireshark.

Things to be aware of when setting SPAN and RSPAN up:

  • Make sure you destination port is of equivalent speed to the Source port otherwise you could drop packets.
  • A source port cannot be the same as a destination port
  • A destination port can only  be a part of one SPAN session
  • Source ports can be part of a EtherChannel but destinations ports cannot
  • Trunk ports can be setup as source and destination and the default behavior will monitor all active VLAN’s on that port
  • Destination Ports will not participate in STP, CDP, VTP, DTP or LACP
  • The number of SPAN sessions can vary on different switch models

The source can be set to entire VLAN’s (VSPAN) or individual ports. The Source is the port or VLAN you want to monitor.

Here is what the basic SPAN topology would look like:

 

Here is how to setup the Source SPAN interface.

 

tpw-sw1(config)#monitor session 1 source interface GigabitEthernet 1/1

The Destination is the port you have the network analyzer connected to.

tpw-sw1(config)#monitor session 1 destination interface GigabitEthernet 1/2

Verify your SPAN port setup.

tpw-sw1#show monitor

Session 1

---------

Type                   : Local Session

Source Ports           :

    Both               : Gi1/1

Destination Ports      : Gi1/2


The behavior is expected on a SPAN port:

tpw-sw1#sh int Gi1/1
FastEthernet1/1 is down, line protocol is down (monitoring)

 

However SPAN isn’t always going to be local, so luckily for us there is Remote SPAN (RSPAN). This feature allows the mirrored packets to traverse the trunk port to another switch via a separate VLAN. The configuration is fairly straightforward however there are a couple of caveats:

  1. All switches have to be RSPAN capable.
  2. VTP does treat the RSPAN VLAN like a regular VLAN and will propagate that through the VTP domain, but if its not you will have to add them manually to each switch
  3. VTP will prune the VLANS like a regular VLAN
  4. MAC address learning is disabled on the RSPAN VLAN
  5. Source and Destinations will be slightly different on each switch so don’t just copy the commands on each switch.

The topology would look something like this:


Here is the configuration for RSPAN tpw-sw1 – be  aware the destination RSPAN VLAN

tpw-sw1(config)#vlan 4000

tpw-sw1(config-vlan)#remote-span

tpw-sw1(config)#monitor session 1 source interface GigabitEthernet 1/1

tpw-sw1(config)#monitor session 1 destination remote vlan 4000

Verify your work.

tpw-sw1#show monitor

Session 1

---------

Type                   : Local Session

Source Ports           :

    Both               : Gi1/1

Dest RSPAN VLAN     : 4000

Here is the configuration for RSPAN tpw-sw2 – be aware the source is the RSPAN VLAN

tpw-sw2(config)#vlan 4000

tpw-sw2(config-vlan)#remote-span

tpw-sw2(config)#monitor session 1 source remote vlan 4000

tpw-sw2(config)#monitor session 1 destination interface GigabitEthernet 1/2

Verify your work.

tpw-sw2#show monitor

Session 1

---------

Type                   : Local Session

Source RSPAN VLAN        : 4000

Destination Ports     : Gi1/2


If you have a setup similar to below you have to name Remote SPAN VLAN 4000 on all intermediate switches.

Happy SPANNING 🙂

 

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Cisco : Port Security

Is this frame from a trusted Source? That is the question!

As I continue my CCNP studies, I near the end of the CCNP Switch Course, this is a topic that was covered in the CCNA, and I haven’t really touched it since, so here is a refresher.

A port enabled with port security will expect to see frames sourced from a particular MAC address or group of MAC addresses, if the switch receives a frame from a MAC address it does not have listed the port takes action according to the violation mode that is set. The violation mode by default is to shutdown the port.

Enable Port Security

*You can only enable port security on a edge port, so that means that port can never become a trunk port*

tpw-sw1(conf)# int gi0/1
tpw-sw1(config-int)#switchport mode access
tpw-sw1(config-int)#switchport access vlan 10
tpw-sw1(config-int)#switchport port-security

Confirm it is working and information gathering

tpw-sw1# show port-security
tpw-sw1# show port-security address
tpw-sw1# show port-security interface gi0/1

More Port Security options

tpw-sw1(conf)# int gi0/1
tpw-sw1(config-int) switchport port-security ?
          aging - Port-security aging commands
          mac-address  - Secure mac address
          maximum - Max secure addresses
          violation - Security violation mode
tpw-sw1(config-int) switchport port-security maximum <1-6144>
tpw-sw1(config-int) switchport port-security violation ?
          protect - Security violation protect mode (drops the offending frames )
          restrict - Security violation restrict mode (drops, creates log messages, but port remains active )
          shutdown - Security violation shutdown mode (default will put the port into err-disabled (fix problem first and shut, no shut))
tpw-sw1(config-int) switchport port-security mac-address ?
         H.H.H - 48 bit mac address
         sticky - Configure dynamic secure addresses as sticky (dynamic addresses but kept on switch reload )
tpw-sw1(config-int) switchport port-security aging ?
         time Port-security aging time
         type Port-security aging type

This is just the very basics of Port Security, there is similar implementations on all switches I have worked with.

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Linux/Mac Networking Commands

I have been gathering a bunch of Linux/Mac Commands that I have found useful, hopefully someone else will find this list useful.

Run a speed test from CLI:

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtestcli/master/speedtest.py | python -

Get an ip address for en0:

ipconfig getifaddr en0

Same thing, but setting and echoing a variable:

ip=`ipconfig getifaddr en0` ; echo $ip

View the subnet mask of en0:

ipconfig getoption en0 subnet_mask

View the dns server for en0:

ipconfig getoption en0 domain_name_server

Get information about how en0 got its dhcp on:

ipconfig getpacket en1

View some network info:

ifconfig en0

Set en0 to have an ip address of 10.10.10.10 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0:

ifconfig en0 inet 10.10.10.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

Show a list of locations on the computer:

networksetup -listlocations

Obtain the active location the system is using:

networksetup -getcurrentlocation

Create a network location called Work and populate it with information from the active network connection:

networksetup -createlocation Work populate

Delete a network location called Work:

networksetup -deletelocation Work

Switch the active location to a location called Work:

networksetup -switchlocation Work

Switch the active location to a location called Work, but also show the GUID of that location so we can make scripties with it laters:

scselect Work

List all of the network interfaces on the system:

networksetup -listallnetworkservices

Rename the network service called Ethernet to the word Wired:

networksetup -renamenetworkservice Ethernet Wired

Disable a network interface:

networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled off

Change the order of your network services:

networksetup -ordernetworkservices “Wi-Fi” “USB Ethernet”

Set the interface called Wi-Fi to obtain it if it isn’t already

networksetup -setdhcp Wi-Fi

Renew dhcp leases:

ipconfig set en1 BOOTP && ipconfig set en1 DHCP

ifconfig en1 down && ifconfig en1 up

Renew a dhcp lease in a script:

echo "add State:/Network/Interface/en0/RefreshConfiguration temporary" | sudo scutil

Configure a manual static ip address:

networksetup -setmanual Wi-Fi 10.0.0.2 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.1

Configure the dns servers for a given network interface:

networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.3

Obtain the dns servers used on the Wi-Fi interface:

networksetup -getdnsservers Wi-Fi

Stop the application layer firewall:

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.alf.useragent.plist
launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.alf.agent.plist

Start the application layer firewall:

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.alf.agent.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.alf.useragent.plist

Allow an app to communicate outside the system through the application layer firewall:

socketfilterfw -t
“/Applications/FileMaker Pro/FileMaker Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/FileMaker Pro”

See the routing table of a Mac:

netstat -nr

Add a route so that traffic for 10.0.0.0/32 communicates over the 10.0.9.2 network interface:

route -n add 10.0.0.0/32 10.0.9.2

Log bonjour traffic at the packet level:

sudo killall -USR2 mDNSResponder

Stop Bonjour:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

Start Bojour:

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

Put a delay in your pings:

ping -i 5 192.168.210.1

Ping the hostname 5 times and then stop the ping:

ping -c 5 google.com

Flood ping the host:

ping -f localhost

Set the packet size during your ping:

ping -s 100 google.com

Customize the source IP during your ping:

ping -S 10.10.10.11 google.com

View disk performance:

iostat -d disk0

Get information about the airport connection on your system:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport -I

Scan the available Wireless networks:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport -s

Trace the path packets go through:

traceroute google.com

Trace the routes without looking up names:

traceroute -n google.com

Trace a route in debug mode:

traceroute -d google.com

View information on all sockets:

netstat -at

View network information for ipv6:

netstat -lt

View per protocol network statistics:

netstat -s

View the statistics for a specific network protocol:

netstat -p igmp

Show statistics for network interfaces:

netstat -i

View network information as it happens (requires ntop to be installed):

ntop

Scan port 80 of www.google.com

/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Network\ Utility.app/Contents/Resources/stroke www.google.com 80 80

Port scan krypted.com stealthily:

nmap -sS -O krypted.com/24

Establish a network connection with www.apple.com:

nc -v www.apple.com 80

Establish a network connection with gateway.push.apple.com over port 2195

/usr/bin/nc -v -w 15 gateway.push.apple.com 2195

Establish a network connection with feedback.push.apple.com only allowing ipv4

/usr/bin/nc -v -4 feedback.push.apple.com 2196

Setup a network listener on port 2196 for testing:

/usr/bin/nc -l 2196

Capture some packets:

tcpdump -nS

Capture all the packets:

tcpdump -nnvvXS

Capture the packets for a given port:

tcpdump -nnvvXs 548

Capture all the packets for a given port going to a given destination of 10.0.0.48:

tcpdump -nnvvXs 548 dst 10.0.0.48

Capture the packets as above but dump to a pcap file:

tcpdump -nnvvXs 548 dst 10.0.0.48 -w /tmp/myfile.pcap

Read tcpdump (cap) files and try to make them human readable:

tcpdump -qns 0 -A -r /var/tmp/capture.pcap

What binaries have what ports and in what states are those ports:

lsof -n -i4TCP

Make an alias for looking at what has a listener open, called ports:

alias ports='lsof -n -i4TCP | grep LISTEN'

Report back the name of the system:

hostname

Flush the dns cache:

dscacheutil -flushcache

Clear your arp cache:

arp -ad

View how the Server app interprets your network settings:

serveradmin settings network

Whitelist the ip address 10.10.10.2:

/Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/libexec/afctl -w 10.10.10.2

 

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The Packet Wizard : Spanning Tree Explained

Spanning Tree Protocol also known as STP

There are many different types of STP but here are a couple of the main ones

STP/802.1D – Original STP
PVST+ – Cisco Improved STP adding per VLAN feature
RSTP/802.1w – Improved STP with a much faster convergence time (Rapid Spanning Tree)
Rapid PVST+ – Cisco improved RSTP adding per VLAN feature

Why Per VLAN STP?
If you have a large network with lots of switches and VLAN’s you can use Per VLAN STP to plan for a more efficient network

Even although there are many versions of STP they all use a very similar set of rules.

What is STP?

STP is a feature used to prevent loops when you are using redundant switches and without STP a loop could form and cause a number of problems on the network.

During a unicast broadcast message (which happen all the time) the switch will forward the frame out of every port except the one it came in on. Therefore if SW1 sends a frame out and SW2 and SW3 receive it then SW2 and SW3 will forward out all ports except the one it came in on.  SW2 sends to SW3 and SW1. SW3 send to SW2 and SW1 and you can see how the loop is now beginning to form. This is known as a broadcast storm, this can kill a switches CPU and Memory usage very quickly.

The second problem is the MAC address being changed all the time as it receives frames. For example SW1 sends a broadcast message, SW2 and SW3 receive it, then forward it out all other ports like in the scenario above. However each switch learns the MAC address of the next switch and assigns that in the MAC address table, but if you consider SW1 sending to SW2 and SW3 and then SW2 and SW3 forwarding those frames and they eventually get back to SW1 but on different ports, then the MAC Address table will change constantly from I know about SW2 on this port,  I now know about SW2 via SW3 on this port, and that can cause unstable MAC address tables.

Another issues is explained below

HOST1  sends data to HOST2, however since SW2 doesn’t know how to get to SW2 it sends frames out all ports, thus sending to SW1 and SW3 so HOST2 receives frames from HOST1 via SW3 and then again via SW1>SW3. This is known as Duplicate Frames.

So how do we fix the issues mentioned above? Thats right Spanning Tree Protocol by blocking one of the redundant paths.

The question now becomes how do the switches decide on that Port to block? STP follow’s strict rules, when deciding what ports to block. 

1) Elect a Root Bridge (ROOT)
2) Place root interfaces into forwarding (FWD)
3) Select Root Port on non-Root Bridge Switches (RP) – this is the best root to the Root Bridge.
4) Non Root Switches decide on a Designated Port (DP)
5) All other ports put into Blocking State (BLK)

On per VLAN STP You could have this on VLAN 10

and this on VLAN 20

I will now cover the port roles and the port states so you know what each is:

ROLES
Root Ports : The best port to get to the Root Bridge
Designated Ports : The Lowest cost alternate best root to the Root Bridge.
Non Designated Ports : All other ports that are in blocking mode.

STATES
Disabled : A Port is shutdown
Blocking : A Port that is blocking traffic
Listening : A Port that is not forwarding and not learning MAC addresses
Learning: A Port that is learning MAC addresses but is not forwarding traffic
Forwarding : A Port that is sending and receiving traffic as normal

When ports change from one Role to another it will go through the Port States. Note also that the Listening and Learning states are transitional and it wont stay on either.

Root Bridge Election

Each switch has and sends messages to each other called Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDU’s) These BPDU’s contain specific information pertaining to each switch, such as Root Cost, Bridge ID (BID) for Itself and for the Root.  A BID is made up of STP Priority and MAC address, the default value of The BID on SW1 would be 327691111:1111:1111 since 32769 is the default STP priority and the MAC address. The switch with the lowest BID will become the Root Bridge. This is what is looks like before the Root Bridge Election and the exchange of the BPDU’s

This is what it looks like after, when the lowest BID wins.

The ports on each switch now transition into their respective states following the STP Rules as mentioned above.

The ports can change based on the Cost of each link. The port costs are listed below, however in this example we will just be using Gig Ports, but for clarity a FastEthernet Port will be slower than a GigEthernetPort, the faster the port the lower the cost. The Root Port (RP) is the lowest port cost.

Data rate STP cost RSTP cost
(Link Bandwidth) (802.1D-1998) (802.1W-2004, default value)
4 Mbit/s 250 5,000,000
10 Mbit/s 100 2,000,000
16 Mbit/s 62 1,250,000
100 Mbit/s 19 200,000
1 Gbit/s 4 20,000
2 Gbit/s 3 10,000
10 Gbit/s 2 2,000
100 Gbit/s N/A 200
1 Tbit/s N/A 20

This is a quick diagram of how the port costs are worked out to get back to the Root Bridge. SW2 to get to SW1 is 0+4=4 and SW2 via SW3 to SW1 is 4+4=8

Of course there can be ties between multiple connections and STP can be tuned.

Designated Ports are selected by Root Cost the by Lowest BID and then by lowest numbered Interface. Therefor in the diagram above the Designated port would be GigEth1 on SW3 since it is a lower numbered interface than SW2 GigEth2.

All ports that are not Root Ports or Designated Ports are Blocking Ports.

STP Convergence Times

STP:
BPDU/Hello time = 2 secs – Hello messages to each switch to see its still there
Max Age = 20 secs – How long a switch will wait for a response to the Hello message
Listening = 15 secs
Learning = 15 secs

= 52 secs to convergence

From the time a link goes down to convergence it takes a total of 52 Seconds. When STP was designed that was fine but now, this is much too slow which is where Rapid Spanning Tree Comes in.

RSTP:
3 missed BDPU/Hello at 2 sec each = 6 secs
Learning (no listening) = 15 secs

= 21 secs to convergence.

I hope this have given you a good explanation of STP.