BCMSN Notes -- STP States

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve decided to take on the CCNP certification, so I’m going to wind up with a few posts will be more my own notes than anything. :)

A switch port on a 2960 comes up with a default configuration on VLAN 1. What happens from the perspective of spanning-tree?

First, the port comes up on blocking mode. This is to make sure that loops aren’t created without first listening to the network to see what’s going on.
Next, if the port may be a root or designated port, the port is moved to the listening state. In this state, the port can send and receives BPDUs only. It can’t send traffic, but it can discover the other switches participating in STP.
After the forwarding delay, the port goes into the learning state. In this state, the port can send and receive BPDUs as in listening, but it can now receive traffic. It can’t yet send any.
After the forwarding delay again, the port goes into the forwarding state. The port can now send and receive data.

If the port is configured with spanning-tree portfast, the mode goes from blocking directly to forwarding without going through these steps. Obviously you don’t want a switch plugged into a port configured for portfast since you may wind up with a loop.

Forwarding on Aaron's Worthless Words

BCMSN Notes -- STP States