To use STP or not?

[vmarkese]

Hello,

I am currently replacing some switches in are data center. The new switches I am putting in are 2960-48TT these switches are layer 2 they are connect to a 3750 layer 3. I had some problems in the past with STP and just wonder if I should just turn it off.

Thanks for any info?

[ankbhasi]

Hi Friend,

STP is one of the most stable protocol if deployed properly and with default values. If you had faced some problems earlier trust me disabling STP may result in more problems and sometimes may cause disasters in network.

I will recommend to keep it enable.

HTH

Ankur

*Pls rate all helpfull post

[Jon Marshall]

Hi

In addition to Ankur's comments which are spot on i would add that STP actually allows you to create redundant topologies within your data centre. Without knowing your full topology it is not possible to say whether this is an issue for you.

You should only consider turning off STP if you can absolutely gurantee that you are creating a L2 loop free topology. Even then i would hesitate to turn it off on switch uplinks.

One other approach is to look to make all your uplinks L3 connections whihc eliminates L2 STP. Obvioulsy with your switches only doing layer 2 that's not possible here but even if you could there are a number of design issues to take into account. L3 uplinks can work well in a user building but for flexibility i would still use L2 in the data centre.

HTH

Jon