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Etherchannel vs. STP - what do you think?

If I have 2 c3750 EI switches that makes my distribution layer, so that they are configured to run EIGRP with other switches/routers and provides L2 connectivity and interVLAN routing for my access-layer is it better to build a switch stack (StackWise) and then implement etherchannels for l2 access layer (c2950) connectivity rather then implementing STP between my access and distribution? I'm for switch stacking with etherchannels since I already implemented it at some customers sites... What do you guys think?

I'm currently have only one c3750, but now I'm planning to add anotherone for redundancy, so I'm to lazy to hassle with STP:)

B.R. Igor

Reply to
Igor Mamuzic
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this is fine as long as 1 switch in the centre is resilient "enough" - for example that ties the boxes to the same rack in the same room....

the main limitation is that there is 1 logical swt at each end of the Etherchannel, so if you get some sort of s/w bug you could blow it all away.

etherchannel is fairly stable, but i have seen problems where it dies - not for a while though.

Spanning tree has lots of failure modes all of its own anyway - a 1 way link can melt the set of connected switch when the circulating multicasts use all bandwidth and CPU.

if you need dual central swt then i prefer a purely layer 3 core, with each wiring closet forming a separate subnet.

Reply to
stephen

If you have been there, done that, and liked it you should keep going with it.

I have always been a bit nervous of the etherchannel route for resilience however it is clearly now a mature technology and I doubt that many would argue with you.

Reply to
anybody43

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