STP configuration for vmware ESXi

[Shannon_Rowe1]

We have 2x BD8810's in an MLAG configuration, each with connections to VMWare ESXi 5.5 hosts.

Each port to the ESXi host is tagged for multiple VLANs.

What is the correct/recommended spanning tree configuration in this scenario?

I've trawled the forum and the suggestions seem to be to use PVST which I don't want to do as it is Cisco proprietary and there are no Cisco switches. The other suggestion was to configure it as point-to-point which also didn't make sense to me as that is more for uplinks to other switches were BPDU's will be transmitted (not the case with VMWare).

Keen to get the recommended approach and thoughts.

Thanks!
Shannon

[Zdeněk_Pala]

Hi. First why stp at all? You should not have redundand links you want to block in this case so I would use ELRP just for loop detection. If you need stp, I would use standard MSTP as it is understood by every vendor. Z.

[Zdeněk_Pala]

Agree it is proprietary. But why not use it as we support standards also. When you chose to buy 3rd party device and integrate it, you will need to reconfigure the box anyway => why not benefit from ELRP now as it gives you better benefits. You can revert to mstp anytime... I hope you will like XOS (and Extreme) so much, you will not consider other technology in the future => you can benefit from ELRP in the future also  Z.

[Shannon_Rowe1]

Brilliant thanks for that Jeremy, I'll also consider ELRP.

I guess I shy away from it a little bit as it is Extreme proprietary and if management ever decide to move away from Extreme switching for another vendor it would make the transition that much harder. Sticking with industry open standards is a "safer" option.

[Jeremy_Gibbs]

DC-X670V-R4-SW1.1 # show configuration "elrp"

# Module elrp configuration.

#

enable elrp-client

configure elrp-client periodic UC_ELRP ports all interval 1 log disable-port ingress duration 300

configure elrp-client disable-port exclude 48

configure elrp-client disable-port exclude 57

configure elrp-client disable-port exclude 58

configure elrp-client disable-port exclude 59

configure elrp-client disable-port exclude 60

configure elrp-client disable-port exclude 62

DC-X670V-R4-SW1.2 #

Just configure the ELRP vlan and tag it on all ports except the uplink ports. Exclude the uplink and ISC ports from the elrp-client periodic poll.