The
device maintains a spanning-tree instance for
the group of VLANs mapped to it. A
device ID, consisting of the
device priority and the
device MAC address, is associated with each
instance. For a group of VLANs, the
device with the lowest
device ID becomes the root
device.
When you configure a
device as the root, you modify the
device priority from the default
value (32768) to a significantly lower value so that the
device becomes the root
device for the specified spanning-tree
instance. When you enter this command, the
device checks the
device priorities of the root
devices. Because of the extended system ID
support, the
device sets its own priority for the
specified instance to 24576 if this value will cause this
devices to become the root for the specified
spanning-tree instance.
If any root
device for the specified instance has a
device priority lower than 24576, the
device sets its own priority to 4096 less
than the lowest
device priority. (4096 is the value of the
least-significant bit of a 4-bit
device priority value. For more information,
select "Bridge ID,
Device Priority, and Extended System ID" link
in Related Topics.
If your
network consists of
devices that support and do not support the
extended system ID, it is unlikely that the
device with the extended system ID support
will become the root
device. The extended system ID increases the
device priority value every time the VLAN
number is greater than the priority of the connected switches running older
software.
The root
device for each spanning-tree instance should
be a backbone or distribution
device. Do not configure an access
device as the spanning-tree primary root.
Use the
diameter keyword, which is available only for MST
instance 0, to specify the Layer 2 network diameter (that is, the maximum
number of
device hops between any two end stations in
the Layer 2 network). When you specify the network diameter, the
device automatically sets an optimal hello
time, forward-delay time, and maximum-age time for a network of that diameter,
which can significantly reduce the convergence time. You can use the
hello keyword to override the automatically
calculated hello time.