RSTP Role Change.

[BrianDipaolo]

Hello everyone I just started to dabble in networking and I need some help.  I mainly focus on keeping CCTV cameras up and running for the company i work for and we use meraki for our network. Recently after upgrading out CCTV NVRs I've been experiencing continues footage loss due to the RSTP protocol  on multiple switches. I've tested the cables on the ports, cycled the port to help rest the POE to the cameras, but it still continues to happen. Can anyone possibly explain how i can re-establish a stable connection to prevent the port from turning itself on and off?

[cmr · Accepted solution]

@BrianDipaolo I'm guessing that you think it is related to STP as there is an event log alongside the port up down?  If so, that is totally normal and the STP log is a result of the port going down and up.

What switches do you have and what version of the Meraki firmware are they running?

On the NVRs or cameras (I'm not sure which you say are going down), are there any power saving modes like Energy Efficient Ethernet?  If so try disabling them.

[BrianDipaolo]

Thank you for responding. That makes sense. I do not know that information as that is in a different department.  On the NVR side its says RTP error in primary or secondary steam. So i'm trying to pinpoint if its happening on a camera failure. But thank you again this makes sense meraki is doing its thing.

[cmr]

Oh, and welcome to the community 🙂

[BrianDipaolo]

Thank you!

[jonokoch]

Welcome to the Cisco Meraki Community @BrianDipaolo 👋

Adding some additional context to what @cmr has said, 'Port RSTP Role Change' events via Network-Wide > Monitor > Event Log typically go hand-in-hand with 'Port Status Change' events. If you see this pattern it is usually an indication that the physical NIC of the directly-connected client is going offline/online, which would then cause the 'Port RSTP Role Change' event given that the STP topology would re-calculate with each physical change on the network. Is this the pattern of events you are seeing in the event log?

+1 to what was said regarding the possibility of EEE on your NVR(s) and/or cameras. 

[BrianDipaolo]

Thank you.  This helps a lot even with the previous comment. Need to do some more digging on the NVR side of things