Is there a service interruption if you change the root bridge?

Announcer
Getting noticed

Is there a service interruption if you change the root bridge?

After taking some Meraki learning hub courses, I've noticed that our slowest switch 10/100 is the root bridge.  If I want to change this to the core Meraki switch, will there be a service interruption at all?

 

thanks.

5 Replies 5
GreenMan
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Yes - assume there will be a network-wide outage

cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

In theory it should only last about 30 seconds, but plan for a few minutes.

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DarrenOC
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Hi @Announcer , The network will need to re-convergence once you change the Root Bridge.  From your new Root make sure you configure the uplinks from this switch to the upstream switches to STP Guard - Root Guard.  Then downstream from the edge to core uplinks set those to STP Guard - Loop Guard

Darren OConnor | doconnor@resalire.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenoconnor/

I'm not an employee of Cisco/Meraki. My posts are based on Meraki best practice and what has worked for me in the field.
Brash
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

When changing root bridge, from my experience there may not always be an outage, but always assume there will be and prepare accordingly

GIdenJoe
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

As long as you don't have a circle of switches the outage should be quite minor.

 

RSTP reconverges by blocking the links between two switches while sending a proposal BPDU and the other switch should immediately send a response if it agrees.

If you have a good star topology the outage should be minimal (less than 2 seconds).  If you have a circle you could experience a count to infinity issue where you go down for a while before the topology can resolve itself.

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