1060 | Spanning Tree Protocol
www.dell.com | support.dell.com
To change the bridge priority or specify that a bridge is the root or secondary root:
View only the root information using the 
show spanning-tree root command (see Figure 52-9) from EXEC 
privilege mode.
Figure 52-9.  show spanning-tree root Command Example
STP Root Guard
STP Root Guard is supported only on platforms: c e
 
s
Use the STP Root Guard feature in a Layer 2 network to avoid bridging loops. In STP, the switch in the 
network with the lowest priority (as determined by STP or set with the 
bridge-priority command) is selected 
as the root bridge. If two switches have the same priority, the switch with the lower MAC address is 
selected as the root. All other switches in the network use the root bridge as the reference used to calculate 
the shortest forwarding path. 
Because any switch in an STP network with a lower priority can become the root bridge, the forwarding 
topology may not be stable. The location of the root bridge can change, resulting in unpredictable network 
behavior. The STP root guard feature ensures that the position of the root bridge does not change.
Root Guard Scenario
For example, in Figure 52-10 (STP topology 1 upper left) Switch A is the root bridge in the network core. 
Switch C functions as an access switch connected to an external device. The link between Switch C and 
Switch B is in a blocking state. The flow of STP BPDUs is shown in the illustration.
Task Command Syntax Command Mode
Assign a number as the bridge priority or designate it as the 
root or secondary root.
priority-value range: 0 to 65535. The lower the number 
assigned, the more likely this bridge will become the root 
bridge. The default is 32768.
• The primary option specifies a bridge priority of 8192.
• The secondary option specifies a bridge priority of 16384.
bridge-priority {priority-value | 
primary | secondary}
PROTOCOL 
SPANNING TREE
FTOS#show spanning-tree 0 root
          Root ID  Priority 32768, Address 0001.e80d.2462
          We are the root of the spanning tree
          Root Bridge hello time 2, max age 20, forward delay 15
FTOS#