Spanning-Tree Operation 
Configuring Rapid Reconfiguration Spanning Tree (RSTP) 
Reconfiguring Whole-Switch Spanning Tree Values.  You can configure 
one or more of the following parameters, which affect the spanning tree 
operation of the whole switch: 
Table 5-1.  Whole-Switch RSTP Parameters 
Parameter  Default  Description 
protocol-version  RSTP  Identifies which of the spanning tree protocols will be used when spanning tree 
is enabled on the switch. 
force-version  rstp-operation   Sets the spanning tree compatibility mode. Even if rstp-operation is selected 
though, if the switch detects STP BPDU packets on a port, it will communicate 
to the attached device using STP BPDU packets. 
If errors are encountered, as described in the Note on page 12, the Force-
Version value can be set to stp-compatible, which forces the switch to 
communicate out all ports using operations that are compatible with IEEE 802.1D 
STP. 
priority  32768  
(8 as a step value)  
Specifies the protocol value used along with the switch MAC address to 
determine which device in the spanning tree is the root. The lower the priority 
value, the higher the priority. 
The value you enter has changed from the STP value. The range is 0 - 61440, but 
for RSTP the value is entered as a multiple (a step) of 4096. You enter a value in 
the range 0 - 15. The default value of 32768 is derived by the default setting of 8. 
Displaying the RSTP configuration (show spanning-tree config) shows 8, but 
displaying the RSTP operation (show spanning-tree) shows 32768. 
*maximum-age  20 seconds  Sets the maximum age of received spanning tree information before it is 
discarded. The range is 6 to 40 seconds. 
*hello-time  2  seconds  Sets the time between transmission of spanning tree messages. Used only when 
this switch is the root. The range is 1 to 10 seconds. 
*forward-delay  15 seconds  Sets the time the switch waits between transitioning ports from listening to 
learning and from learning to forwarding states. The range is 4 to 30 seconds. 
*These parameters are the same for RSTP as they are for STP. The switch uses its own maximum-age, hello-time, and 
forward-delay settings only if it is operating as the root device in the spanning tree. If another device is the root device, 
then the switch uses the other device’s settings for these parameters. 
5-16