Spanning-Tree Operation 
802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) 
Syntax:  spanning-tree [e] < port-list > priority < priority-multiplier > 
This command sets the priority for the specified port(s) for 
the IST (that is, Instance 0) of the region in which the switch 
resides. This priority is compared with the priorities of other 
ports in the IST to determine which port is the root port for the 
IST instance. The lower the priority value, the higher the 
priority. The IST root port (or trunk) in a region provides the 
path to connected regions for the traffic in VLANs assigned to 
the region’s IST instance. 
The priority range for a port in a given MST instance is 0-240. 
However, this command specifies the priority as a multiplier 
(0 - 15 ) of 16. That is, when you specify a priority multiplier 
of  0 - 15, the actual priority assigned to the switch is: 
(priority-multiplier) x 16 
For example, configuring “5” as the priority multiplier on a 
given port in the IST instance for a region creates an actual 
Priority setting of 80. Thus, after you specify the port priority 
multiplier for the IST instance, the switch displays the actual 
port priority (and not the multiplier) in the show spanning-tree 
instance ist or show spanning-tree < port-list > instance ist 
displays. You can view the actual multiplier setting for ports 
in the IST instance by executing show running  and looking for 
an entry in this format:
 spanning-tree < port-list > priority < priority-multiplier > 
For example, configuring port A2 with a priority multiplier 
of “2” in the IST instance, results in this line in the show 
running output: 
spanning-tree A2 priority 2  
5-71