I was wondering if my switch that doesn't have MAC addresses assigned to any of its customer ports can even pareticipate in spanning tree protocol negotiations?
1 Answer
Switches don't normally have MAC addresses assigned to the access ports because switches are transparent devices. The switch itself has one or more MAC addresses internally that it will use for things like STP.
If this is a layer-3 switch, and you can change an access port into a router port, then the switch supervisor will assign a MAC address to the port.
answered Nov 5, 2016 at 14:37
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Thank you, and hence the answer to my question is, yes it can, correct?– stdcerrCommented Nov 5, 2016 at 15:08
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But even if the switch just lives in L2 land, will it still be able to properly participate in STP?– stdcerrCommented Nov 5, 2016 at 15:14
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STP is a layer-2 protocol. Layer-3 devices/ports don't participate in STP.– Ron Maupin ♦Commented Nov 5, 2016 at 15:16
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Yes, this was just in regards to the paragraph in your answer that starts with "If this is a layer-3 switch..." - even if this switch is not a L3 router/switch, it will be able to do STP (independent of the Mac it may or may not get assigned)– stdcerrCommented Nov 5, 2016 at 15:20
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A layer-3 switch is still primarily a layer-2 switch. The layer-3 part is just a routing module, and that and any ports set to be layer-3 ports do not participate in STP. The layer-2 ports will participate.– Ron Maupin ♦Commented Nov 5, 2016 at 15:22