[Bridge] Questions about MSTP support.

[Vitalii Demianets]

On Thursday 27 September 2012 16:32:21 v g wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> I need to use STP (ideally MST) on centos 6.3. I've read that it's
> supported in linux kernel as part of IEEE 802.1Q standard,

Kernel has no support for the MSTP. It only implements 802.1d-1998 plain old 
STP.

> but can't find any information on configuring miltiple spanning trees.
> So - help? suggestions? rtfm (as long as you point me to actual manual)?
> anything?
>

Take a look at open-source MSTP user-space demon here: 
http://sourceforge.net/p/mstpd/wiki/Home/
You can use it to get 802.1Q-2005 compatible RSTP/STP support with the 
standard kernel. Although It is still in alpha stage, I have a couple of 
reports about successfull RSTP implementations using it.

As for MST - you need extra MSTP-aware hardware + specialized driver for that 
hardware. Alternatively you could modify the bridge subsystem code in kernel. 
In current state without modifications it has no support for the per-MST port 
states.

-- 
With Best Regards,
Vitalii Demianets