[c-nsp] Splitting root bridges (was Migration to Rapid-PVST)

[Matt Stockdale]

As usual, when the technical answer isn't obvious, the financial one
is :)

Thanks,
  Matt

On Tue, 2006-05-16 at 16:44 -0400, Joe Maimon wrote:
> 
> Matt Stockdale wrote:
> 
> > I've seen the concept of splitting your roots across your 2 core
> > switches like this mentioned before, but something about this
> > conventional wisdom escapes me - 
> > 
> >   If your goal for this setup (2 routers, 2 core switches, 2
> > distribution switches, N access switches) is redundancy instead of
> > performance, does it make sense to split the load like this? Isn't it
> > possible to reach > 50% load on both sides, such that were one half to
> > fail, the remaining portion couldn't pick up the slack?
> 
> In these cases people are typically willing to endure degraded service 
> during outages, for some definition of degraded, in return for a greater 
> ROI on equipment purchased during non-outages.
> 
> See RAID5 v. RAID1
> 
>