[c-nsp] Content filters configured as transparent bridges and spanning tree

[Steven Pfister]

I've got a situation where I need to connect two switches, a 4507R (our
core switch) to a 3560, using two devices which are functioning as
transparent bridges, connected in parallel. The devices are actually
content filters (they're Lightspeed Rocket appliances if that makes any
difference), and we'd like to have one online as a standby unit in case
the first one fails. The only other thing connected to the 3560 is two
PIX firewalls (active/standby) which are in a vlan from the core
network. The two switch are EIGRP neighbors.
 
I was hoping that spanning-tree would take care of selecting one device
for production use and the other as a standby. When we tried it, there
was no connectivity at all. It seemed like the switches were not
agreeing on which device to use. Is there any way to maybe have the
4507R take care of the forwarding/blocking decisions and turn off
spanning-tree on the 3560?
 
 
Steve Pfister
Network Engineer
Office of Information Technology
Dayton Public Schools
115 S Ludlow St
Dayton, OH 45402-1812
Phone: 937-542-3149
Cell: 937-673-6779
spfister at dps.k12.oh.us ( mailto:spfister at dps.k12.oh.us )