Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide

Limit spanning tree protocol

Network traffic passes between the physical switch ports and the VxRail nodes.

Certain Spanning Tree states can place restrictions on network traffic and force the port into an unexpected timeout mode. These conditions that are caused by Spanning Tree can disrupt normal VxRail operations and impact performance. If Spanning Tree is enabled in your network, ensure that the physical switch ports that are connected to VxRail nodes are configured with Portfast or set as an edge port. These settings set the port to forwarding state to prevent disruption. Because VMware vSphere virtual switches do not support STP, physical switch ports that are connected to a VMware ESXi host must have Portfast configured if spanning tree is enabled to avoid loops within the physical switch network.