5/9/2019 Cisco Portfast Configuration | NetworkLessons.

com

Search...

Table of Contents
Switching

 Unit 1: Switching Basics

 Unit 2: VLANs and Trunking

 Unit 3: VTP (VLAN Trunking Protocol)

 Unit 4: Spanning-Tree

Introduction to Spanning-Tree

Spanning-Tree Cost Calculation

PVST (Per VLAN Spanning Tree)

Spanning-Tree Port States

Spanning-Tree TCN (Topology Change Noti cation)

Spanning-Tree Portfast

Spanning-Tree UplinkFast

Spanning-Tree Backbone Fast

Rapid Spanning-Tree

Rapid Spanning-Tree Con guration

MST (Multiple Spanning-Tree)

Spanning-Tree BPDUFilter

Spanning-Tree BPDUGuard

Spanning-Tree RootGuard

Spanning-Tree LoopGuard and UDLD

Troubleshooting Spanning-Tree

FlexLinks

 Unit 5: Etherchannel

 Unit 6: Virtualization

https://networklessons.com/switching/cisco-portfast-configuration 1/8
5/9/2019 Cisco Portfast Configuration | NetworkLessons.com

 Unit 7: Design

 Unit 8: Security

 Unit 9: Miscellaneous

You are here: Home » Switching

Cisco Portfast Configuration

Portfast is a Cisco proprietary solution to deal with spanning-tree topology changes. If you don’t
know how spanning-tree reacts to topology changes then I highly recommend you to read this
tutorial before you continue reading. It helps to truly understand why we need portfast.

Portfast does two things for us:

• Interfaces with portfast enabled that come up will go to forwarding mode immediately, the
interface will skip the listening and learning state.
• A switch will never generate a topology change noti cation for an interface that has portfast
enabled.

It’s a good idea to enable portfast on interfaces that are connected to hosts because these
interfaces are likely to go up and down all the time. Don’t enable portfast on an interface to
another hub or switch.

Let’s take a look at the di erence of an interface with and without portfast. I’ll be using the
following topology for this:

I have two switches and one host connected to SW1. The only reason I have two switches is so
SW1 has another switch that it can send topology noti cation changes to. Let’s look at the
without portfast scenario rst…

Portfast disabled
To see the interesting stu I will enable a debug on SW1:

https://networklessons.com/switching/cisco-portfast-configuration 2/8
5/9/2019 Cisco Portfast Configuration | NetworkLessons.com

SW1#debug spanning-tree events

Spanning Tree event debugging is on

Once I plug in the cable to connect the host to SW1 this is what happens:

SW1#
STP: VLAN0001 Fa0/1 -> listening
STP: VLAN0001 Fa0/1 -> learning
STP: VLAN0001 Fa0/1 -> forwarding

This is just normal spanning-tree behavior, it walks through the listening and learning states
and ends up in forwarding.

Each time I unplug the cable, spanning-tree will generate a topology change noti cation. There’s
a nice command that you can use to check how many have been sent so far:

SW1#show spanning-tree detail

VLAN0001 is executing the ieee compatible Spanning Tree protocol

Bridge Identifier has priority 32768, sysid 1, address 0019.569d.5700
Configured hello time 2, max age 20, forward delay 15
Current root has priority 32769, address 0011.bb0b.3600
Root port is 26 (FastEthernet0/24), cost of root path is 19
Topology change flag not set, detected flag not set
Number of topology changes 5 last change occurred 00:02:09 ago
from FastEthernet0/1
Times: hold 1, topology change 35, notification 2
hello 2, max age 20, forward delay 15
Timers: hello 0, topology change 0, notification 0, aging 300

As you can see there have been 5 topology changes so far on VLAN 1. Let’s unplug the cable to
the host to see what happens:

SW1#
STP: VLAN0001 sent Topology Change Notice on Fa0/24

https://networklessons.com/switching/cisco-portfast-configuration 3/8
5/9/2019 Cisco Portfast Configuration | NetworkLessons.com

Spanning-tree will send a topology change noti cation on the interface towards SW2 and the
counter will increase:

SW1#show spanning-tree detail | include changes

Number of topology changes 6 last change occurred 00:01:12 ago

In short, everytime we unplug the cable the switch will generate a TCN. Let’s see the di erence
when we enable portfast…

Portfast enabled
All we have to do is enable portfast on the FastEthernet 0/1 interface that connects our host:

SW1(config)#interface FastEthernet 0/1

SW1(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast
%Warning: portfast should only be enabled on ports connected to a single
host. Connecting hubs, concentrators, switches, bridges, etc... to this
interface when portfast is enabled, can cause temporary bridging loops.
Use with CAUTION

%Portfast has been configured on FastEthernet0/1 but will only

have effect when the interface is in a non-trunking mode.

We get a big warning that portfast shouldn’t be used on interfaces that connect to other
switches etc.

There is also a global command “spanning-tree portfast default” that will enable
portfast on all interfaces that are in access mode. The result will be the same but it
saves you from enabling it on each interface seperately.

Let’s connect our host again:

SW1#
STP: VLAN0001 Fa0/1 ->jump to forwarding from blocking

https://networklessons.com/switching/cisco-portfast-configuration 4/8
5/9/2019 Cisco Portfast Configuration | NetworkLessons.com

Great, the interface skips the listening and learning state and goes to forwarding immediately.
Also, the switch will no longer generate topology change noti cations when you unplug this
cable anymore.

Configurations
Want to take a look for yourself? Here you will nd the con guration of SW1.

SW1
hostname SW1
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
spanning-tree portfast
!
end

I hope this has been helpful to understand portfast, if you enjoyed this tutorial, please share it
with your friends or colleagues.

« Previous Lesson
Spanning-Tree TCN (Topology
Change Noti cation)
Next Lesson
Spanning-Tree UplinkFast »

Forum Replies

andrew

Chandru,
The port will lose its portfast status, and will continue to function like a normal port (without Portfast). It
will not be disabled unless BPDU Guard was also enabled.

FYI: Rene has a Lesson related to this topic here

chandrutkc

https://networklessons.com/switching/cisco-portfast-configuration 5/8
5/9/2019 Cisco Portfast Configuration | NetworkLessons.com

Thanks Andrew. I have one more question, What is the real use of BPDU lter command in a Global
mode, if a normal portfast can achieve the same functionality. Why do we need to enable BPDU lter at
the global level and what enhancement does it provide at the global level. BPDU lter lesson says.

BPDU lter can be con gured globally or on the interface level and there’s a di erence:

Global: if you enable BPDU lter globally then any interface with portfast enabled will not send or receive
any BPDUs. When you receive a BPDU on a portfast enabled interface th

... Continue reading in our forum

romishra1976

Hi Rene,

It means Portfast enabled interface still sends and recevies BPDU.

what happens when We con gure BPDU lter ?

lagapides

Hello Tejpal

What actually happens when a portfast con gured port receives a BPDU actually depends on the
con guration.

1.
In simple STP (IEEE802.1D), a portfast port will be reset back to a normal port participating in STP if BDPUs
arrive on the port. If a physical L2 loop is created on such a port, it will result in a temporary L2 loop until
STP reconverges. This is why you will see this warning when con guring portfast (notice the word
“temporary”:

%Warning: portfast should only be enabled on ports connected to a single

host. Connecting hubs, concentr

... Continue reading in our forum

lagapides

https://networklessons.com/switching/cisco-portfast-configuration 6/8
5/9/2019 Cisco Portfast Configuration | NetworkLessons.com

Hello Swapnil

If a situation like this happens, the port that is con gured with portfast will receive a BPDU. What happens
next depends on how the port is con gured. Take a look at the previous post above to see more details.

In general it is best practice to enable portfast only on ports that have end devices connected to them and
not other switches.

I hope this has been helpful!

Laz

 16 more replies! Ask a question or join the discussion by visiting our Community Forum

Hello There!
I am René Molenaar (CCIE #41726), Your main Instructor. My goal is to teach
you everything about Cisco, Wireless and Security. I am here to Help You
Master Networking!

Read my story

New Lessons
Device Programmability
Data Models and Structures
Network Automation and Orchestration
Cloud Connectivity
Virtualization Functions (NFVI, VNF)

https://networklessons.com/switching/cisco-portfast-configuration 7/8
5/9/2019 Cisco Portfast Configuration | NetworkLessons.com

Disclaimer
Privacy Policy
Support

© 2013 - 2019 NetworkLessons.com 22194

https://networklessons.com/switching/cisco-portfast-configuration 8/8