Co-worker Pete Welcher recently helped a customer whose network experienced a spanning tree loop (i.e. a melt-down). Several things can be learned from thinking about the experience and how to avoid it. Lesson #1: Adequately plan the task. Rush jobs carry a higher risk of problems than well-planned tasks...

One of the best sessions I attended at CiscoLive this year was titled "BRKRST-3365, Unified HA Network Design: The Evolution of the Next Generation Network" by John Cavanaugh, Chris Cornwall, and a whole team of contributors. They talked about the High Availability (HA) network designs that...