MSTP and HP Procurve Network

So we will be reconfiguring this whole network from scratch.   About 60 switches.  I have heard its not too hard to do MSTP.  Any config pointers?  Just do one root with top priority and then the rest lower priority?

On a HP Procurve set a root switch with low priority (fx. 0) and a backup root fx. =1.
The default is 8.
These numbers are multiplied by 4096 compared to Cisco numbers.

So you are basically saying to set a root switch i.e.: core switch to 0 and then the rest of the switches at 1?

Well, you wouldn't typically set all the other switches to 1.  Just the switch that you would like to be the root should your primary fail.

So your saying just set the root at 0 and another to 1 as backup and then just leave the rest?

It really all depends on the topology.  If you have redundant links, then you would want to specify which switch would be the backup root so the redundant link is properly utilized. If you have more than one redundant link, then you would define the next switch to be the root.

If you have no redundant links, then this is all moot as the root location is irrelevant.

So if there aren't redundant links then it basically functions like any other STP?  Are you referring to redundant links to one switch like a ether channel link?

Yes.  

And non-etherchannel redundant links.

If you were doing ether channel then how would you specify a switch to be a root and a backup?

Etherchannel doesn't impact STP configuration.

I didn't think so. Thanks for all your great info and help!