text: <s>[INST] Does a Stratix 8000 GB Port Trunk line provide management without setup? I have a machine network that has been having very intermittent issues.  The original configuration was 4 Stratix 8000 switches set up in a ring configuration (not to be confused with DLR it is not set up that way) with the trunk line connecting to the giga ports.  Each of these switches branched off to various phoenix contact unmanaged switches via their fast ethernet ports and then to all the devices on the machine network.  Although the ring remains, 3 of the 4 stratix switches were changed out for unmanaged phoenix contact switches.  This network has been this way for a while now.  I was told by one of the responsibles for this machine they didn't believe any of the management functions were being used on the stratix's so that is why they just been replacing them with the phoenix switches on failure.  It doesn't SEEM like it outwardly causes an issue and I went online to the one remaining Stratix switch and couldn't see any of the management features being used. All this being said when I referred to the print of the network layout it referred to this ring as a network managed ring circuit.  So I guess my question is do these Stratix switches provide some level of management through these giga ports without any additional setup?  There must be a reason for this ring configuration to be used. [/INST] Stratix managed switches by default (OOB) have spanning tree enabled (protecting against loops). As you mentioned you went online to the switch, I assume an express setup has been performed. This also enables and configures lots of other features in the background like spanning tree protection mechanisms, alarming, QoS, CIP management protocol, HTTP/HTTPS webpage management, IGMP multicast management, ... Spanning tree prevents loops and provides a single path of communication between devices by blocking the alternate port on the ring. When a link fails, the switch detects this and will open the alternate port to restore communication. It is advised to monitor (manage) the network so that when a network failure happens, you are alerted about it and know you need to fix it. When the network is not being monitored, you will not know about it until a second fault occurs and production stops anyway, defeating  the purpose of using a ring topology (it only buys some time). Adding unmanaged switches to a ring can result in unexpected behavior as they do not support any loop prevention protocol, like in this case spanning tree. They will not notify the other switches on what path to open/close when connection faults occur, nor do they provide any status information. There are many reasons why a managed switch could be beneficial, like diagnostics & troubleshooting (it helps you find the reason of the intermittent connections issues, shows status of ports, ...), loop prevention, security, .... Stratix managed switches can also be integrated into Logix controllers to provide additional information. This can also be monitored via faceplates on an HMI running FTView.\n </s>