I am sorry for beating a dead horse, as this issue has been covered many, many times on this site, both in the blog and in the forums. Due to recent staffing changes, I have been thrust into the role of Network Manager and have been learning and re-learning very quickly.
Of immediate concern is a link between our core switch (8610 in an 8010 chassis) and a 3-switch stack of Avaya 4850GTS-PWR+. There is a MLT connecting the two. By all indications, Spanning Tree is ACTIVE on this link. The 4850s recently replaced 3 5510s, which also had the MLT with spanning tree active. The network admin who originally set this up assures me that it's always been like this.
Questions:
1) Why is this bad?
2) What is to be gained by turning it off?
3) Can I turn it off without interrupting service?
4) Should I?
The 8610 is running System 5.0.0.0