Popular discussions about programming, compatibility and testing of optical transceivers.
A Linux server with an Intel 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ controller showed no 10G interface and dmesg contained failed to load because an unsupported SFP+ or QSFP module type was detected after an untested SFP+ module was inserted. The article explains that the ixgbe driver only enables modules it…
A Dell-branded Intel X520-DA2 with Flypro 10GBASE-T SFP+ modules showed no carrier (or no interface at all) on Debian and on FreeBSD-based OPNsense because the card rejects unapproved modules. The post collects the per-OS fixes and the permanent EEPROM approach. Hardware involved: Dell-branded…
On an Intel S2600WFT board the X722 10GbE SFP+ controller (rev 09, NVM 3.31 0x80000d31 1.1767.0) refused ethtool -m with Cannot get module EEPROM information: Invalid argument, and the kernel logged Module EEPROM memory read not supported. Please update the NVM image. The behaviour was identical…
The poster bought a Cisco SFP-10G-SR on eBay (markings suggesting 2007 manufacture) and, warned about counterfeit Cisco optics with longevity and safety risks, asked how to tell whether it was genuine before deploying it. Hardware involved: Cisco SFP-10G-SR. Reported symptoms/messages: authenticity…
Intel X520 (82599) cards enforce a list of approved SFP+ modules; under Linux the ixgbe parameter helps, but on Windows or ESXi there is no such option. The gist provides a Python script that reads the card EEPROM with ethtool -e and sets bit 0 of the byte at offset 0x58 (0 = Intel modules only, 1…
The two SFP ports (F1/F2) of a Brocade ICX6450-C12-PD, licensed for 10G, would not come up with either a Brocade 1000BASE-LR SFP (33211-100) or 10GBASE-SR modules over a 5 m single-mode patch to an ICX6450-24P. show media saw the transceivers but the interface reported GigabitEthernet1/3/1 is down…
All 10G ports on a Netgear M5300-28G3 were used, so the poster asked whether a Cisco 3 m SFP+ DAC (H10GB-CU3M) or Finisar FTLX8571D3BCL 10G SR modules could be used in the switch's 1G SFP ports to add another 10G-capable device at reduced speed. Hardware involved: Netgear M5300-28G3, Cisco…
The thread starter documented that 82599-based X520 cards carry an undocumented EEPROM bit (IXGBEDEVICECAPSALLOWANYSFP, lowest bit of the capability word at byte offset 0x58, typically 0xFC locked / 0xFD unlocked) that decides whether non-Intel active SFP+ modules are accepted on ESXi and Windows…
A QSFPTEK 10GBASE-T SFP+ module installed in port ix1 of a passively cooled Netgate 6100 reported 73 C through DDM although the room was at 20 C; the module is specified for 0-70 C and up to 2.5 W. The poster asked for known-good RJ45 SFP+ modules that stay within spec. Hardware involved: Netgate…
An XCP-ng host with an Intel X520-DA2 and Finisar SFP+ transceivers logged failed to load because an unsupported SFP+ or QSFP module type was detected. insmod with allowunsupportedsfp=1 failed with Unknown symbol in module; options ixgbe allowunsupportedsfp=1 in /etc/modprobe.d/ixgbe-options.conf…
Intel X710/XL710 adapters refuse third-party optics at the firmware level with the message Rx/Tx is disabled on this device because an unsupported SFP module type was detected, and the i40e driver offers no override. The repository documents a procedure to remove the check: update to a known…
After upgrading to Proxmox VE 8 with the 6.x kernel, on-board Intel X553 SFP+ ports that worked on kernel 5.15.108 showed NO-CARRIER even with the cable and module connected. The regression was traced to an upstream ixgbe commit (565736048bd5) that broke auto-negotiation handling for X550/X553…
On a Supermicro SYS-1019D-FRN8TP running VyOS 1.4 rolling the on-board Intel X722 (i40e) did not recognise an ISP-supplied 1310/1270 nm single-fibre SFP nor other spare optics; ethtool -m returned Cannot get module EEPROM information: Invalid argument. The poster asked how to apply the well-known…
A Dell R720 with the integrated i350/X520 daughter card ran Proxmox VE; Cisco-branded 10G multimode LC SFP+ modules that worked elsewhere were rejected as unsupported. Adding options ixgbe allowunsupportedsfp=1 to the module options had no visible effect. Respondents walked through GRUB kernel…
A FreeNAS build on a Supermicro X11SPM-TPF board would not recognise a Ubiquiti UF-RJ45-10G SFP+ copper module in the on-board SFP+ cage, although the switch side showed link. The poster asked for BIOS settings or a compatible 10G RJ45 transceiver. Hardware involved: Supermicro X11SPM-TPF, Intel…
On an HP 5820-24XG-SFP+ (JC102A) the ports cabled with genuine HP X240 10G SFP+ 3 m DACs (JD097C) came up but logged OPTMOD/4/FIBERSFPMODULENOWINVALID: This is not a supported transceiver for this platform, and broadcast/multicast counters on those ports grew faster than normal. The cable is listed…
The poster had third-party SFP+ optics for both the on-board Intel X553 ports of a Netgate XG-7100 and an add-in X520-DA2 and had found that hw.ixgbe.unsupportedsfp=1 in /boot/loader.conf enables them. Questions: does it apply to both on-board and PCIe Intel ports, what is the difference between…
Several pairs of 3COM 2928 switches (JE007A-like, HP 1910-24G family) were linked over J9281B SFP+ DACs. After upgrading from 5.20 1108P01 to 5.20 1519P03 the links no longer came up. Before the update display transceiver interface showed STACKSFP / Tyco Electronics and simple LINK UPDOWN events…
On a Minisforum MS-01 running Proxmox (i40e, kernel 6.8.12-10-pve) the X710 SFP+ port enp2s0f0np0 recognised a Ubiquiti SFP+-to-RJ45 module (ethtool listed 10G Base-SR capability) but the link never came up: Link detected: no, interface DOWN, no dmesg errors, ip link set up made no difference…
On an HP 5120-EI the poster inserted an Allied Telesis AT-SPEX 1310 nm SFP and got a PHONY ENTITY trap plus OPTMOD/4/FIBERSFPMODULENOWINVALID: This is not a supported transceiver for this platform; the port never came up. The poster looked for a command to disable enforcement of SFP coding. Later…
On an Aruba 1930 (JL685A, software 2.6.0) two D-NET DN-SFP-LX modules in SFP+ ports 49 and 50 actually carried traffic, yet the web dashboard showed both ports as DOWN and, without a CLI, the poster could not check whether the modules were identified. The question was whether this was a bug, an…
On a Protectli Vault 6 with Intel X710 SFP+ ports (ixl0/ixl1) a 1G EZConn ETB43315-7S34-FR SFP showed no carrier. Logs contained Invalid advertised speed; valid flags are: 0x06, ixl1setlink: Error getting phy capabilities -37, aq error: 8 and Link failed because an unqualified module was detected!…
The poster asked whether third-party optics can be used in an HPE FlexFabric 5700 40XG 2QSFP+ (JG896A) and whether the ProVision command allow-unsupported-transceiver exists on it. The answer clarified how Comware differs from ProVision: there is no allow-list of supported transceivers, so unlisted…
Across about forty ProCurve/Aruba switches the poster had used J4858C and J4858D 1G SX SFPs without issues, but eight newly purchased J4858D units logged Unsupported Transceiver on 2530-8G (J9774A, YA.15.16.0006), 2530-8G (J9777A, YA.15.12.0007) and 2530-24G (J9776A, YA.15.10.0003). show tech…
Four HP A5500-HI switches in an IRF stack logged unsupported transceiver messages for six rear-module (JD368B) ports that were cabled with HP J9281B SFP+ DACs to ProLiant Gen8 servers with 530SFP+ NICs. display transceiver interface showed Transceiver Type STACKSFPPLUS, Connector COPPER, Vendor…
On Proxmox VE 6.0 (kernel 5.0.18-1-pve, ixgbe 5.1.0-k) an Intel X520-DA2 exposed ens1f0/ens1f1 but any inserted third-party SFP+ module produced failed to load because an unsupported SFP+ or QSFP module type was detected, and the driver had to be reloaded to detect module changes at all. Hardware…
A network operator received QFX3500 switches that would not bring up third-party SFP+ transceivers even though a Juniper sales engineer had said they would work. JTAC stated that non-Juniper SFP+ optics would never be supported on the platform. The switch detected the presence of the module but…
An Aruba/HPE 2530-48G-2SFP+ on firmware 16.01.0012 logged Port contains a transceiver not made by Hewlett Packard Enterprise with the advice to use only genuine transceivers, and refused the modules; ironically one of the rejected transceivers was HP-branded. The poster asked whether a command…
On a Juniper EX4600 running Junos 14.1X53-D27.3 the poster inserted a non-certified 1G single-mode WDM (BiDi) SFP, 20 km, TX 1550 / RX 1310 nm with DDM, into ge-0/0/1. The interface never appeared: show interfaces returned error: device ge-0/0/1 not found, and the log recorded XCVR: Unit 1, Fibre…
Two Aruba 2930F switches (JL256A, firmware 16.05.0003) were to be stacked with VSF over an HPE DAC. With allow-unsupported-transceiver enabled the DAC passed traffic on normal ports, but as soon as the ports were made VSF member links the stack would not form. Replacing the DAC with supported 10G…
On an HPE 5510 24G SFP 4SFP+ HI (JH149A, Comware 7.1.045 R1111P01) genuine JD119B and JD118B 1G SFPs were accepted at first (OPTMOD/4/MODULEIN: The transceiver is 1000BASESXSFP), but after a cold power reboot the same modules were reported as UNKNOWNSFPPLUS with OPTMOD/5/CHKSUMERR: Transceiver…
A FlexFabric 5900AF running Comware 7.1.035 R2208P01 reported a third-party transceiver as not supported when inserted, while the same class of modules worked in a FlexFabric 7904 on 7.1.045. The poster asked whether support could be enabled by command and whether the Comware version mattered…
An HPE 2920 (J9729A, firmware WB.15.17.0009) with the J9731A 10G expansion module was connected to a DL380 Gen8 with a 560SFP+ NIC using a genuine HPE X242 3 m SFP+ DAC (J9283B). Port A1 with a J9150A SR module worked, but port A2 with the DAC logged Transceiver type not supported in this port and…
The poster wanted to connect Aruba 2540 switches (JL357A, firmware YC.16.09.0001) to Cisco Catalyst 9300 switches using Cisco SFP-H10GB-CU3M DACs. After enabling allow-unsupported-transceiver the cables were still not recognised: show tech transceivers listed the port as unsupported, the LED…
The poster tried a Mellanox MFA2P10-Axxx 25G SFP28 AOC between a MikroTik switch and a Supermicro server with an Intel X722 (ixl driver) under pfSense. The cable linked fine switch-to-switch but on the X722 ifconfig -vvvm showed the module recognised (10GBase-SFI, 1000Base-KX listed) yet no carrier…
The poster needed to connect stacked Aruba 6300F (JL665A) switches to a 6300M core (JL658A) at 10 Gbps over more than 3 m. J9283D 3 m DACs worked for short runs and the older 3810/2930 platforms supported a 7 m J9285D cable, but that cable is not listed for the 6300. The question was whether the 5…
A 2920-48G-PoE+ (J9729A) rejected a J9283B 3 m SFP+ DAC with 00536 FFI: port 45 Transceiver type not supported in this port even though HP lists the cable as compatible; the same cable worked in a 2530 with SFP+ slots. Firmware had been updated without effect. A later reader noticed an old J9283B…
Even with allow-unsupported-transceiver enabled, HPE Aruba 3810M and 2930M switches showed an amber fault for generic SFP+ modules, including ones recoded to masquerade as a J9151A. The author traced the behaviour to HPE's HPIDv2 challenge-response authentication: the module EEPROM carries a flag…
Four HP ProCurve 6120XG blade switches (516733-B21) refused J9150A 10G SR SFP+ transceivers that the datasheet lists as supported; show tech transceivers reported them as unsupported. The switches ran Z.14.56. The poster asked whether a firmware upgrade or a configuration setting was needed…
A FreeNAS box with on-board Intel X552 SFP+ ports (Xeon D) and an ESXi 6.7 host with a Mellanox ConnectX-3 (MT27500, Dell Y3KKR) were cabled with two Mellanox MCP2104-X003B passive DACs from 2014. Looping each device to itself brought the ports up, but between the two systems ESXi showed…
H3C-SFP-10G-T-SO 10GBASE-T copper modules (from FS or Solid Optics) worked out of the box in a FlexFabric 5940 (JH398A) with the JH181A 24-port SFP+ card, but in a FlexFabric 5945 (JQ076A) with the same card the ports only came up after manually running port up-mode on the interface. The poster…
The poster needed to connect a MikroTik CRS328-4C-20S-4S+RM to an HP 1820-24G-PoE+ over 200-500 m of outdoor aerial fibre and asked which SFP modules to buy and how to verify compatibility before purchase. The HP compatibility table listed only J4859C as a single-mode SFP, while MikroTik offered…
The poster planned a server with an Intel X710-DA2 dual-port SFP+ NIC connected to two Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 48 Lite units, with LACP between the switches. Six 10G SFP+ modules were needed (two for the server side, four for the switches) and the question was which modules would be recognised by both…
The poster configured new HP 2530-48G switches (J9281B) with J9775A SFP+ direct-attach cables bought as accessories. The ports stayed down and the log said FFI: port 49 Transceiver type not supported in this port; show tech transceivers first showed nothing and, after upgrading from YA.15.12.0007…
The poster operated old HP/H3C A5800 switches (JC100A, JC103A) with many SFP modules of mixed coding. Modules with H3C in A0h bytes 60h-62h worked but logged This is not a supported transceiver for this platform, and DDM plus serial/date information were unavailable. Copying the full data from a…
The poster had an Integra Optics tunable DWDM SFP+ (1528.77-1566.72 nm, 96 channels, 80 km, 10G, sold as Calix/Arista compatible) in an Arista switch. Changing the frequency and configuring the ITU channel through the Arista CLI had no effect: the module kept reporting the same wavelength. The…
A customer saw errors on a fibre link and suspected a speed mismatch with a 1G far end. The poster asked whether 10G SFP+ transceivers are backward compatible with 1G, or whether the modules had to be swapped for 1G SFPs to talk to the gigabit device on the other side. Hardware involved: Aruba…
With an Aruba 2930F connected to a server through a Stornet-branded J9283D-SN passive 3 m SFP+ DAC, port 50 dropped the link immediately after it came up and port 52 flapped with the log message FFI : Port: 52 Excessive link state transitions. The same cable worked on ports 49 and 51, and fibre…
A brand-new retail Intel E810-XXVDA2 on Windows Server 2022 (Intel driver 1.12.164.0 from release package 28) was connected to an SFP28 port of a Ubiquiti USW-Pro-Aggregation switch. With an SFP28 DAC the link came up at 25G immediately, but with SFP28 optical transceivers (Ubiquiti…
The poster had an existing multimode fibre run of about 200 m that could not be replaced and only single-mode SFP modules available. The question was whether a 1G single-mode SFP pair would establish a stable link over multimode fibre, and what the practical limits were. The thread also raised the…