Vendor locks, unsupported module errors, matching modules to switches, NICs and routers
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…
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…
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…
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 to link an HPE FlexFabric 5900AF and a Dell S5212F-ON at 10 Gbps with DAC cables that had been custom-made with an HPE-coded end and a Dell-coded end. Both ports were forced to 10G full duplex, but no link came up. On the HPE side the interface reported Media type is stack wire…
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…
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…
While staging an EX2300-48P and an EX2300-24P (both Junos 18.2R3-S5.3) with non-Juniper SFP+/SFP modules, the 48-port switch recognised the transceivers and created interfaces, but the 24-port switch showed nothing in any of its four uplink ports; show chassis hardware listed PIC 1 as 4x10G…
Juniper-branded SFP modules were intermittently reported as unsupported or not supported in the chassis hardware output right after an EX or MX device booted. Rebooting the device or reseating the SFP made the module recognised again, which was frustrating in production. The poster wanted to know…
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 wanted to run 100 Mbps fibre SFP modules in a D-Link DES-3200-28F but the vendor compatibility list only named older switches (DES-1228, DES-1252, DGS-3612G). The question was whether the list was simply stale or whether the modules would be rejected by the newer switch. A related…
The poster owned a MikroTik RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT (hAP ac) with a single SFP cage and had two spare 850 nm modules on hand: a Cisco-branded AFBR-57F5PZ-CS1 and an Intel-branded FTLX8571D3BCVIT1. The ISP delivered the service over a single fibre strand rather than a duplex pair, and the poster wanted…
The thread starter had a set of Cisco EEPROM images (SX, LH, ZX types) but no CWDM images and wanted CWDM SFP modules to show up on Cisco switches as CWDM/WDM optics rather than being misidentified as SX or LX. Without a correct image the switch either reported the module as unsupported or forced…
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…
For a deployment on Dell PowerEdge R630 and C4140 servers the poster had Intel X520-SR2 adapters (E10G42BFSR) fitted with the bundled Intel FTLX8571D3BCV-I3 10GBASE-SR SFP+ modules (850 nm, 300 m multimode). The uplink switch is a Huawei Quidway 9300 whose SFP+ ports carry 10GBASE-LR (1310 nm)…