Vendor locks, unsupported module errors, matching modules to switches, NICs and routers
A site decommission left me with a drawer of pulled Cisco optics, a mix of GBICs, 1G SFPs and 10G SFP+, and I have to decide which of them go back into production and which go in the bin. The GBICs I have put aside for now, since nothing on the bench takes them, so everything below is about the SFP…
A Mellanox ConnectX-3 40GbE NIC connected with Mellanox QSFP passive copper cables (MC2210126-005) to a Dell PowerConnect 8164 (firmware 5.1.4.5) produced a link-up event for a few seconds followed by a permanent link-down. The same cables worked NIC-to-NIC, and Dell refused support because the…
Replacing a customer's incumbent aggregation pair with CloudEngine kit, and the single link that refuses to come up is the 100GE feed into their packet broker. Everything else on the switch went in without drama. Huawei CloudEngine 6800, 100GE port 100GBASE-SR4 QSFP28 modules, Huawei parts, one at…
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…
Homelab switch: a D-Link DGS-1210-28 revision F1 that I flashed with OpenWrt so I could stop fighting the stock web UI. Everything works except the last four ports, which are the copper/fibre combo ones. Switch: D-Link DGS-1210-28 rev F1 Firmware: OpenWrt 21.02.0-rc3 (r16172-2aba3e9784) Ports…
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…
We pick up a 1GE carrier handoff on a Ciena 3930 and I am putting together a spares kit for it. The module quoted for that circuit is XCVR-A10Y31, a 1000BASE-LX/LC part: 1310 nm, 10 km single mode. Nothing exotic about it, and I have a drawer of generic optics with exactly that specification…
I run a backup storage system in a data center. A pair of DD9900 in HA, network ports on the NDC QLogic. After a reboot or reseating the module, port ethMa stops seeing the transceiver, and it's not a one-off - it's a stable, repeating pattern. Dell DD9900, DD OS 7.2.0.95, HA configuration NDC…
Small office rack: there is a 40G card in the file server and a switch with spare uplink ports, so instead of buying another box I tried to hang the server straight off the switch. Both ends see the cable, the link never comes up. Huawei S6730-H24X6C, QSFP28 uplink ports QNAP LAN-40G2SF-MLX in the…
Two SRX1500 sit in separate data centres a few kilometres apart, joined by dark fiber pairs we own end to end. They have to come up as a chassis cluster, which means the control link has to cross that fiber instead of a patch cord inside one rack. The setup: two Juniper SRX1500, identical hardware…
I run a small Proxmox box at home and wanted a proper 10G path to the storage node, so I dropped in a used Supermicro AOC-STGN-i1S. It is the plain Intel 82599 design, board marked E157872, and I assumed this would be the boring part of the build. It is not. Supermicro AOC-STGN-i1S, Intel X520-DA1…
We run a pair of racks that hand off to a carrier-facing Cisco NCS, and one of the 100G server uplinks has never come up since the build. Same result after moving the server to another cabinet with a different patch panel, so I have stopped treating it as a one-off. Supermicro server…
New ESXi host going into a rack that hangs off a campus 3850. Management on copper came up without drama, the 10G uplinks did not: as soon as the server boots, the switch port drops into err-disable and the host sees nothing on that vmnic. Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650, 7X06CTO1WW, with an Emulex VFA5.2…
Home setup, and I am trying to get rid of the ISP router on a Cosmote GPON line. The idea is to run the fibre straight into the UDM-Pro and let the stick do the ONU job, but the provider only accepts the session if the 12-character serial and the device model string of the old CPE are presented, so…
