Programmers, coding boards, switches, NICs and other hardware
Adding a 100G link between two racks on an X690 that has been quietly doing 10G access work for a couple of years. The uplink cage will not take the speed at all. ExtremeSwitching X690-48x-2q-4c 1 m QSFP28 direct attach cable, Q28+CR41m port 57, one of the QSFP28 uplink cages The cable comes up as…
A Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx (MCX4121A-ACAAx, firmware 14.32.1900) in a Ryzen desktop (Fedora 41 and Windows 10) detected the interface but reported Cable is unplugged with two FS.com SFP28-25GLR-31 modules and a 40 m single-mode LC duplex patch; a MikroTik router recognised the same optics. The poster…
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…
Bringing up a 10G uplink from a PA-3220 to a new core switch. The module went into a free cage on the firewall, the switch side is configured and waiting, and the interface simply refuses to come up. The port LED blinks, which is what made me assume the module was at least being powered. Palo Alto…
Standing up a small traffic-test bench next to the production fabric, and the tester ports will not come up over copper at all. HP 5900 40G switch, JC772A HP JG328A 40G QSFP+ direct attach cable Ixia Xcellon-Multis QSFP 40/10GE load module Spirent TestCenter 40G module, tried as a second opinion HP…
Bench work: re-coding a small batch of SFP+ modules so they carry the vendor string and part number the customer's kit expects. The edit itself is trivial in a hex editor, the write goes through, the read back matches byte for byte what I wrote - and the host still throws the module out. generic…
Installing a new MES2324FB at a site to replace old hardware. The uplink is 1G fiber to an Alcatel 6224, Foxgate modules from the same batch as at neighboring sites. Setup: Eltex MES2324FB, firmware 4.0.4.7, also tried 4.0.6 - no difference 1G SFP Foxgate on both ends of the link far end - Alcatel…
I look after a small office network and put in a DrayTek VigorSwitch FX2120 to get a 10G core. Both 10G links, to the router and to the NAS, came up on their own within seconds. What I cannot do is get a single 1G device onto the switch through the SFP+ cages. Switch: DrayTek VigorSwitch FX2120…
We are a small regional ISP rebuilding the optics budget for next year. Every 10G spare on our shelf is coded for exactly one platform, so the spares pool is roughly three times larger than our failure rate justifies. The idea on the table is to buy re-codable modules and code them ourselves as…
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…
Commissioning a 10G handoff for a customer on a 3930 that was already on site. The module is Ciena's own, pulled from our stock, and the port does come up - but the operational state is UCTF instead of Ena and the uncertified transceiver alarm sits there permanently. The acceptance test includes a…
I am putting together a switchless Fibre Channel setup at home: one box holds the storage and has to act as the FC target, the other two are plain initiaators. No FC switch in the middle, just direct cables between HBAs. Hardware: QLogic QLE2694 in the storage box, the one that should be the target…
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…
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 am specifying a fibre ring for a customer's plant network and the switch choice is already fixed: Moxa EDS-518A. The BOM went out with generic 1G optics, because our stock room is full of them, and now the customer's own engineer insists that only Moxa-branded modules may be fitted. switches…
