Does ExtremeXOS really cap unapproved 40G/100G optics at 25% of line rate after 90 days
We are refreshing a pair of aggregation closets and the optics line is the part management keeps poking at. The switches are EXOS boxes and the plan was to fill the 40G uplinks with generic QSFP+ DACs, the same way we already do on the access ports.
Then someone on the team dug up a note about a chargeable third party optics licence on EXOS, tied specifically to 40G and 100G ports, with a rate limiter that kicks in after a grace period. That changes the maths quite a bit.
- EXOS switches in the aggregation layer, running the code they shipped with
- 40G QSFP+ uplinks now, QSFP28 on the roadmap
- generic third party DACs and AOCs, plus a handful of generic optical transceivers
- 1G and 10G access ports already full of generic modules, no complaints so far
What we are told to look for once a non approved module goes in:
show port conf
# the port carries an R (restricted) flag while the countdown runsChecked so far:
- the third party modules we already run link and pass traffic, nothing is blocked outright
- I cannot find that licence in the feature list for the code we are on
- the approved optics portal lists parts per platform family but says nothing about what a switch does with an unlisted one
So is the restriction real on shipping code, what exactly happens to the port when the timer expires, and how do I tell from the CLI whether my release enforces it at all?
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Comments 4
Which code train are the switches on? That is most of the answer here. The licence you read about is not a permanent property of EXOS, it arrived in one release and later releases dropped the requirement, so a doc page written against one version tells you nothing about the box in your rack.
Worth separating too: 1G and 10G ports were never part of this, only 40G and 100G. The fact that your accessss layer already runs generic SFP and SFP+ is no evidence either way for the uplinks.
Post the feature licence requirements for your exact release, plus
show port conffor one uplink that already has a generic DAC in it. If there is no R against the port, nothing is counting down and you can stop worrying.Short version: nothing is blocked. A third party 40G or 100G module links and forwards, the restriction is commercial rather than a haard lockout.
On a release that enforces it (the chargeable 3rd Party Optics Feature licence covering 40G and 100G ports arrived in ExtremeXOS 15.5) the sequence is:
show port confIt is not a one way door. Install the licence, or swap the module for one off the approved list, and the port goes back to full rate.
The part people skip: current EXOS releases do not require that licence at all, so the behaviour depends entirely on the code version. Before you buy a tray of third party QSFP+ or QSFP28, read the feature licence requirements for the exact release you intend to run, not for whatever version the first doc hit happens to describe.
Pulled the numbers. We are several trains past 15.5 and the feature licence requirements for our release have no third party optics entry at all.
show port confon the two uplinks that already carry generic DACs shows no R against either of them, and both sit at full rate with no limiter in sight.So on our code this looks like a non issue. What I will do anyway is keep a couple of approved QSFP+ modules on the shelf, because the first question on any support case is going to be what is in the port.
The other half of this is support, and that has not moved with any release.
I have had the argument with our account team twice. What you get in writing is a disclaimer, not a compatibility statement: off the approved list there is no warranty, no compliance claim and no obligation to help you - the optic and the interface module it plugs into are equally your problem. On an approved part you are partly paying for paperwork: NRTL and CDRH sign-off, FCC CFR 21 1040.10, CE with EN60825-1, GR-468 where it applies. Tray optics come with none of that.
As a shopping list the approved optics portal is fine - whatever you run is in there (EXOS, VOSS, ERS, the old Brocade MLX, SLX-OS and VDX lines, NPB, ISW), and it filters by copper or optical, fibre type, form factor and rate, 100 Mb/s up to 400 Gb/s. What it will not tell you is how a box behaves with a module that is not on the list, which is the only thing you asked. Hence threads like this.
My own experience: EXOS does not care who built the module. Generic parts link, FS parts link. What bites is usually the platform rather than the optic - the X435 not doing 2.5G on its SFP ports is the one I keep walking into.