Catalyst 2960L LAN Lite has no 'service unsupported-transceiver' command for third-party SFPs
3
The poster wanted to use third-party SFP modules in a Cisco Catalyst 2960L-48TS (LAN Lite feature set, image c2960l-universalk9-mz.152-6.E2b). Entering 'service unsupported-transceiver' in global configuration mode only produced a command error because the CLI does not know the command on this platform; 'no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid' was also tried without effect. 'show int status' showed the interface as fine, yet the third-party SFPs did not work, although the same modules worked in a Catalyst 3750 where the unsupported-transceiver command exists. The poster asked for a workaround and whether the switch could be moved from LAN Lite to LAN Base.
- Hardware: Cisco Catalyst 2960L-48TS (LAN Lite), Cisco Catalyst 3750
- Transceivers: third-party 1G SFP (unspecified)
- Form factor: SFP
Symptoms / messages:
'service unsupported-transceiver' rejected as an unknown command
third-party SFP does not link
'no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid' has no effect
interface reported OK in 'show int status'
Comments 5
The LAN Lite feature set on this software release does not contain the needed commands; either 'service unsupported-transceiver' or 'no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid' requires a higher base feature set.
The license level of the Catalyst 2960-L is fixed: LAN Lite cannot be upgraded to LAN Base (nor downgraded), so the command cannot be unlocked.
The poster eventually gave up on third-party optics and deployed genuine Cisco SFPs, which worked without any special command.
A respondent suggested trying 'no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid', noting that on newer code this command moved under the interface configuration level, and asked for the IOS version.
Another respondent simply advised updating the IOS without naming a release; no specific release was ever suggested.