Why Cisco stopped accepting third-party SFPs after IOS 15.2, and Cisco's support policy

Question

The poster asked why third-party SFP modules stopped working after upgrading Cisco switches to IOS 15.2, whereas other vendors accept Cisco or other optics, and whhether this is a technical limitation. No model, log output or interface details were given despite requests. In a later update the poster stated that the classic workarounds 'service unsupported-transceiver' and 'no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid' are no longer available on the Catalyst 1000 and the newer Catalyst 9000 platforms, leaving no way to use non-Cisco 10G SFP+ modules there.

Hardware: Cisco Catalyst 1000, Cisco Catalyst 9000 series
Transceivers: third-party 10G SFP+ (unspecified), third-party SFP/QSFP (generic)
Form factor: SFP, SFP+, QSFP+

Symptoms / messages:

third-party SFP not accepted after IOS 15.2 upgrade
'service unsupported-transceiver' not available on Catalyst 1000 / Catalyst 9000
non-Cisco 10G SFP+ unusable

rackpilot49 · Answer

How exactly does it fail? Check 'show logging' right after boot with the module inserted, and post the full device model.

txnode67 · Answer

Cisco does tolerate some third-party optics if you configure 'service unsupported-transceiver' or 'no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid' - though on the newer C1000 and C9xxx those commands are gone, so there it will not help.

netguru15 · Answer

Officially Cisco will never support third-party SFPs, but in practice third-party SFP, SFP+ and even QSFP optics work well; many third-party makers re-flash the module EEPROM so it passes Cisco's checks.

wavesmith · Answer

A Cisco employee quoted the warranty guideline: if Cisco attributes a fault to third-party memory, cables, GBICs or other components it may withhold warranty or SmartNet support and bill time and materials; support continues when the fault is unrelated to the third-party part.

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