Why third-party SFP+ still fail on Aruba 3810M/2930M with allow-unsupported-transceiver: the HPIDv2 flag at byte 0x7B
1
Even with allow-unsupported-transceiver enabled, HPE Aruba 3810M and 2930M switches showed an amber fault for generic SFP+ modules, including ones recoded to masquerade as a J9151A. The author traced the behaviour to HPE's HPIDv2 challenge-response authentication: the module EEPROM carries a flag byte at offset 0x7B; when it is set to 0x32 the switch expects an authentication microcontroller to answer, and a plain transceiver that advertises the flag without the MCU is rejected.
- Hardware: HPE Aruba 3810M, HPE Aruba 2930M
- Transceivers: generic SFP+ recoded as J9151A, HPE J9151A
- Form factor: SFP+
Symptoms / messages:
amber port LED with third-party SFP+
module rejected despite allow-unsupported-transceiver
Comments 1
In configuration mode run allow-unsupported-transceiver confirm and write memory, then back up the module EEPROM, change byte 0x7B from 0x32 to 0x00 and reflash the transceiver; afterwards simple third-party modules link with a green LED.