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I have a SFP+ cable of dubious parentage (I think it is a knockoff) that I'm trying to use to connect a Cisco 2960S stack with a 4507 core chassis. I have included what I think is relevant information below but please feel free to request more and I'll provide it. Neither side complains about it being an incompatible SFP module, or anything of the like. If I hook the cable up between two 2960S's, it works just fine. The SFP cable doesn't appear to be listed on Amazon anymore, but here is a comparable version to give you an idea of what I'm using: Diablo 15m direct attach SFP+

My 4507 shows "inactive" status and the 2960S's show "notconnect" leading me to believe the problem may be with the 4507. I've attempted the service unsupported-transceiver trick but it has not affected the 'inactive' status.

Here is the 4507 side:

nyhq-core01#sh int status | inc SR
Te3/3                        inactive     1            full   auto 10GBase-SR


interface TenGigabitEthernet3/3
 switchport mode trunk
end

TenGigabitEthernet3/3 is down, line protocol is down (inactive)
  Hardware is Ten Gigabit Ethernet Port, address is e02f.6da5.8dc2 (bia e02f.6d)
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000000 Kbit/sec, DLY 10 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  Full-duplex, Auto-speed, link type is auto, media type is 10GBase-SR
  input flow-control is off, output flow-control is off
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input never, output never, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/2000/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
  5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
     0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer
     0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000000 Kbit/sec, DLY 10 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  Full-duplex, Auto-speed, link type is auto, media type is 10GBase-SR
  input flow-control is off, output flow-control is off
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input never, output never, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/2000/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
     0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 0 broadcasts (0 multicasts)
     0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     0 packets output, 0 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 3 interface resets
     0 unknown protocol drops
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

NAME: "TenGigabitEthernet3/3", DESCR: "SFP-10Gbase-SR"
PID: SFP-10G-SR        , VID: V03  , SN: C1402250129
NAME: "Supervisor(slot 4)", DESCR: "Sup 7-E 10GE (SFP+), 1000BaseX (SFP) with 4 SFP+ Ports"
PID: WS-X45-SUP7-E     , VID: V04  , SN: CAT164ZZZZ

And here is the 2960S stack:

NYC-SW-26-01#sh int status | inc SR
Te2/0/1                      notconnect   1            full    10G SFP-10GBase-SR


interface TenGigabitEthernet2/0/1
 switchport mode trunk
end
TenGigabitEthernet2/0/1 is down, line protocol is down (notconnect) 
  Hardware is Ten Gigabit Ethernet, address is 44ad.d975.51b3 (bia 44ad.d975.51b3)
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000000 Kbit/sec, DLY 10 usec, 
     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive not set
  Full-duplex, 10Gb/s, link type is auto, media type is SFP-10GBase-SR
  input flow-control is off, output flow-control is unsupported 
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input never, output never, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
     0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 0 broadcasts (0 multicasts)
     0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 watchdog, 0 multicast, 0 pause input
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     0 packets output, 0 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 3 interface resets
     0 unknown protocol drops
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 pause output
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

NYC-SW-26-01#sh log | inc 2/0/1  
Jul 31 19:00:28.175: %LINK-5-CHANGED: Interface TenGigabitEthernet2/0/1, changed state to administratively down
Jul 31 19:02:17.989: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface TenGigabitEthernet2/0/1, changed state to down

NYC-SW-26-01#sh inv
NAME: "1", DESCR: "WS-C2960S-48LPD-L"
PID: WS-C2960S-48LPD-L , VID: V04  , SN: FOC1713ZZZZ

NAME: "2", DESCR: "WS-C2960S-48LPD-L"
PID: WS-C2960S-48LPD-L , VID: V04  , SN: FOC1713ZZZZ

NAME: "TenGigabitEthernet2/0/1", DESCR: "SFP-10GBase-SR"
PID: SFP-10G-SR          , VID: V03  , SN: C1402250130     

NAME: "3", DESCR: "WS-C2960S-48LPD-L"
PID: WS-C2960S-48LPD-L , VID: V04  , SN: FOC1709ZZZZ

nyhq-core01#sh log | inc 3/3
nyhq-core01#
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  • 3
    Ok... fyi there's no guarantee that 3rd party pluggable xcvrs will work in a given cisco box. SFP is actually trickier than the old GBICs were. To the question of isolating to either fiber or xcvr, if a known-good short fiber loop doesn't bring the xcvr up, then there's a good chance that is part of the problem Jul 31, 2014 at 19:08
  • 1
    Check your VLANs. The show interface status shows that it recognizes the SFP, but you're missing VLANs, hence the inactive status.
    – Ron Trunk
    Jul 31, 2014 at 20:02
  • 2
    @ron: line protocol down means vlans are irrelevant at this point. Jul 31, 2014 at 20:07
  • 2
    @MikePennington so apparently, you cannot use more than two sfp+ ports on the supervisor cards? One of my coworkers mentioned that this was the case. We unplugged one of the standby uplinks and confirmed it came up fine. Is there a reason why this would be the case? Jul 31, 2014 at 22:25
  • 4
    @petergrace your coworker is correct and I forgot about that "feature"... if you have redundant Sup7E in the box, the switch won't allow more than 4x10GE between the two supervisors... basically port group 2 on each sup (Te3/3 and Te3/4 in your case) get disabled (CCO ref). I should see if I can convince the 4k BU folks to make it more obvious (like syslog a warning when an xcvr is inserted in a port disabled thusly). Maybe permanently shut the port?? Jul 31, 2014 at 22:42

1 Answer 1

3

As MikePennington and YLearn have corroborated, if you have dual supervisor cards in a 4500 chassis, only the first two of the four SFP+ slots will work on each sup blade. The other two ports are disabled in software and there is currently no indication to the end user that the ports are disabled.

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