Hardware compatibility of SFP+ devices [closed]

Question

I have a Supermicro E300-8D (used as firewall) I want to plug to a Mellanox SX1012 device. I have tried different cables :

• mellanox mc2309130-001
• supermicro cbl-0348L

different switches :

• Mellanox SX1012
• Trendnet TEF-424WS
• Cisco SG 100-24

different OS :

• pfSense (freebsd)
• ubuntu

Nothing works.

The only result I got so far was with MGB-SX modules (but I suspect optical fiber is half broken : network card goes up, but no dhcp address).

Which cable should I use to use the supermicro server with the mellanox switch ?

Answer 1

Can't speak for those exact devices, but many vendors restrict you to using their original equipment. Technically, there's very little reason to do so though.

With a DAC branded to the same vendor (or product line) on each side, there might have no single cable that works on both sides. Insertion of an unsupported SFP device is most often logged on the device, so you might want to check the logs to see who rejects what.

There are 3rd-party vendors that sell branded modules that work like originals (but usually cheaper) and some even offer to put different brandings on the ends of a DAC. Going that way might cause problems when exchanging hardware in the future though.

Likely your best choice is to use optical transceivers, of the multi-mode -SR kind, that you can swap as required on each side.

Answer 2

I have ended by using a network card I had from a broken server (same model that actual working servers).

The network card has been recognized and the cable worked instantly.

So it is like there are hardware compatibility issues between SFP brands...