[c-nsp] Cheap 10G between 7600 and Procurve 5406zl

[Lincoln Dale]

On 15/03/2010, at 5:54 AM, <Christopher.Marget at usc-bt.com> <Christopher.Marget at usc-bt.com> wrote:

>>> These days you can get cheap twinax 10G cables with SFP+ at the ends
>> to
>>> connect two Cisco switches or two Procurves. Short distance only of
>>> course, but very cheap.
> 
> They're also useful for connecting servers to top-of-rack 10G switches.
> 
> But curiously, they're currently unsupported by Cisco on the Nexus 7000 platform:
> http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9402/ps9512/Data_Sheet_C78-437757.html

they are currently unsupported on N7K for good reasons that are technical.  strongly suggest that you don't use it for a production environment.

> 
> They seem to work fine in this application, however.

suggest you do "shut" on one side of the link and see if the other end notices the link is down.


>> As far as I'm aware, HP are particularly crappy about vendor locking
>> their
>> transceiver ports and will refuse to drive any "third party"
>> transceiver.
> 
> There's no problem using a Cisco SFP+ cable in an HP *server*

depends on the 'server'.
for a NIC/CNA - yes.
for any HP blade (embedded switch): HP require HP transceivers and don't provide any "unsupported transceiver" at all.


> 
>>> Also, twinax SFP+ are manufacturer-specific. Is it possible to get a
>>> twinax-cable with a Cisco-coded SFP+ at one end and a Procurve-coded
>>> SFP+ at the other?
> 
> This might not be necessary.  Network World recently did a 10G switch review:
> http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2010/011810-ethernet-switch-test.html
> 
> One of the documents linked from the review was the vendor features questionnaire.  In it, Cisco said:
> 
>     Nexus 5000 also provides interoperability support for non-Cisco
>     Twinax cabling.  Supported vendors include EMC, IBM, HP StorageWorks
>     and NetApp
> 
> This, and an emailed promise from an HP rep are the only inter-vendor twinax support claims I've seen to date.  I'm hopeful that vendors will come to their senses on pluggables, at least for twinax cabling.

HP are currently locking in to HP transceivers.  email promise or not, thats the current behaviour.


cheers,

lincoln.