[c-nsp] CISCO-AVAGO CISCO-FINISAR etc SFPs

[Lukas Tribus]

Hello,


2017-10-31 15:49 GMT+01:00 Nick Cutting <ncutting at edgetg.com>:
> Well, a bunch of vendors now sell optics that do not require the secret command on IOS to ignore the non cisco coding.
>
>   I guess buy a few – the 10g SR’s are about $16 -
>
> However, we got burned in 2015 when a client with non cisco parts using the “service unsupported-transceiver” would NOT be supported by TAC.
>
> If you can get a third party optic to work without the command – are they supported by TAC?  It is a grey area for sure.


My experience about this is that if the problem is related to
interface or SFP related problems, then you have to have original
Cisco SFPs (not "correctly programmed" third party SFP's, but really
Cisco SFPs).
On the other hand if you are troubleshooting some other problem that
is clearly unrelated to the SFP - and the TAC engineer understands
that - then they don't care at all.

But this comes down to a decision that the individual TAC engineer
takes. And later on, when the issue is escalated to the BU, it is
again a decision that the BU will take.

As far as I understand there are no hard policies about this, its a
gray area which is why the individuals you are working with are gonna
take those decisions.


The ASR9k BU for example tries to not break third party optics,
however it cannot guarantee support:
https://supportforums.cisco.com/t5/service-providers-blogs/asr9000-policy-3rd-party-optics/ba-p/3106940

A different document from 15 years ago suggest that Cisco will provide
support unless the root cause can be attributed to your third party
part (even memory):
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/prod_warranty09186a00800b5594.html


However, like I said, it all comes down to the individual handling
your SR. Both at TAC and the BU.


So what do you do? You buy at least a handful of those ridiculously
priced Cisco OEM SFPs, so you can just swap 'em if TAC insist.



cheers,
lukas