Third Party SFP ?

Hi,

We have only validated our own SFP+ transceivers to work, however there are 3rd party ones that claim compatibility and may work.

I'm in the process of getting a 10Gb SFP+ switch for my home lab. Not a production system, just a personal project based on ex-production Dell machines.I'm looking at going for the X4012.

I'm happy to pay for the switch, but I have a number of Finisar SFP+ and other 3rd party 10Gbps twinax SFP+ cables that I would like to use with it.

My understanding (I work on layer 1/2 although new to 10Gb/ SFP+ stuff) is that these things present a standard interface to the cage, so is there something stopping me using these? I need to know this before I place my order as I can't justify the outlay of $100 per Dell SFP+ module when I can source stuff off ebay.

I know there was an issue with Dell locking down the R710 a few years ago and from what I understand the firmware was opened up to allow third party drives and was wondering if this was the case on the switches and whether there has been an update since this reply in 2014?

I don't expect a reply saying that any junk can be used; maybe a list of approved / known good modules that I can look for.

Of course, Dell only guarantees compatibility with Dell branded SFP's.

We have used generic SFP's from ebay in our N1548P switches and while these worked, they would constantly generate "unsupported trasnceiver" log messages making the log unusable. Adding " service unsupported-transceiver" to the configuration did not stop this.

We have also used "Dell compatible" SFP's from fs.com and have had no issues or log messages.

allow unsupported-transceiver

I keep seeing this command but its not an option in the Dell 4820T. Where/How does this command work in the configuration?

Hi,

The command is available on N series switches. You are correct that it doesn’t exist on this switch.