Thursday, October 31, 2013

Unsupported transceivers ( cisco ASR routers )

I just recently ran into some  issues with a few 1gige  copper SFP ( GLC-T )  provided a via cisco reseller  Network Hardware Reseller.

It looks like they have their own  transceivers &  labeled with their  name, They are  offering these as new GLC-T copper 1gige transceivers. You can see them in this photo ( bottom  transceiver is from NHR )  Http://www.networkhardware.com/






But their's a twist, they didn't work in our AS1K , nor our ASR9K routers, until we executed some commands to bypass the eeprom checksum code for the pid.

Here's how you can do it;


( ASR9K  IOS-Xr version 4.2.3 )

( transceiver permit pid all    "ignore the load-interval in this output )



( ASR1K   IOS-XE 15.1.3 )


( service  unsupported-transceiver    Beaware of the warnning banner that cisco   outputs to your screen )




The ASR1K is shows them in the show inv details, but they are not working as of yet. We are still investigating why & I will post an update once we get a resolution.

NOTE:  These GLC-Ts  did work in  every model of switch that we had,  and in our WS-X6724-sfp linecard for  the 6500 series.


Keep these thoughts in mind;

  •  it's best to always  use  the  mfg'er supported SFP/SFP+  transceiver in your you gear
  •  cisco TAC support,  might not support your 3rd-party transceivers
  •  cisco TAC might not RMA 3rd party  transceivers, & if they believe they are the culprit
  •  other problems might come up or develop
  • TAC is known to always ask for you to install a "cisco brand" transceiver during trouble shooting  if  they find out you have a non-cisco transceiver
  • it best to keep a few  cisco brand SFPs around
  • YMMV

In my own experience & with using  the lesser priced transceivers ( copper or optic );


  • transition network seems to have a wide choice of 1gige transceivers, &  that works in various cisco switches & routers
http://www.transition.com/TransitionNetworks/Products2/Family.aspx?Name=TN-GLC-xxx
  • prolabs provides some very good transceivers
http://www.prolabs.com/products/transceivers/





Ken Felix
Freelance Network / Security Engineer
kfelix  ----a---t---socpuppets ---d---o---t---com

     ^      ^
=(  @   @ )=
          o
       /     \



3 comments:

  1. Did you ever get them to come up/up? I ran into the same issue and noticed that the ASR does not support the GLC-T but does support the newer SFP-GE-T.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. i got info sfp-ge-t just support only for A9K-RSP (control plane) and ASR9000v. But it doest support for interface modul such as my A9K-MPA-8X10GE.

      Currently i had try this sfp to my ASR9006 altgough i had use command transceiver permid pid all, its still didn't work.

      Please help, if you have any suggestion.

      Delete