connecting MS250-48P to another cisco switch

[HectorM]

Can I connect a MS250 switch via fiber to another cisco switch? Here at my local office, we use the fiber connection as the uplink but at the site in question they are using a regular copper connection as the uplink and want to use a fiber connection to send network connectivity to another cisco switch? Is that possible?

Thanks in advance.

[cmr]

Yes, either with a transceiver and fibre cable, or a DAC.  The MS250 has 10Gb SFP+ ports.

[HectorM]

perfect, but i ma new to the network side of the house what does DAC mean?

[cmr]

Apologies, it means Direct Attached Cable and they can be up to 5m in length (from Cisco Meraki).  It is a copper cable that plugs directly into the SFP+ port of each switch without needing transceivers and delivers 10Gb speeds.

[HectorM]

Got it, also when I connect the SFP and fiber I see now connections being made and no red light coming out of the fiber cable?? We have several different types of SFP's but can't seem to get data over to the cisco switch? I also attempted to configure the fiber interface but no luck? Any suggestion on troubleshooting would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[cmr]

What makes/models of transceiver are you trying and what type of fibre is is (OM4 etc.)?

[HectorM]

here are the types of SFP i am using, and I believe its a OM3 fiber cable, it was ran by a 3rd party .

[cmr]

Is the cable run less than 300m, if so the top three are suitable, but none are Cisco models, so might not work.  When you plug them in to the port do they show up on the dashboard?

[HectorM]

no its not more than 300m and it does not show in dashboard

[cmr]

This is how a Cu 1Gb transceiver (Cisco GLC-T) shows up on the Meraki switch port:

[cmr]

What do you see for the port with the transceiver connected?

[HectorM]

When I hover over the port it says disconnected

[cmr]

click into the port and go down to the Status section and post the picture here,  As you can see the one I have is disconnected, but shows the transceiver type plugged in.

[HectorM]

Im not there at the moment but I can look at that.

[HectorM]

if there was ever a connection, I would have a number here?

[HectorM]

all 4 have that same 

[cmr]

No, that is only right now.

[HectorM]

ok I will have to get back to you all .+

Thanks

[HectorM]

the type of switch im trying to connect to is netgear prosafe xs505m

[ww]

Not sure if this still a thing. But back in days you needed to config this on cisco switches to allow 3rd party sfp's :service unsupported-transceiver 

[HectorM]

I should at least see the connected SFP coming up on the dashboard?

[ww]

That info was in case you where connecting a cisco ios switch. 

[Tony-Sydney-AU]

Hi @HectorM ,

Those are 10GBASE-SR (except the one at the bottom which is LR).

If you check our SFP and stacking accessories doc, you'll see MS250 supports this SFP.

I'm not a Cisco Catalyst or Nexus engineer, so I would check with Catalyst or Nexus support if your switch needs the commands @ww mentioned. This Catalyst doc has more details.

# no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid 
# service unsupported-transceiver

Some older Catalyst firmware may have problems with those commands to support non-Cisco transceivers. Just make sure your OS image doesn't have any issues with those commands.

In the other hand, Cisco Meraki dosn't have any restrictions to third-party transceivers. As per our doc, "Cisco Meraki offers branded SFP modules, and while we do not prevent third-party accessories from functioning, users should conduct their own tests to ensure proper compatibility"

As @cmr said, checking the cable distance is a good idea; if it's below 300m I would double-check if the cable is the correct type. E.g.: MMF - OM3 instead of OM2 or OM1. Again, check this table to make sure your cable is correct.

I suspect you did it but I'll say it anyway: test your SFPs  in a switch that you know the SFP slot works fine. Next, try the known good SFPs in your deployment here.

And then, try swapping the SFPs between your switches. E.g.: insert the purple tag SFP in the Cisco Switch and the white tag SFP in your MS250; if you don't get a link UP, invert them; keep doing this until you try all combinations.

If all the above fails, then most likely your cable is damaged.

[HectorM]

Thanks Tony!

[HectorM]

Also, BTW the switch I'm connecting from is a MS250-48FP to a NetGear Pro safe XS505M. Not sure I mentioned that and is that even compatible?

[HectorM]

does anyone know if these SFP's will work with a Cisco Meraki MS130-8X, this is another switch I'm considering on using?

[HectorM]

yes it does have 10Gb SFP+ ports.

[GreenMan]

Good suggestions above - also:  did you try switching the 2 fibres around, to ensure you've got TX ->  RX    RX -> TX

[HectorM]

no but i was thinking of that on my next trip over.