dac/SFP+ MIX AND match vendors

[oxide54]

can i mix and match directly attaching SFP+

 

i.e can i plug a HP 10GBE SFP+ NIC into another vendors switch using a DAC or should i look for another tree to bark under?

[m25man]

The quick answer is not without a compatability check...

 

As with many switch vendors HP, Cisco especially don't like other vendors DAC cables and DAC cables themselves differ immensely from vendor to vendor.

 

The Intel NICs I have used in HP servers had to have a specific type of DAC whereas the Netgear GSM73xx works with every 10gbe DAC I throw at it.

 

Read the manufacturers specs very carefully on each device and make sure the DAC is compatible with your switch first and foremost the Server NICs seem to be more tolerant of DAC cable types.

Remember there are two types of DAC Passive and Active.

[m25man]

For those that may be interested,

 

I have sucessfully used Cisco 5m Compatible Passive DAC Cables between Netgear GSM73xx 10GBe Ports and Intel 10GBe cards without problems in both Ethernet an iSCSI environments in many high demand configurations.

However, recently due to production and model changes the Intel Server NIC's went into short supply and so for the next job we used Emulex NICs.

 

Emulex NICs would NOT WORK with 5m Passive Cisco DAC Cables! - They work perfectly however with 5m ACTIVE DAC cables.

 

From experience anything over 3m @ 10GBe on DAC becomes very hardware dependent and as ACTIVE DAC cables are twice the cost of PASSIVE you need to be certain about what your buying and is it compatible?

 

So as a rule of thumb, <3m can use a Passive DAC but >3m is likely to require Active DAC cables.

 

Hope this helps any 10GBe newbies playing with Server connectivity.