X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

[M_Nees]

Today we have a very painful and time-killing problem. Be careful NOT to run into the same issue.

We using X440-G2 with 10GB GBICs on the Uplink ports (51-52 - with Dual 10GB LIC) linked to 2x X670-G2 also with 10GB GBICs.
Some of my collegues configured the X440-G2 BUT do NOT install the 10GB License.

If you connect that Switch to the CORE you does not get a link. But light comes out of the fibre cable and seemed to be OK. If you check transceiver information on CORE switch you can see that you have excellent signal - but the link on the CORE Switch does not come up! Damn!

If you have a look at the X440-G2 the log tells you that the 10GB Port have a 10GB GBIC but you do NOT have a 10GB license, so the speed is reduced to 1GB!
Does this make sense ?

The result is that the 10GBIC sending out a signal but a 10GB GBIC cannot never run in 1GB mode. So there will never ever be a link. Talking with some other network guys telling me that a very usual mistake a lot of people running into this pitfall.

From my point of view it was better if the developers disable the 10GB GBIC completely to avoid such tricky problems!

Regards,
Matthias

[Drew_C]

Matthias, I was asked to test this out in a demo build. For this test, I installed a mix of 1G and 10G optics with a Dual-port 10G license. To address your concerns, the development team has added a "$" flag to show the 10G optic is unlicensed, which you can see on port 27 below. Thanks for your feedback!

(Demo) X440G2-24t-10G4.2 # show port 25-28 conf no
Port Configuration
Port Virtual Port Link Auto Speed Duplex Flow Load Media
router State State Neg Cfg Actual Cfg Actual Cntrl Master Pri Red
================================================================================
25 VR-Default E R ON AUTO AUTO SX
26 VR-Default E R OFF 10000 FULL SF+_SR
27 VR-Default E R ON AUTO AUTO $SF+_SR
28 VR-Default E R ON AUTO AUTO SX
================================================================================
> indicates Port Display Name truncated past 8 characters
Link State: A-Active, R-Ready, NP-Port Not Present, L-Loopback
Port State: D-Disabled, E-Enabled, L-License Disabled
Media: !-Unsupported, $-Unlicensed
Media Red: * - use "show port info detail" for redundant media type
Flow Cntrl: Shows link partner's abilities. NONE if Auto Neg is OFF

(Demo) X440G2-24t-10G4.3 # show port 27 info det
Port: 27
Virtual-router: VR-Default
Type: SF+_SR (Unlicensed)
Random Early drop: Unsupported
Admin state: Enabled with auto-speed sensing auto-duplex
Link State: Ready
Link Ups: 0 Last: --
Link Downs: 0 Last: --
......

[M_Nees]

I like this !!
Thanks for accepting my feedback.

[M_Nees]

Hi Drew,

1 month after our discussion, can you tell me something about how this issue could be improved or what the PLM think about that ??

Regards,
Matthias

[Drew_C]

Hi Matthias,
I actually did some followup work on this yesterday and didn't get a chance to respond.

A CR has been created to enhance the show ports configuration command to indicate that an optic is not licensed. This improvement is currently set to make its way into EXOS 22.2+.