Are any 3rd party optics allowed by the Intel XL710-QDA2 NIC card ?

[SKoll6]

Hi,

For infrastructure networking we are using many vendors among them Cisco Nexuses. When we tried to use on Intel XL710 NIC, Cisco PID QSFP-40G-SR4 (vendor name CISCO-FINISAR), transceiver got blocked with an error :

kernel: i40e 0000:81:00.1: Rx/Tx is disabled on this device because an unsupported SFP module type was detected

Is there way to load new firmware with open optics settings, meaning allowing any 3rd party transceiver or any other way how to fix this problem ?

For customers it is very difficult from operation and logistic perspective to have dedicated Intel transceivers just for Intel XL710 and other brand transceivers for networking gears, firewalls and other equipment.

In the networking industry generally other vendors do not support 3rd party transceivers which is expected, but do not block them like Intel. (blocking transceivers was there more than 10 years ago). It should be pure responsibility of the customer itself to handle transceiver technical issues with company who supply transceivers.

Thx,

Rgds,

Stefan

[VincentT_Intel]

Hi Stefan, Thank you for posting in Intel® Ethernet Community. We'll feedback your request internally, kindly share the ethtool -i output of your XL710 NIC. Best Regards, Vince Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[SKoll6]

Hi Vince,

Please see requested output below :

root@ubuntu-sitel:~# ethtool -i enp129s0f1

driver: i40e

version: 2.1.14-k

firmware-version: 6.01 0x800035da 1.1747.0

expansion-rom-version:

bus-info: 0000:81:00.1

supports-statistics: yes

supports-test: yes

supports-eeprom-access: yes

supports-register-dump: yes

supports-priv-flags: yes

root@ubuntu-sitel:~#

Thx,

Rgds,

Stefan

[VincentT_Intel]

Hi Stefan, Thank you for providing the output. I'll update this thread as soon as possible. Best Regards, Vince Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[VincentT_Intel]

Hi Stefan, While we're investigating this issue, please help to confirm if you've tried using firmware 5.05 on XL710 with the Cisco transceiver. Thanks. Best Regards, Vince Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[SKoll6]

Hi Vince,

We haven't tried to downgrade to 5.05 due to application requirement to use specifically 6.01 firmware for their SR-IOV and DPDK implementation.

Thx,

Rgds,

Stefan

[VincentT_Intel]

Hi Stefan, Thank you for the confirmation. Please share the Network Device Product ID of your Cisco transceiver. Best Regards, Vince Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[SKoll6]

Hi Vince,

Cisco Product ID : QSFP-40G-SR4

Thx,

Rgds,

Stefan

[VincentT_Intel]

Hi Stefan, Thank you for providing the information. We're currently checking your query and will update this thread as soon as possible. Best Regards, Vince Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[VincentT_Intel]

Hi Stefan, After further verification, we don't have new firmware or way to allow this Cisco module to work. Please get in touch with Cisco support to find out other Cisco transceiver that might work with Intel XL710-QDA1. Apologize for the inconvenience. Best Regards, Vince T. Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[VincentT_Intel]

Hi Stefan, Please let us know if there's other assistance needed. Best Regards, Vince T. Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation