Wired Intelligent Edge

Hi, 

I'm looking for confirmation of the specific transceivers that are compatible with the 6300/6400s. We are migrating a customer from legacy HP and Aruba equipment and they would like to re-purpose any compatible transceivers as the CX platform only accepts HPE/Aruba.

 

The latest document I can find is this one that stops at the 8400 and doesn't include the 6300/6400 platforms - i know they use different chip-sets so wanted to confirm.

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00028947en_us

 

Is there a newer version of this document somewhere I can reference?

Thanks

Hi,

 

The lack of a more updated revision of the ArubaOS-Switch and ArubaOS-CXTransceiver Guide (latest edition, as you cited, was published back in January 2019...so well before the release of the new Aruba CX 6300/6400 Switch Series) suggests that your should refer only to latest HPE QuickSpecs of those new series:

 

• Aruba CX 6400 QuickSpecs (Edition 2, published on February, 3rd 2020) 
• Aruba CX 6300 QuickSpecs (Edition 4, published on February, 3rd 2020)

On each QuickSpecs document, all actual supported Transceivers and DACs are listed under the "Configuration Information" chapter.

Hi Parnassusm

 

Thanks for your reply!

 

I was hoping to find an equivalent that goes into the level of detail in the transceiver guide including the 4x4 part numbers. The official parts to order "as new" are indeed in the quick specs;

 

8400 quick specs as an example;

Snip from 8400 Quick Specs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the transceiver guide shows some "A" versions with specific 4x4 part numbers are indeed compatible.

Snip from Jan 2019 Transceiver Guide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully Aruba will update their transceiver guide documentation soon to include the 6300 / 6400 / 8325 platforms to this level of detail as this can have a large financial impact on refresh projects for customers especially as CX doesn't allow "unsupported 3rd party optics" so delivering news that only 1 or two specific transceivers are supported when they have chassis full of affectingly the same item is not easy.

 

Thanks again.

Hi! I know what you mean.

 

I also have the strong suspect -a sort of fear - that taking the Aruba 8400X as an example where old Transceivers' revisions (e.g. J4858C and J9150A just to say) were left "still supported" along with new ones (respectively J4858D and J9150D)...could became a problematic expectation in near future...I mean...don't take that for granted...indeed I don't see it as a valid reason to expect - in future - that the same behaviour will be permitted on newer Switch Series (exactly like Aruba CX 6300/6400 are).

 

See what happened on Aruba 8320: it was the very first platform supporting only newer D Transceivers revision and was then followed by the Aruba 8325. Aruba 8400X was a special case IMHO.

 

Why I suspect that?

 

Because Aruba 8400 was announced before the availability of Transceivers' revision D [*] and thus Aruba was (let me to use this term) "forced" to permit the 8400 to support a mix of existing C|A|B and newer D Transceivers revisions all together. As said, the same didn't happened few months after...neither on newer Aruba 8320 nor on the younger Aruba 8325. I don't expect to see the same to happen on Aruba CX 6300/6400. That's my take...

 

Clearly, speaking about Transceivers, the D revision was declared backward compatible with C|A|B revisions.

 

[*] Transceivers C|A|B Revisions EoS 22-12-2017 while the Aruba 8400 was announced during HPE Discover (Las Vegas) in June 2017, IIRC.

Just a follow up:The 7th edition (March 2020) of the long awaited updated Aruba ArubaOS-Switch and ArubaOS-CX Transceivers Guide was finally published.

Thanks for the update. Very useful!

Follow up: the new 8th updated edition of ArubaOS-Switch and ArubaOS-CX Transceiver Guide is now available.

I've been running J9151D 10GBASE-LR and J9281B 1m 10G DACs in a lab for while (from fs.com) and they seem to work fine. I'm planning to go in to production with these with our 6300F switches.

 

Prices for the originals are just so ridiculous that I would need to get something like at least 99% discount on the LR optics to get those on the same level as fs.com ones

Hey there. 

 Use the same link you specified,

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00028947en_us

or find the link on our Aruba Support Portal (ASP) (click on "Software & Documents, then Switches) and then search for "Transceiver Guide".  There's both an HTML and PDF versions of the guide.

 

It'll be the same URL for all of our updates to the "ArubaOS-Switch and ArubaOS-CX Transceiver Guide". 

As of May, 2020, it's now at Edition 8  (back in March when you looked it was indeed only at Edition 7 and didn't include as much about the 6300/6400 -- Edition 8 corrects that). 

 

To answer your question more directly; read the Overview chapter, specifically page 13 about 4x4 part numbers. 

Older xcvrs that were fine to use on our older switches, for the most part will work on 6300/6400 CX switches -- but... 

Since many of the parts are old, we've concentrated on certifying newer xcvrs against our new switch series. 

For example: 

J4858C/J4858D 1G SX transceivers with 4x4 #s: 

1990-4395 or 1990-4415 were certified and supported.

Over the years, we've retired four(4) other 4x4 #s, and those were just not certified (again, they may work... but just not for certain).

 

Some older vendor parts just plain didn't work properly -- eg. 10G LR on our 8325 25G Switch.  When you see the listing of support for the specific xcvr you're interested in, look to see if there are specific 4x4s that we've absolutely tested and will STAND behind as 'supported'.  Older parts that work -- well, they probably work -- but we haven't absolutely certified that older generation to work in all conditions.  Examples of what we certify are not only operation, but hot-swapping the xcvr, continuing to work across reboots, work at max temperature (typically 45C).  

 

Don't assume ANY or ALL will work -- they may, they may not.  What you CAN count on are the ones we sell today, and any specific 4x4s we had to call out for full support - without question - and our full support to ensure they continue to work.  

 

=Ed Kurata, Product Line Manager, Switching Accessories. 

 

 

Hi,

Will Cisco DACs work with 6300/6400?

DACs are quite hard to handle, as we can't change half of it to match one manufacturer and the other half to match another one.

Thanks

---

@ricardoduarte wrote: Will Cisco DACs work with 6300/6400?

Technically speaking each switch vendor supports its DACs...(Aruba supports Aruba DACs, Cisco supports Cisco DACs). To avoid compatibility issues (e.g. a DAC is not properly recognized) the practice is to use Transceivers so each side is going to support its one (as example: Cisco SFP+ on Cisco against Aruba SFP+ on Aruba, in between proper certified FO cabling/patches). 

Hi,

 

I am still not clear if older HP transceivers will work in the 6400s. For example, we have a bunch of JD092B & JG352B transceivers and some JG327A & JD097C DACs that we are thinking of reusing on the 6400s but I have not found any documentation that will confirm this. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

Hi @Juancho1986CR, I strongly suggest you to open a dedicated thread about your query.

 

Given the list of Transceivers you gave we can summarize this:

 

• JD092 is an HPE X130 10G SFP+ LC SR Transceiver
• JG352B <- no reference was found about this SKU (maybe you wanted to write JG325B instead? -> if so a JG325B is a HPE X140 40G QSFP+ MPO SR4 Transceiver)
• JG327A is an HPE FlexNetwork X240 40G QSFP+ QSFP+ 3m Direct Attach Copper Cable
• JD097C is an HPE FlexNetwork X240 10G SFP+ SFP+ 3m Direct Attach Copper Cable

all the above options were (are) supported on some HPE switches Comware OS based switch series such as well known HP/HPE FlexFabric/FlexNetwork (so they are not part of the current ArubaOS-Switch OS hardware heritage, the HP ProVision OS...this OS was used on older HP ProCurve Networking nor they are part of current totally new ArubaOS-CX OS based lineup).

 

In other words those Transceivers/DACs are not supported on current ArubaOS-Switch and/or ArubaOS-CX OS based switch series: you could try the "allow unsupported transceiver" way on both OSes but WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY (ANY warranty) and, IMHO, it will be a risky approach in both cases.

 

Main reference: The ArubaOS-Switch and ArubaOS-CX Transceiver Guide (9th Edition) September 2020

Other references: various thread on this community about old transceivers (HP ProVision / HP Comware OS based) on newest platforms (ArubaOS-CX based).

Hi parnassus,

 

Thanks so much for your reply. Those are exactly the transceivers we currently have on our HP 5900AF devices which we are trying to replace with 8320s and 6400s. I did check the Transceiver Guide (9th Edition) before posting this question, but as indicated I saw no reference of the transceivers we currently have thus wanted to confirm it via this forum. It seems it would be better to go with the supported transceivers and avoid any issue in the future.

 

Thanks again!

 

@Juancho1986CR,

for our new CX switches, the UT-mode only covers use of 1G and 10G xcvrs, so from your list above the 10G SR and 10G DAC "may" work -- we've tried a few, but it's unknown what version you might have in use on your comware switches. 

The 40G parts will NOT be enabled (even with UT-mode) on the CX. 

 

{Thanks Parnasus for keeping an eye out on these topics. }

 

Ed Kurata, Product Line Mgr, Source Matter Exp, Transceivers

Edition 12 (Sept 2022) XCVR Guide now published. 

Please obtain the official copy from our asp.arubanetworks.com site, (software and documents), select "switches" and search for "Transceivers" 
As of Sept 25, 2022, we're working on correcting the title of the PDF page, and the HTML update will be posted shortly. 

You can bookmark this URL as it is a static URL -- please don't rely on Google Searches for this document, as many sites have outdated versions.

------------------------------
Ed Kurata, Aruba Sr. Product Line Manager,
Switching , Transceivers, Accessories, Power, and other things
Roseville CA, USA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Oct 15, 2020 02:45 PM
From: Ed Kurata
Subject: Aruba 6300 / 6400 Transceiver Guide Update

@Juancho1986CR,

for our new CX switches, the UT-mode only covers use of 1G and 10G xcvrs, so from your list above the 10G SR and 10G DAC "may" work -- we've tried a few, but it's unknown what version you might have in use on your comware switches. 

The 40G parts will NOT be enabled (even with UT-mode) on the CX. 

 

{Thanks Parnasus for keeping an eye out on these topics. }

 

Ed Kurata, Product Line Mgr, Source Matter Exp, Transceivers