Cosmetic Transceiver RPC Error on Catalyst 9000 Platforms:
Network administrators may occasionally observe the following log message on Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches:
%TRANSCEIVER-3-RPC_FAILED: Chassis 2 C1/0: iomd: Application error rc = 6
This message has been reported by several customers in environments where third-party SFP modules, typically marketed as Cisco-compatible transceivers, are installed on the switch.
According to the Engineering Team for the Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series Switches platform, this behavior is expected and considered cosmetic in nature. The issue is related to the XCVR/IOMD process on the switch and does not indicate a hardware failure or service disruption.
Importantly, the error does not impact:
- Packet forwarding performance
- Interface stability
- Overall switch operation
- Network connectivity
Although the message can safely be ignored from an operational perspective, customers are advised to use genuine Cisco SFP modules whenever possible to avoid such cosmetic alerts.
As an alternative, administrators may suppress these messages from appearing in the logging output by configuring a logging discriminator on the switch. The following example can be modified according to the existing switch configuration:
logging discriminator XCVR_FILTER msg-body drops "%TRANSCEIVER-3-RPC_FAILED:"
logging buffered discriminator XCVR_FILTER
logging console discriminator XCVR_FILTER
This configuration filters the specific transceiver-related log messages from the console and buffered logs, helping reduce unnecessary alerts while maintaining normal switch operation.
Regards,
HTH
