WS-C3850-24T with C3850-NM-2-10G and non SFP+ receptacle

[Vladimir_K]

Dear colleagues,

Currently I'm designing to connect Dell R740(with 10 VM-s), equipped with Intel X520 DP 10Gb DA/SFP+(Dell PN: 540-BBBB) and two SFP+ modules - SFP+ SR Optic, 10GbE(Dell PN: 407-BBVK). My intention is to connect this server to  WS-C3850-24T with C3850-NM-2-10G + two SFP+ modules - Cisco SFP-10G-SR. Will it work for me? Hesitation raised, when I read in the specifications of C3850-NM-2-10G, that only the 4th receptacle support SFP+.

Thank you in advance for the comments!

[Seb Rupik · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

The  C3850-NM-2-10G has four ports, the first two are 1G native and the ports 3 and 4 are 10G native so therefore support SFP+ 

cheers,

Seb.

[Vladimir_K]

Thank you very much, Seb! In that case I will purchase Cisco SFP-10G-SR for the 3 and 4 receptacle. 

[Seb Rupik]

Depending on the distance to the server, you may want to consider SFP+ Twinax cables, they are considerably cheaper than buying optics and can reach up to 10 metres.

cheers

Seb.

[CraigoryLee]

The problem with Twinax is there can be compatibility issues when going from one manufacturer to another. I'd have to look at that exact application but nevertheless, here is what I would want the world to know ...

What the OEM cannot do, many times can be done aftermarket. We have Twinax solutions where we can encode EACH end of the cable specifically to whatever hardware you are connecting to. For instance, HP to Cisco, Juniper to Extreme, Cisco to Juniper, etc.

You can obviously do compatible transceivers on each end with fiber, and there is nothing wrong with that. I would say it is a matter of "armor" / rigidity, cost, and at the end of the day, preference.

As a point of reference to cost, here is a Twinax from Cisco to Cisco in 10G SFP+

https://www.cablesandkits.com/mc/data-cables/sfp-h10gb-cu/fam-21//

At the speed of light!