How can I find approved SFP+ transcievers for my FAS8200 and FAS8020 systems?

[kodiak_f]

I'm still pretty new to NetApp so my adventures within the NetApp HWU have not been exactly fruitful.

I'm trying to determine what transcievers would be allowable in the SFP ports on our systems.  We need to add some new physical links and I want to be absolutely sure we buy supported hardware.

We buy NetApp shelving cables, but I'm hoping that we can just purchase commodity network transcievers and cabling.  We'll be using twinax on one of the clusters and transcievers with fiber on the other cluster due to the physical location.

Thanks a million!

[darb0505]

Hi Kodiak,

NetApp HWU is the best location for this information.  It depends on if you are using onboard ports or a HBA adapter card to add additional ports.  If you go to HWU and look up the platform you can see the supported cables and SFPs for specific ports on the platform.  You can also look up any adapter cards you might be using and see the supported SFPs for that specific card.

Best is to start your search with the platform and ONTAP version and then you can dig into the adapter card (if using one) to get more details.

Thanks

[andris · Accepted solution]

On your questions on NetApp-supported v.s. 3rd party SFPs/cables.

We're strict on SFPs/cables used for FC, SAS storage and Ethernet cluster ports, as documented in the HWU.

For front-end/network data Ethernet ports, we generally recommend using either NetApp-supported parts (as documented in HWU) or SFPs/cables that are approved by the switch/network device vendor you are connecting the ports to.  The best compatibility is with passive copper and SR optical. You should avoid using active copper/active optical, unless specifically called out as supported cable types in HWU for that port.

[kodiak_f]

Thanks very much for the information Andris and Darb0505!

I'll keep poking around the HWU.  I have a hard time in there for the less obvious stuff such as these transceivers. 

[kodiak_f]

Woot - finally figured out how to see these in the HWU - that site certainly takes some getting used to.

[darb0505]

Hi Kodiak,

Glad to hear that you were able to get the SFP used for FAS8200 and FAS8020.  It does take a little getting used to when trying to navigate to the different sub sections. 

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Thanks

[andris]

Yes, it can be a bit daunting for a new user...  but I assure you https://hwu.netapp.com is a valuable resource for employees, partners and customers!

As mentioned earlier, you would get started by choosing the ONTAP version and platform model, then press Search.

In the search results:

• Supported Adapter Cards -- Click it to bring up the pop-up window. At the top of the window, choose the specific Platform Configuration you need.  Then the supported cards are shown. In the Cables column of the table, each card has a View link that pops up the SFPs and cables that are supported on that specific card.
• Onboard Ports & Cables -- Click it to bring up the pop-up window. At the top of the window, choose the specific Platform Configuration you need.  Then the onboard port details are shown for that configuration.  Then, click on a specific port row in the table to reveal the SFP/cables that are supported, below.
  Note: There might be multiple sub-tabs for optical, copper, link speeds.

[paul_stejskal]

https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Systems/Fabric%2C_Interconnect_and_Management_Switches/How_to_determine_the_NetApp_part_... <--good KB to reference as well

[kodiak_f]

One last resource for this solved issue:
https://library.netapp.com/ecmdocs/ECMLP2344258/html/GUID-58B74365-F67E-4461-8515-BCFEE55ECD1F.html

Thanks again to all who replied.  Now that we have the list of approved transceivers, I've got to figure out how to get multi-mode out to this rack - turns out we're a single-mode shop and all of the supported transceivers I could find were multi-mode 😕

[loganb]

Just posting the link to the KB created per this threads conversation.

https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Flash_Storage/AFF_Series/How_can_I_find_supported_transceivers_and_cables_for_my_AFF%2C_ASA_or_FAS_sy...

thank you