Mikrotik S+RJ10 10GBase-T transceiver with ConnectX-2

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pcmoore

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Apr 14, 2018
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In case anyone is following this, for the sake of curiosity I plugged the S+RJ10 into my Dell X4012 and it negotiated a 10Gb link over a short run of cat6. One interesting thing to note, the Dell X4012 link light lit up as soon as the transceiver was plugged into the SFP+ slot, it didn't wait for the cat6 cable.
 

nezach

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Oct 14, 2012
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In case anyone is following this, for the sake of curiosity I plugged the S+RJ10 into my Dell X4012 and it negotiated a 10Gb link over a short run of cat6. One interesting thing to note, the Dell X4012 link light lit up as soon as the transceiver was plugged into the SFP+ slot, it didn't wait for the cat6 cable.
I think transceiver always reports link being up no matter if cable is actually plugged in or not. I saw behavior you described with Mellanox X2 card, Netgear switch as well as Mikrotik switch. It is one of the things I don't like about it, cause it makes things really hard to troubleshoot, especially remotely.
 

pcmoore

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I think transceiver always reports link being up no matter if cable is actually plugged in or not. I saw behavior you described with Mellanox X2 card, Netgear switch as well as Mikrotik switch. It is one of the things I don't like about it, cause it makes things really hard to troubleshoot, especially remotely.
On my Dell X1052 switch the S+RJ10 behaved as one would expect, the link light only lit up when the cable was plugged into the transceiver, not when the transceiver was plugged into the switch.
 
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nezach

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On my Dell X1052 switch the S+RJ10 behaved as one would expect, the link light only lit up when the cable was plugged into the transceiver, not when the transceiver was plugged into the switch.
Well that is interesting and quite surprising that it works with Dell switch, but not with Mikrotik.
 

pcmoore

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Well that is interesting and quite surprising that it works with Dell switch, but not with Mikrotik.
Indeed.

As another data point, I picked up a couple of Dell 5524 switches as part of an experiment (during the 20% off on eBay last week) and I can confirm that they also work as one would expect with the S+RJ10: the link light reflects an actual physical link and not simply the presence of the transceiver.
 

pcmoore

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I just did another quick experiment with a Dell 8024 and a Dell 8132F/N4032F and saw mixed results. Things worked as expected with the 8024 (link light only when a physical link was present), but on the 8132F/N4032F the link light went active as soon as the S+RJ10 was inserted.
 

pcmoore

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Another quick follow up: Mikrotik has a list of distributors if you are having a hard time finding the S+RJ10 in stock: MikroTik

While I don't have any experience with them, I've seen Multilink and Baltic Networks referenced a lot in relation to Mikrotik gear.
 
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nezach

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I got my transceivers from Baltic Networks. Both transactions + replacement of the defective unit went smoothly.
 

fohdeesha

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went ahead and bought a pair from Streakwave as their price was $15 cheaper than anyone else and I've ordered from them in the past without issue. Will report back after trying it in everything I own
 
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fohdeesha

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Streakwave order somehow got here in 2 days! And I can confirm they work great so far in Brocade switches (which is unsurprising, I've even used fibrechannel optics in these things). Tested on an ICX6450 and an ICX6610 so far

Code:
telnet@ICX6450-24 Router>sh int eth 1/2/1
10GigabitEthernet1/2/1 is up, line protocol is up
  Port up for 1 minute(s) 36 second(s)
  Hardware is 10GigabitEthernet, address is cc4e.247f.81e0 (bia cc4e.247f.81f9)
  Configured speed 10Gbit, actual 10Gbit, configured duplex fdx, actual fdx
  Member of L2 VLAN ID 1, port is untagged, port state is FORWARDING
LED's work perfectly, eg no link light until it's actually linked up, then status LED blinks with traffic

EDIT: confirmed working on the LB6M / TurboIron as well.

Quite a cheap way to add some 10gbE copper ports to some SFP+ switches!
 
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