Supermicro 5018D-FN8T - force 10Gb SFP to 1Gb speed on PFSense?

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Hefferbub

New Member
Aug 29, 2018
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I recently purchased a Supermicro 5018D-FN8T to serve as a PFSense firewall for a 1GBE symmetrical ISP connection. This connection is presented to me as a bare fiber connector--no vendor equipment onsite--just mine, so I need to connect via an SFP or SFP+ with a 1000Base-LX transceiver. I have latest Bios installed and latest PFSense (2.4.5-RELEASE-p1).

My issue is that I need to use one of the SFP+ interfaces in 1Gb mode. I have tried installing a 1Gb SFP fiber module in the SFP+ slot and connecting it to a matching SFP transceiver in a 1G HP-1920-24G switch, but the link shows "no carrier".

I then purchased, from fs.com an SFP+ transceiver that is configured to act as an Avago AFCT-701SDZ-IN1. I selected this because the Intel readme file for the Freebsd Intel ix driver lists this as one of the supported transceivers, and claims it supports dual rate 1G/10G. I think Avago makes the ones Intel sells.

Avago DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ LR (No Bail) AFCT-701SDZ-IN1
However, when I configure this interface in the PFSense GUI, it does not show an option for 1Gb. It only shows 10Gb and autoselect.

Does anyone know how I can make this work, with either an SFP transceiver or by forcing a 10Gb transciever to 1Gb?

Thanks!
 

Hefferbub

New Member
Aug 29, 2018
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Sure:

ix0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
options=e400bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
ether ac:1f:6b:69:df:7e
hwaddr ac:1f:6b:69:df:7e
inet6 fe80::ae1f:6bff:fe69:df7e%ix0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 172.16.0.13 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 172.16.255.255
nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
media: Ethernet autoselect
status: no carrier
plugged: SFP/SFP+/SFP28 10G Base-LR (LC)
vendor: FS PN: SFP-10GLR-31 SN: G2002180777 DATE: 2020-07-15
module temperature: 30.11 C Voltage: 3.20 Volts
RX: 0.27 mW (-5.60 dBm) TX: 0.34 mW (-4.66 dBm)
 

ske4za

Member
Feb 4, 2019
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from fs.com an SFP+ transceiver that is configured to act as an Avago AFCT-701SDZ-IN1

How about ifconfig -m ix0? Let me know if you see media 1000baseLX there. If you don't see it there, then it's not possible. On FS's website I see that part number listed under dual-rate and also 10G only.

 

Hefferbub

New Member
Aug 29, 2018
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Here it it is:

ifconfig -m ix0
ix0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
options=e400bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
capabilities=f507bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,NETMAP,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
ether ac:1f:6b:69:df:7e
hwaddr ac:1f:6b:69:df:7e
inet6 fe80::ae1f:6bff:fe69:df7e%ix0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 172.16.0.13 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 172.16.255.255
nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
media: Ethernet autoselect
status: no carrier
supported media:
media autoselect
media 10Gbase-LR
 

Hefferbub

New Member
Aug 29, 2018
13
0
1
I see the dual rate transceivers you linked. They don't exactly match the Intel or Avago part numbers in the readme file for the driver, but they do seem enticing!

In your experience, how important is an exact match? Or do similar models from the same vendor tend to work?
 

ske4za

Member
Feb 4, 2019
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45
18
Yeah unfortunately since it's not detected there, it won't work in it's current configuration. ifconfig -m should output something more like:
Code:
supported media:
        media autoselect
        media 1000baseLX
        media 10Gbase-LR
There's a post on the pfsense forum here XG-7100 1U SFPs with the XG-7100 (atom C3000 series) that has onboard SFP+. You can try bringing the interface down and up again, and seeing if that helps. I don't have dual-rate SFPs in my pfSense so I can't test that out myself.
 

ske4za

Member
Feb 4, 2019
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Also, you can look up posts about the XG-1537 which also uses a Xeon-D instead of the Atom 3000 series like I posted above. Here's another thread talking about this issue: XG-1537 SFP+ ports
 

ske4za

Member
Feb 4, 2019
80
45
18
Good luck! And let us know how you get on. You may just need to get a 1000BASE-LX transceiver.