Baystack 470s with Cisco WS-G5483 GBICs 2

[nodirjon]

Hi Guys,
We have 6 Nortel Baystack 470-48T switches. Those switches have 2 GBIC ports that can be used instead of on-board ports 47 & 48. I wanted to interconnect switches through those GBICs connecting on 1Gbps speed (they're currently on 100Mbps). However, GBIC ports don't seems to be operating whether they're connected as trunks or access ports.
JDM gives "operStatus: down" error. To make things even more confusing, JDM sometimes (after some reboots) give Up status and shows green light, but again GBICs don't really send out any packets.
While accessed through web-admin page, switch notes that Cisco GBIC modules are not supported. Can it be because of that GBIC modules are not working or is there some negotiation/configuration issue causing it?
If you've come across that issue before, please help me out.
Thanks for you attention,
Nodir

 

[biv343]

Are the autonegotiate settings the same on both ends? I seem to remember that 460s and 470s didn't autonegotiate on GBIC ports until a certain release of software. If you have newer software on one and older software on another that could cause it. Its been a while since I've worked on those. If you connect through the menu and go to 'display hardware units', you would see 'UNSUP' or something to that effect if you have an unsupported GBIC inserted. AA1419001 is the Nortel part number for the large form factor GBIC. It could be as simple as flipping transmit and receive on one end as well.

 

[nodirjon]

Hi biv343,
Autonegotiation is off and it cannot be turned on. GBIC modules have the following configurations set: speed 1000Mbps & Duplex full, they cannot be changed in any way.
All switches have the same firmware & software, namely:
Firmware Version: 3.6.0.7
Software Version: v3.7.4.14
It does indeed display UNSUPPORTED next to connected GBIC, but that's due to modules being from Cisco I suppose. We unfortunately cannot find Nortel parts here in Tashkent, so we have to work with Cisco's modules. I was told that they should work fine with Nortels switches.
What do you mean by "flipping transmit & receive on one end"? How do you do that? There is no flip on GBIC modules.
Thanks,
Nodir

 

[biv343]

On the SC connectors that connect to the GBIC, you can pop the plastic bridge off the end and change which fiber connector is on the left or right. I doubt thats your issue though. If the GBICs are showing as unsupported, then you'll need to find the appropriate GBICs that will work.

 

[nodirjon]

Thanks for your response biv343. Please check the following forum tree in Nortel's site:

http://community.nortel.com/go/message/14773

It says that although reported "Unsupported", those Cisco GBIC modules should be compatible. Unfortunately I cannot find different brand supported modules here, so I'll have to somehow manage with what I have. What do you think, is it at all possible to make use of them?
Thanks,
Nodir

 

[anthonyanderberg]

The Cisco G5483 is a copper GBIC, I think biv343 is assuming the GBICs are fiber - flipping transmit and receive in a fiber setup is the same in concept as making a copper crossover cable. The Cisco G5483 is like the Nortel AA1419042.

Sometimes Nortel didn't support copper SFPs/GBICs on its switches that had lots of copper ports - a quick look at the Nortel website shows fiber GBICs listed but no copper modules. If that's the case then AA1419001 modules are the way to go - they're fairly cheap on eBay and you'd just need a multimode fiber with SC ends to go between them.

To answer your original question:
The unsupported message is probably generated because Nortel is looking for a code in the GBIC that will identify the unit as being a Nortel part. They say this is to ensure compatibility but it's really just to force us to buy Nortel hardware. Cisco does the same thing, as do some other vendors - companies like Advantage Optics sell "compatible" optics that emulate the codes and fool the switches into accepting them as genuine parts. Some vendors have undocumented commands to skip this 'compatibility' check, but I've never heard of a way to do this on any of Nortel's switches.