5304 and 5308 having trouble getting fiber connectivity

[Brady Hiscox]

Hello, I have a 5308 loaded with nothing but 4 port fiber cards (models escaping me right now) and a 5304 loaded with J4907A the 5308 is fully loaded with J4878B. The problem Im having is that I can not get the fiber to get a link on any ports.

I have tried connecting the 5304 to a 2650 using the same gbic's and I still get no link. Is there anything you can think of that I would need in the configuration to enable this?

The version of software the 5300 switches are running is the latest downloaded off the site yesterday (10.x) please help. This is for a very major site.

[Les Ligetfalvy]

Are you using genuine HP GBICs? There are counterfeit GBICs out there and I believe HP took a bold move to seek out and disable them in the newer code. Check your logs.

The 4907A has two dual personality ports (15 & 16) that I assume you are putting GBICs into. The copper ports 15 & 16 cannot be used if GBICs are inserted.

[Brady Hiscox]

Im using all genuine HP gbic's the logs show them being inserted and going hot but no network connectivity. I am well aware of the dual personality not being able to use both fiber and cobber at the same time. It really disables the copper when you insert the GBIC.

The copper connectivity with no config changes works though the fiber from the 5304 to the 5308 or the 5304 to the 2650 is not working. I am very experienced in networking so I have done everything I can think of including bouncing this off the other networking guys in my company however nothing I can think of is quite working.

[Les Ligetfalvy]

Sorry, didn't mean to talk down to you.

Are you using building fibre or just jumpers between the switches? I have seen where jumpers were not crossed over so that TX went to TX and RX to RX. Look at the printing on the jumpers, normally just on one of the two and see if they cross over. The GBICs have little triangles that indicate the direction the light travels.

Are you matching the micron size? I have mistakenly grabbed a 50 um jumper and struggled with why it wouldn't work.

[Stuart Teo]

hi brady,

sometimes the simplest problems get the most experienced people. ;) i thought it'd probably not hurt to check a few things:

1) make sure that both ends' duplex setting are the same. i've had situations when 1 side is nailed at 1000fdx while the other side is set at auto.

2) make sure that the "mini-gbics" (proper name sfp) are of the same type, i.e. LX connects to LX. SX connects to SX.

3) i assume that you've tested all the fiber jumpers and it can't be the fiber... are you using 62.5 or 50 micron? MM or SM?

[Mike Satterfield]

hey all -

I know this sounds like a stupid fix but, I've run into it several times with the mini GBICs. When I know I have the right gear (and patch cables) connected and nothing else makes sense, I pull the mini GBIC from its slot and push it back in.

I have not discovered yet whether it is a seating problem or a config problem. Speaking of the latter, if you re-seat the mini GBIC, be sure your config on that port hasn't been defaulted.

Mike

[Justin Capablanca]

Had sort of the same problem a while back when connecting a 5308 --> 4000M, no link light. The fix for us was to manually set the port mode to 1000FDx at both ends. You've probably tried that one.