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Question about NSA 3600 SFP+ transceiver compatibility

lostbackupslostbackups Newbie ✭
in Mid Range Firewalls

I am currently running 2 x NSA 3600's in HA pair with X16 being SFP+ fiber interface. I am currently using SFP-10GSR-85 from fiberstore - a $20 part. I am using this same transceiver in all my Dell N3048P switches, including the one attached to the SonicWall. They seem to work fine for the most part, however I had to do some HA troubleshooting with the 3600's this week and noticed I had an issue where X16 would be green but would show as "No Link" in the management page and no activity on the switch side until I rebooted the SonicWall.

I came to find the SFP+ module compatibility matrix and saw that this part is not supported, so I would like to fix that by purchasing a supported SFP+ module.

Supported 10G SFP+ MMF modules for the NSA 3600 are:

  • SonicWall 01-SSC-9785 10G Fiber MMF (850nm)
  • Arista SFP-10G-SR 10G Fiber MMF (850nm)
  • Arista SFP-10G-SRL 10G Fiber MMF (850nm)
  • Avago AFBR-700SDZ 10G Fiber MMF (850nm)
  • Dell FTLX8571D3BCL 10G Fiber MMF (850nm)
  • Dell/Finisar OWTRD1 (FTLX8571D3BCL) 10G Fiber MMF (850nm)
  • Finisar FTLX8571D3BCL 10G Fiber MMF (850nm)
  • Luma SFP-10G-SR-LU 10G Fiber MMF (850nm)

In checking online, I see that a lot of times the exact brand of part is extremely expensive, but the "compatible" version is a lot cheaper and has the same part number (except usually suffix). For example, this CDW page shows the "Sonicwall 01-SSC-9785 SFP+ transceiver" is $1,295 but the "Axiom SonicWall 01-SSC-9785-AX Compatible SFP+ transceiver" is $193. Now does it truly matter that I get the Sonicwall one that is explicitly listed on the support matrix or am I ok to get the OEM brand that lists the same part number and claims to be compatible? And if so, can someone give me the actual technical reason why?

Category: Mid Range Firewalls
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Answers

  • TKWITSTKWITS Community Legend ✭✭✭✭✭

    Price is always the case when it comes to OEM and branded parts.

    The long and short of it is if you need technical support from Sonicwall themselves they won't help you if you have an unsupported module. This goes for all major manufacturers.

    As far as technical reasons, there likely aren't many. Standards are written for good reason and as long as all the players abide by the standards everything should just work. But how do OEMs and 3rd parties get such lower prices? Either not meeting the standards exactly by allowing for variances outside of said standard, using different materials (aluminum instead of steel), etc., etc.

    Also from Sonicwalls (and most manufacturers) standpoint they can only test and verify so many different parts. So providing a list of approved parts limits the total amount of R&D and support they have to invest in.

  • lostbackupslostbackups Newbie ✭
    https://community.sonicwall.com/technology-and-support/discussion/comment/8478#Comment_8478

    Thanks for sharing.

    I was able to get support regardless of the unsupported SFP+ module. Sure though, it makes sense that they would not be able to help replace a part or something if the root cause was an unsupported module.

    I ended up finding an affordable Dell/Finistar module listed on the supported module matrix so I'm going to try that.

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