Using 3rd party SFPs with a Cisco switch

When installing some brands of 3rd party SFPs (Small form-factor pluggable transceiver) in a Cisco switch, which haven’t been validated by Cisco, the port becomes error-disabled.

The following error messages are logged when this happens

%PM-4-ERR_DISABLE: gbic-invalid error detected on Gi1/0/1, putting Gi1/0/1 in err-disable state

%GBIC_SECURITY_CRYPT-4-VN_DATA_CRC_ERROR: GBIC in port 65538 has bad crc

To force the switch to enable the 3rd party SFP

First, you need to enable the undocumented service called unsupported-transceiver.

Switch(config)# service unsupported-transceiver

You will get a message advising you that Cisco TAC will not provide any support for any problems related to the third-party SFP.

You will then be able to stop the 3rd party SFP from becoming error-disabled.

Switch(config)# no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid