Breakout cables to connect MHO-175, 26000 and Cisco 9500 Switch

[Hongyu_Chen]

Hi,

I am  a newbie to Maestro. We have a MHO-175, 26000 appliance (with two CPAC-2-100/25F card, and three 10GBase-F SFP+ port card ) and Cisco 9500 switch.  Could you please? 

1) Suggest the type of the breakout cable (better with the SKU#) that can be used to connect these devices (uplink to cisco switch and downlink to 26000 appliance)? 

2) I want to make sure the breakout cable is supported by Cisco 9500 switch. Because in our current environment, on checkpoint appliance we use checkpoint transceiver, on the Cisco switch, we need to use Cisco's own 10g transceiver. So I want to make sure when the checkpoint breakout cable plug into Cisco switch it can be recognized.

Thanks a lot!

Peter

[Chris_Atkinson]

For uplinks only CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFP-3M or CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFP-6M can be used with CPAC-TR-40SR-QSFP-300m transceiver.

Refer also:

sk147853: Maestro Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 

sk92755: Compatibility of transceivers for Check Point appliances 

sk148192: Use of Direct Attach Copper (DAC) Cables for Check Point Appliances 

[Hongyu_Chen]

Hi Chris_Atkinson,

Thank you for the reply.

Sorry but I am a bit confused.  Why CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFP-3M or CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFP-6M need to be used with a CPAC-TR-40SR-QSFP-300m transceiver? Can they not be plugged into MHO directly?  I googled CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFP-3M and CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFP-6M but could not find the image of them so I don't know what they look like. Can you share if you have a photo of these two cables? All results it returned are CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFPSR-3M  or CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFPSR-6M, it looks like they already have a transceiver attached to it and can be plugged into MHO directly. 

Thanks. 

[Chris_Atkinson]

CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFP-3M or CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFP-6M are a specific breakout cable that we have certified (see below example), a seperate transceiver is required on each end.

Alternately there are DAC splitters (cable is fixed to SFP) those are different SKUs e.g.

CPAC-DAC-40/10G-3M

CPAC-DAC-40/10G-1M

[Hongyu_Chen]

Thanks Chris_Atkinson,

Can I have few more questions?

1) When use CPAC-TR-40SPLIT-QSFP-3M with CPAC-TR-40SR-QSFP-300m connect to a Cisco switch, will the transceiver CPAC-TR-40SR-QSFP-300m be accepted by the Cisco switch, or do I have to use a Cisco transceiver?

2)  Same question. Can the two DAC splitters CPAC-DAC-40/10G-3M and CPAC-DAC-40/10G-1M you mentioned be plugged into a Cisco switch  port directly, and accepted by Cisco switch? 

Thanks a lot!

[Chris_Atkinson]

1) Cisco SFP is needed in Cisco switch.

2) It might be compatible but likely not supported by Cisco hence would reserve for downlink usage only. (But don't see a need to use splitters there given the interface card types you mentioned above.)

[Hongyu_Chen]

Hi Chris_Atkinson, 

I am reading the following article

https://sc1.checkpoint.com/documents/Maestro/GSG/EN/Topics/Connecting-Cables-to-MHO-175.htm?tocpath=...

In the "Connecting to the Uplink Ports with DAC or Fiber Cables" section, item #6 and #8 say you can use a DAC cable connect a network device to a uplink port.  Can this one CPAC-DAC-100G-1M be used to connect the MHO-175 and the 100G port of a Cisco 9500 switch? 

Sorry you see I kept asking the question about the uplink cable to cisco switch.  This is my big concern because I want to make sure we use the correct cables. 

Thanks a  lot!

[Chris_Atkinson]

Per sk148192 and as I said above it might be compatible but it's up to Cisco to say if it's supported. We cannot say this on their behalf.

Use fiber transceivers if there is a concern regarding uplinks. Then you can use a Cisco transceiver on their side.

[Hongyu_Chen]

Thank you Chris Atkinson for your reply. 

[the_rock]

I would definitely follow what @Chris_Atkinson sent you. I know this may be slightly off topic, but I had seen people try to use 3rd party transceivers with other vendors that are not officially supported by the vendor themselves and that never ends well. Yes, it might work, but if you ever encounter an issue, vendor will never replace the part for you.

[starmen2000]

One more quick question: Can I use a breakout cable with different port types in a 100-port setup, splitting 100 Gb into 4 x 10 Gb and  The first port of these splitted ports would be used as an uplink, and the second one as a downlink. Is this possible?

[emmap]

I believe the ports are operated independently and can be configured independently that way, yes.

[emmap]

You must also remove the 10G cards from the appliance - in a Maestro solution, you can't have both 10G line cards and the 100G (or 40G) line cards in the gateway appliances, even though they're unplugged.