Current Events > One of the worst things you have to deal with as a network admin/engineer...

(+) Yeah! (+)

Is when an SFP module gets stuck in a switch port.

SFP:

- these range from $60 to a few hundred dollars depending on where you get them from.



Switch we have these things plugged into:




To properly remove them, the gold part on the front of the SFP flips down to push a release mechanism in so that you can easily pull it straight out. There are times when they get stuck in the port, though, and trying to get them out is usually a nightmare. Especially since you risk breaking the switch port if you pull it out incorrectly.
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I'm going to college for my associate's degree in IT by the time I get done with that and move up the ranks that s*** will probably be phased out for something better....
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We have those but for fiber and they cost 10x more, but there's no clip or anything, easy in and out.
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voldothegr8 posted...

We have those but for fiber and they cost 10x more, but there's no clip or anything, easy in and out.

Yeah, fiber ones arent that bad. I have seen people stumped for days and all it was was the wrong type of sfp.

Isnt there a tool for those copper ones that pops those right out?
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voldothegr8 posted...

We have those but for fiber and they cost 10x more, but there's no clip or anything, easy in and out.

The fiber ones we have have a little clip you can pull down to pull it out more easily.

They're these:

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BuckVanHammer posted...

voldothegr8 posted...

We have those but for fiber and they cost 10x more, but there's no clip or anything, easy in and out.

Yeah, fiber ones arent that bad. I have seen people stumped for days and all it was was the wrong type of sfp.

Isnt there a tool for those copper ones that pops those right out?

The trick when they're stuck is to use a small flathead screwdriver and push upward on the bottom of the SFP where the release mechanism is. Still pretty difficult to remove sometimes, but it works.

The normal method is just to pull the clip down and pull it straight out by pulling on the clip. It goes from | to _, and you can typically just pull them out.
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TC do I really need to be certified? I already manage our company's Cisco Meraki system
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Veggeta_MAX posted...

TC do I really need to be certified? I already manage our company's Cisco Meraki system

Not for Meraki, I don't think. Meraki simplifies a lot of things about networking. If you understand the basics, you can get by managing a Meraki system no problem. Meraki certifications exist, but the classes for them are just 1 day classes that you can attend via a conference call and screen sharing kind of thing.

If you want to get into traditional Cisco stuff like Cisco IOS routers, catalyst switches, nexus switches, Cisco ASA firewalls, etc., then getting certs will familiarize you with the CLI as well as advanced networking concepts that you can do with them.
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CableZL posted...

Veggeta_MAX posted...

TC do I really need to be certified? I already manage our company's Cisco Meraki system

Not for Meraki, I don't think. Meraki simplifies a lot of things about networking. If you understand the basics, you can get by managing a Meraki system no problem. Meraki certifications exist, but the classes for them are just 1 day classes that you can attend via a conference call and screen sharing kind of thing.

If you want to get into traditional Cisco stuff like Cisco IOS routers, catalyst switches, nexus switches, Cisco ASA firewalls, etc., then getting certs will familiarize you with the CLI as well as advanced networking concepts that you can do with them.

Yeah Meraki is surprisingly simple for a Cisco product. Good shit.
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While Meraki does simplify a lot of things, I prefer traditional Cisco stuff. You have more control over how things work and have the ability to look at a lot more info when you're troubleshooting stuff. That and changes happen immediately when you're just connected to a switch/router/ASA vs waiting for the cloud to push a change down to a meraki device.
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Yeah managing the Meraki system isn't too hard at all. It's all there in your face just like a regular router would. If regular Cisco networking is more difficult than that then I really need to study.
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Veggeta_MAX posted...

Yeah managing the Meraki system isn't too hard at all. It's all there in your face just like a regular router would. If regular Cisco networking is more difficult than that then I really need to study.

The difference with traditional Cisco is that it's typically managed through command line interface, so you have to use a console cable to connect to the router/switch, configure it by typing in commands, etc. Then you can set it up so that you can access it via telnet, SSH, or HTTP/HTTPS.

A meraki device, you can typically just plug in and it connects to the cloud. Then you just click through the web interface to configure the device.

With a traditional cisco device you'd be typing out stuff like:

enable
configure terminal
hostname ROUTER1
crypto key generate rsa modulus 2048
username cablezl secret asdfjkl;
interface gigabitethernet0/0/0
ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
description TO LOCAL NETWORK
no shutdown
exit
interface gigabitethernet0/0/1
ip address 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
description TO INTERNET
no shutdown
exit
router bgp 1
network 1.1.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0
neighbor 1.1.1.2 remote-as 2
neighbor 1.1.1.2 soft-reconfiguration inbound
exit
line vty 0 4
login local
logging synchronous
exec-timeout 5 0
exit

Stuff like that
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Just accidentally put the backup power in wrong... Stupid prongs got stuck and it took so much fiddling to get it out and then back in the right way....
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