Determining Interface Support for the QFX3500 Device
The 48 small form-factor pluggable plus (SFP+) access ports in the QFX3500 device support SFP and SFP+ transceivers, as well as SFP+ direct-attach copper (DAC) cables.
The four quad small form-factor pluggable plus (QSFP+) uplink ports in the QFX3500 device support QSFP+ transceivers, as well as QSFP+ DAC and DAC breakout cables. When the QFX3500 device is operating as a standalone switch, each QSFP+ port can be configured to operate as 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces or a single 40-Gigabit Ethernet interface. By default, the uplink ports on a standalone switch are configured as 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
Ports Q1 through Q3 support four of the 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Together, the three QSFP+ ports provide up to 12 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Port Q0 also supports 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, but the number of interfaces supported depends on the release of Junos OS running on the switch. Some Junos OS releases support three 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, others support four. See the topic on Channelizing Interface for your specific release.
Figure 1 shows the uplink ports and lists the interfaces created on each port when they are configured as 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
If your QFX3500 device has an SFP management board instead of the 1000BASE-T RJ-45 management board, you can use the SFP transceivers to connect the QFX3500 device to a management network, or the control plane and management network of a QFabric system. The 1000BASE-SX Gigabit Ethernet SFP module (QFX-SFP-1GE-SX) is supported in the SFP management ports in the following software releases:
Junos OS 12.1X49-D1 or later for the QFX3500 device as a standalone switch
Junos OS 12.2X50-D10 or later for the QFX3500 Node device in a QFabric system
You can find information about the optical transceivers supported on your Juniper device by using the Hardware Compatibility Tool. In addition to transceiver and connection type, the optical and cable characteristics–where applicable–are documented for each transceiver. The Hardware Compatibility Tool enables you to search by product, displaying all the transceivers supported on that device, or category, by interface speed or type. The list of supported transceivers for the QFX3500 is located at https://pathfinder.juniper.net/hct/product/#prd=QFX3500.
If you face a problem running a Juniper Networks device that uses a third-party optic or cable, the Juniper Networks Technical Assistance Center (JTAC) can help you diagnose the source of the problem. Your JTAC engineer might recommend that you check the third-party optic or cable and potentially replace it with an equivalent Juniper Networks optic or cable that is qualified for the device.