2 x MIA Connectors required FC

[uunix]

I need two of these FC connectors.

MIA.new.gif (5.71 KiB) Viewed 410 times

Anyone know where I can get them, ebay seems a bit thin.. non-existent.

Thanks

[jpstewart]

Oh, how ironic that "MIA" can mean "Missing In Action"....

Anyway, if I search for "DB9 to SC fibre channel" or the like, I find much more information than when searching for either "MIA" or "Media Interface Adapter". Here's one on ebay:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stratos-Lightwave-MDB-9-6-1-SC-Fiber-to-DB9-Copper-Adapter-/182202850122

A Google search turns up other vendors. Some don't state prices at all. One showed $475 USD per adapter. Yikes!

Good luck with your hunt!

[uunix]

For anyone in need of these, my good friend XIRI found the place on ebay (UK).
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STRATOS-LIGHTWAVE-DB9-SC-DUPLEX-MEDIA-INTERFACE-CONVERTER-NEW-/172270060653?hash=item281c18846d:m:msk-_AnInHlv3tTN_e8NNRA#shpCntId
£9.99 free P&P, so hopefully not bad.

[uunix]

Received today and they work great.....

Except, one of my very long cables is caput!

Thought, well OK, lets put the A5000 in single loop mode, apparently though, you still need two working cables.

Gutted.. but, at least I have half the drive array at my disposal.

[Raion-Fox]

I have some Fiber Channel cables I'm not using but I don't know if shipment from the US to the UK would make them worth it

[uunix]

I have some Fiber Channel cables I'm not using but I don't know if shipment from the US to the UK would make them worth it

Thanks, these cables are really long, and long for a good reason, the A5000 is terribly noisy. What's the longest you have and how much do you think postage would cost?

Many thanks for the offer of help Mr Fox

[jan-jaap]

I have some Fiber Channel cables I'm not using but I don't know if shipment from the US to the UK would make them worth it

Thanks, these cables are really long, and long for a good reason, the A5000 is terribly noisy.

Tell me about it, my A5000 left the building

How long is really long, because SC-SC cables are rather cheap, and shipping from the US isn't.

Examples (ebay.co.uk may be cheaper, didn't look):
10m: http://www.ebay.de/itm/LWL-Glasfaser-SC ... 0829230918
20m: http://www.ebay.de/itm/LWL-Glasfaser-SC ... 0826247011

[uunix]

I have some Fiber Channel cables I'm not using but I don't know if shipment from the US to the UK would make them worth it

Thanks, these cables are really long, and long for a good reason, the A5000 is terribly noisy.

Tell me about it, my A5000 left the building

How long is really long, because SC-SC cables are rather cheap, and shipping from the US isn't.

Examples (ebay.co.uk may be cheaper, didn't look):
10m: http://www.ebay.de/itm/LWL-Glasfaser-SC ... 0829230918
20m: http://www.ebay.de/itm/LWL-Glasfaser-SC ... 0826247011

Cheers Jan, I did a similar search and found them with free P&P for £18.55 20m, ordered one, (yellow) if it's good I'll get a second yellow one.

[jan-jaap]

ordered one, (yellow)

Hmmmm, yellow is often single mode fibre. You need multi mode and those are usually orange.

Other keywords to llok for: "50/125 µm" and "62.5/125 µm" are multi mode, "9/125 µm" is single mode.

Single mode is for long distances (kilometers) and requires different transceivers on both ends. It will also burn a hole in your retina if you look into the end of a fibre. Basically, you don't want to go there.

[uunix]

ordered one, (yellow)

Hmmmm, yellow is often single mode fibre. You need multi mode and those are usually orange.

Other keywords to llok for: "50/125 µm" and "62.5/125 µm" are multi mode, "9/125 µm" is single mode.

Single mode is for long distances (kilometers) and requires different transceivers on both ends. It will also burn a hole in your retina if you look into the end of a fibre. Basically, you don't want to go there.

Well, if it's wrong I'll use it to blind Russian Fighter pilots attacking my country.. or maybe start my BBQ from 40 yards.. that would be some trick LOL

I'll order orange if it doesn't work!

[uunix]

I have a problem with Channel 1 on my XIO FC Card.
Everything else tested fine, cables, MIA, the A5000 itself. It's just Channel1 on the XIO.
The lights on the card indicate an open circuit, only a single Green LED, and on the A5000 it shows as a fault with both Green and Orange on.
As stated, I've swapped this for that, and confirm that the two MIA adaptors are OK and the Cables and the A5000 are all fine..

So is there something within IRIX that could have been misconfigured at all, hinv shows the port.

Thanks as always.

[robespierre]

You can use short single-mode fiber connections (if both transceivers and the cable are single-mode) but you typically will need an attenuator in-line. You just look up the transceiver's power level, the loss per km of the cable, plus insertion loss, and the receive power window of the other transceiver, and calculate how much attenuation you need. Then do the same in the other direction for the other fiber.

But single- or multi-mode are not the only things you need to know when matching fiber connections!
Besides orange (or sometimes blue) for MM and yellow for SM, there is also the green connector or boot, which means APC (angled physical contact). Their fiber face is polished at an angle and will plug into a non-angled transceiver, but cause damage in doing so! More recently there is also a UPC (ultra physical contact) with a blue connector.

[uunix]

Thank Robespierre, but I don't think that helps.
I know all cables and transceivers and adaptors are working fine.

The problem lies with channel 1 on the XIO board.
For example, the A5000 is set to two separate loops, meaning I should get half the drives in the array on each channel.
With channel 0 working and recognizing disks, if I swap everything (including MIA and leaving the cabling plugged into the same port on the A5000) to channel 1, it fails, even after a reboot.

So, have I somehow disabled channel 1 or misconfigured it?