On Wed, 4 Aug 2010, Thomas Weible wrote:
the setup with two media-converters works but has a major drawback. If you want to see the overall line (digital diagnostic) you always have to take into consideration that there are actually 3 physical links involved in the overall link. Looking from your routers you only see the SX link (basically 2 meters via patchcord). The potential trouble making long distance link is hidden - or you have to look on the media-converters (if management is implemented).
I agree on the point that external media converters do have drawbacks (additional failure points, etc), but the drivers I used for the link I just lit show me details about link health, in terms of transmit/receive power, etc, that a "show interface" would not tell me. I considered Cisco's position re: using 3rd-party optics in their switches to be a show-stopper for a direct-plug solution. I would have preferred to go that route if it was viable. That's not to say that FlexOptix SFPs wouldn't work in the OP's case (or my case for that matter) - it will just take some time and experience to sell my management on the upside of buying optics from someone other than Cisco/Juniper/F5/etc :) jms