I have two machines, each with a 10 Gb adapter, directly connected with an SFP cable. I purchased three SFP cables that look exactly alike (physically and specs), but only one works. I'm having trouble finding clear information about SFP cables, so I appreciate the help in understanding the differences.
Here are the manfacturers, models, etc..
10 Gigabit Card #1: NetXen 3031
10 Gigabit Card #2: QLogic QLE3142-CU-CK
Cable #1 (the one that works) AIPC 7M
Cable #2 (no good) Blade Networks BN-SP-CBL-1M
Cable #3 (no good) Cisco SFP-H10GB-CU3M
I can't even get link lights with the two "no good" cables. I will be ordering a few more of the AIPC cables since they work of course, but I'd like to get a decent understanding of why one works, but not the other. Cable length? Active vs. passive? Different versions/revisions?