How to resolve “This transceiver is not certified by Fortinet”
When using Fortinet brand equipment with third-party transceivers, you may have experienced that the transceivers do not work properly and when digging deeper into the problem, you are “greeted” with the following error message: “This transceiver is not certified by Fortinet“:
Or, perhaps you may have encountered the following error:
So, what could cause such issues?
Diving into the transceiver coding
Common connectivity problems with Fortinet equipment may be attributed to using low-quality, non-certified transceivers. Thanks to our extensive experience in the field of optical transceivers, we have found that such problems are caused by using modules with improper coding. While most transceivers adhere to standard MSA coding guidelines, with popular brands such as Fortinet, it is not that simple. Fortinet has implemented the use of special coding bytes to flag and identify certified or non-certified transceivers. The implementation of such coding rules, as Fortinet claims, ensures that proper and correct modules are used to ensure reliable data flow and to eliminate any guesswork when selecting the required products.
How can you fix “This transceiver is not certified by Fortinet” on your equipment?
Unfortunately, in the Fortinet case, there is no “magic solution” in terms of CLI commands to fix such issues. For example, you can use allow unsupported transceiver Aruba and use service unsupported-transceiver and no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid commands in Cisco devices to allow the switch to ignore wrong Part IDs in the optical module coding and suppress the alarms. Instead, in the Fortinet case, you are required to either recode the transceivers to Fortinet-compatible code or purchase fully compatible Fortinet modules to stay clear of such faults.
Luckily, that is where we can help you! We have accumulated vast experience in module coding and ensuring compatibility across a wide range of brands, including Fortinet, for whom we have made a lot of deliveries. Additionally, we have a dedicated Fortinet compatibility page where you can look up Fortinet-compatible modules you need.
Some of our most popular Fortinet-compatible transceiver products include:
| Part Number | Description |
|---|---|
| FN-TRAN-SFP+LR | 10 GE SFP+ transceiver module, long range |
| FN-TRAN-SFP+SR | 10 GE SFP+ transceiver module, short range |
| FN-TRAN-QSFP28-LR | 100 GE QSFP28 transceiver module, long range |
| FN-TRAN-QSFP28-SR | 100 GE QSFP28 transceiver module, short range |
| FG-TRAN-QSFP+SR-BIDI | 40 GE QSFP+ transceiver module, short range, BIDI |
| FG-TRAN-SFP28-LR | 25 GE SFP28 transceiver module, long range |
(And many others)
If you have any further questions about acquiring Fortinet-compatible modules, please feel free to Contact Us!