If you’ve ever had to troubleshoot Fibre Channel cabling issues, you know it’s a pain. Now I know there are many variables, but here is a quick and easy way to see if you’re getting signal. As anyone who has worked with Fibre knows, it is detrimental (as in it will burn your cornea) if you stare too long at the laser, so here is a quick way to check (no, I didn’t come up with it, just re-sharing).

Tools: Modern phone with camera.

So basically turn on your camera, and hold it over the SFP or cable and it will show you if you have *link*. Here are a couple of images to give you an example:

Direct on with SFP:

Closeup on Cable (not a great pic, but you get the idea):

and last but not least, cable about 6 inches away:

I hope that you have found this tip that I have picked up useful. These images, and the original post and idea is credited to my friend and coworker Dalvenjah.

Share and enjoy!