Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches Data Sheet

Data Sheet

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Updated:April 6, 2022

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Product overview

Application architectures and deployment modes are rapidly evolving. Modern applications are multinode, highly modular, and deployed over a combination of bare-metal, virtual, and cloud data center environments. In addition to that, individual departments within an organization have varying infrastructure and networking needs. These factors require that data center networks be simple, programmable, extensible, scalable, and shareable to meet the demands of applications.

The Cisco Nexus® 9000 Series Switches operate in one of two modes – Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) or Cisco NX-OS. In Cisco ACI mode, these switches provide a turnkey, fully automated, policy-based architecture to design and manage data center fabrics. In Cisco NX-OS mode, these switches provide the capability to use foundational layer 2/3 technologies, as well as modern technologies such as VXLAN, with a Border Gateway Protocol‒Ethernet VPN (BGP-EVPN) control plane, Segment routing, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and automation via NX-APIs.

The Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches include the Nexus 9500 Series modular switches and the Nexus 9200/9300 Series fixed switches.

Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switch Chassis

Figure 1.               

Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switch Chassis

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series modular switches support a comprehensive selection of line cards and fabric modules that provide 1-, 10-, 25-, 40-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 400-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Using these line cards the Cisco Nexus 9500 Series switches can be configured with up to.

1.     256 400-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

2.     524 200-Gigabit Ethernet ports# (or)

3.     1024 100-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

4.     2048 50-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

5.     1024 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

6.     2304 25-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

7.     2304 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet ports

The supervisor, system controller, power supplies, and line cards are common across all three switches. Each switch, however, has unique fabric modules, and fan trays that plug in vertically in the rear of the chassis.

Table 1.           Features and benefits

Feature

Benefit

High performance

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series switch delivers nonblocking performance at a latency of 5 microseconds or less at 400-, 100-, 50-, 40-, 25-, 10-, and 1-Gigabit Ethernet speeds. This enables customers to build robust and scalable high-speed fabrics that can support several thousands of high-speed access ports.

Telemetry

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series switches support extensive switch and flow telemetry capabilities that provide extensive real-time visibility into switch and fabric states.

High-density 1-, 10-, 25-, 40- and 50-Gigabit Ethernet access configuration

Organizations can transition from low-speed (100-Megabit Ethernet and 1-Gigabit Ethernet) server access designs to high-speed (1-, 10-, 25-, 40-, and 50-Gigabit Ethernet) server access designs with the same port density.

High-density 10-, 40-, 100- and 400-Gigabit Ethernet aggregation and spine configuration

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches help organizations transition from 1- and 10-Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure to 10-, 40-, 100-, and 400-Gigabit Ethernet infrastructures to support the increased bandwidth demands of scale-out, multinode application environments. The compatibility of 400-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP-DD modules, 100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 modules, and 40-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP+ modules enables the migration and coexistence of 40-, 100- and 400-Gigabit Ethernet ports in the fabric.

High availability, reliability, and scalability

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches are designed with redundant supervisors, system controllers, power supplies, and fan trays, which eliminate any single point of failure in the chassis. These switches also support up to 6 fabric modules, which provide redundancy and graceful degradation of switching capacity in the event of fabric module failures. All transceivers are pluggable to support the highest possible Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) for the switch.

Designed for the future

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches are designed for future expansion with the capability to support higher speed ports and more bandwidth.

Power efficiency

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches are the first switch chassis designed without a midplane. The line cards and fabric modules connect directly. This revolutionary design provides optimal front-to-back airflow and helps the switch operate with less power. In addition, all Cisco Nexus 9500 Series switch power supplies are rated at or higher than 80PLUS Platinum for AC inputs and equivalent efficiency for DC inputs.

The typical power consumption per 10-Gigabit Ethernet port is less than 3.5 watts (W).

The typical power consumption per 40- and 100-Gigabit Ethernet port is less than 14W and 22W respectively.

Deployment scenarios

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches support various deployment scenarios:

     Spine nodes in a spine-leaf fabric

     Core or aggregation node in an L2/L3 network

     Border gateway in a L2/L3 network

Spine-leaf fabric architecture

The high port-density and ability to support multispeed ports on the same chassis make the Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches the ideal choice as a spine in spine-leaf fabric architectures. The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches can function as a spine in either Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) or Cisco NX-OS operating modes (Figure 2).

Spine-Leaf Architecture using Cisco Nexus 9300 and 9500 Switches

Figure 2.               

Spine-Leaf Architecture using Cisco Nexus 9300 and 9500 Switches

Cisco ACI is the most comprehensive solution to enable data center automation and application agility. It provides a secure, scalable, deterministic, and integrated policy-based architecture, which enables rapid application deployment and workload mobility in data centers. The Cisco Nexus 9000 Series cloud-scale switches are the foundation to deploy and run Cisco ACI. The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series cloud-scale switches and select Cisco 9300 Series cloud-scale switches provide the ACI spine functionality in the Cisco ACI fabric. The Cisco Nexus 9300 Series cloud-scale switches provide the ACI leaf functionality in the Cisco ACI fabric.

In Cisco NX-OS mode, the Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches support foundational routing and switching technologies along with modern technologies such as VXLAN with BGP-EVPN control plane, segment routing, MPLS, and open APIs. These technologies provide the flexibility to build spine-leaf data center fabrics or classical three-tier data center networks. In this mode, the Cisco® Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) can manage the Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches.

Core, Aggregation, and gateway roles

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches support line cards that provide a choice of smart buffers, deep buffers, large tables, and high-density, high-speed Ethernet interfaces. These hardware capabilities, along with extensive routing and switching software capabilities, make the Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches an excellent choice as a core, aggregation, or gateway switch.

End-of-row access layer switch

As the Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches support high-density, multispeed Ethernet ports, these switches can also be deployed as end-of-row switches providing access connections to blade or rack servers. The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches also provide the flexibility to incrementally transition from lower-speed server connections to higher-speed server connections.

Switch components for the Cisco Nexus 9500 series

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switch includes the components shown in Figure 3.

Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switch Components

Figure 3.               

Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switch Components

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series switches support several line cards and fabric modules. The following data sheets describe each family of line cards and fabric modules:

     Cisco Nexus 9500 Cloud Scale Line Cards and Fabric Modules. URL: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/datasheet-c78-736677.html.

     Cisco Nexus 9500 R-Series (Deep Buffer) Line Cards and Fabric Modules. URL: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/datasheet-c78-738321.html.

     Cisco Nexus 9500 Classic Line Cards and Fabric Modules. URL: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/datasheet-c78-741336.html.

Switch chassis for the Cisco Nexus 9500 series

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switch has Three Chassis – a 4-Slot, 8-Slot, and 16-Slot Chassis.

N9K-C9504: 4-Slot Chassis

N9K-C9504: 4-Slot Chassis

  Up to 4 line cards
  Up to 4 power supplies
  Up to 6 fabric modules of the same type
  Up to 2 system controllers
  Up to 2 supervisors of the same type
  Up to 3 fan trays

N9K-C9508: 8-Slot Chassis

N9K-C9508: 8-Slot Chassis

  Up to 8 line cards
  Up to 8 power supplies
  Up to 6 fabric modules of the same type
  Up to 2 system controllers
  Up to 2 supervisors of the same type
  Up to 3 fan trays

N9K-C9516: 16-Slot Chassis

N9K-C9516: 16-Slot Chassis

  Up to 16 line cards
  Up to 10 power supplies
  Up to 6 fabric modules of the same type
  Up to 2 system controllers
  Up to 2 supervisors of the same type
  Up to 3 fan trays

Table 2.           Cisco Nexus 9500 series switch chassis specifications

 

Cisco Nexus 9504 Chassis

Cisco Nexus 9508 Chassis

Cisco Nexus 9516 Chassis

Number of line card slots

4

8

16

Dimensions (H x W x D)

12.25 x 17.50 x 33.15 in.

(31.1 x 44.50 x 84.20 cm)

22.70 x 17.50 x 31.76 in.

(57.78 x 44.50 x 80.67 cm)

36.70 x 17.50 x 31.76 in.

(93.41 x 44.50 x 80.67 cm)

Weight

84 lb (38.2 kg)

150 lb (68.2 kg)

192 lb (87.3 kg)

Rack Units

7

13

21

Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) Hours

1,038,080

928,910

680,000

Operating temperature

32 to 104°F (0 to 40°C)

Nonoperating temperature

-40 to 158°F (-40 to 70°C)

Humidity

5 to 95% (noncondensing)

Altitude

0 to 13,123 ft (0 to 4,000m)

Regulatory compliance

Products should comply with CE Markings according to directives 2004/108/EC and 2006/95/EC

Safety

UL 60950-1 Second Edition

CAN/CSA-C22.2 No. 60950-1 Second Edition

EN 60950-1 Second Edition

IEC 60950-1 Second Edition

AS/NZS 60950-1

GB4943

EMC: Emissions

47CFR Part 15 (CFR 47) Class A

AS/NZS CISPR22 Class A

CISPR22 Class A

EN55022 Class A

ICES003 Class A

VCCI Class A

EN61000-3-2

EN61000-3-3

KN22 Class A

CNS13438 Class A

EMC: Immunity

EN55024

CISPR24

EN300386

KN 61000-4 series

RoHS

The product is RoHS-6 compliant with exceptions for leaded-ball grid-array (BGA) balls and lead press-fit connectors.

Supervisor modules for the Cisco Nexus 9500 series

A pair of redundant supervisor modules manages all switch operations using a state-synchronized, active-standby model. The supervisor accepts an external clock and supports management through multiple ports – two USB ports, a serial port, and a 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet port. All supervisors support Cisco ACI or NX-OS deployments. Redundant supervisors should be of the same type within a chassis.

Table 3.           Cisco Nexus 9500 series supervisor modules specifications

 

N9K-SUP-A

N9K-SUP-A+

N9K-SUP-B

N9K-SUP-B+

Processor

4 core, 4 thread 1.8GHz x86

4 core, 8 thread 1.8GHz x86

6 core, 12 thread 2.2GHz x86

6 core, 12 thread 1.9GHz X86

DRAM

16GB

16GB

24GB

32GB

SSD

64GB

64GB

256GB

256GB

Weight

4.84 lb (2.2 kg)

5.2 lb (2.37 kg)

6.00 lb (2.72 kg)

5.3 lb (2.39 kg)

Typical power

69 W

69 W

75 W

75 W

Maximum power

80 W

80 W

80 W

90 W

MTBF hours

312,070

414,240

292,110

421,040

Hot swappable

Yes

Airflow

Port-side intake

System controller for the Cisco Nexus 9500 platform

A pair of redundant system controllers offloads chassis management functions from the supervisor modules. The controllers are responsible for managing the power supplies and fan trays; they are also the central point for the Gigabit Ethernet Out-of-Band Channel (EOBC) between the supervisors, fabric modules, and line cards.

Table 4.           Cisco Nexus 9500 series system controller specifications

 

N9K-SC-A

Weight

1.91 lb (0.9 kg)

Typical power

14 W

Maximum power

25 W

MTBF hours

1,380,210

Hot swappable

Yes

Airflow

Port-side intake

Fabric module for the Cisco Nexus 9500 platform

Each Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Chassis supports up to six fabric modules, which plug in vertically at the back of the chassis behind the fan trays. The Cisco Nexus 9500 line card and fabric module data sheets provide additional information about the various fabric modules.

Fan trays for the Cisco Nexus 9500 platform

The Cisco Nexus 9500 chassis supports two versions of hot-swappable fan trays that are compatible with specific fabric modules. Each fan tray covers two fabric module slots and enables front-to-back air-flow for the entire chassis. An appropriate fabric module blank card should be installed in all empty fabric module slots to ensure proper air-flow and cooling of the chassis.

Table 5.           Fan tray specifications

 

N9K-C9504-FAN

N9K-C9504-FAN2

N9K-C9508-FAN

N9K-C9508-FAN2

N9K-C9516-FAN

Fabric Module

N9K-C9504-FM-E

N9K-C9504-FM-R

N9K-C9504-FM-S

N9K-C9504-FM

N9K-C9504-FM-G

N9K-C9508-FM-E2

N9K-C9508-FM-E

N9K-C9508-FM-R

N9K-C9508-FM-S

N9K-C9508-FM

N9K-C9508-FM-G

N9K-C9516-FM-E2

N9K-C9516-FM-E

N9K-C9504-FM

Fabric Module Blank

N9K-C9504-FM-CV

N9K-C9504-FAN-PWR

N9K-C9508-FM-CV

N9K-C9508-FAN-PWR

N9K-C9516-FM-CV

Weight

5.76 lb (2.6 kg)

8.2 lb (3.7 kg)

9.59 lb (4.4 kg)

8.6 lb (3.9 kg)

11.50 lb (5.2 kg)

Typical power

95 W

306W

176 W

450W

330 W

Maximum power

150 W

600W

250 W

900W

451 W

Hot swappable

Yes

Airflow

Port-side intake

Cisco Nexus 9500 platform power supply

The Cisco Nexus 9500 platform supports hot-swappable, front-panel-accessible AC, DC, and universal high voltage AC/DC power supplies. The total power budget required for the mix and number of line cards and fabric modules installed in the chassis determines the ability to support power supply redundancy modes – combined, n + 1, n + n, or input-source redundancy.

The 3150W high voltage AC/DC power supply offers two power inputs each of which can provide up to 3150 W of output power. This unique capability offers more flexibility in provisioning power redundancy for the chassis.

Table 6.           Power supply specifications

 

Cisco Nexus 9500 3000W AC Power Supply

Cisco Nexus 9500 3000W DC Power Supply

Cisco Nexus 9500 3000W HV AC/DC Power Supply

Cisco Nexus 9500 3150W HV AC/DC Power Supply

Output power

3000 W

3000 W

3000 W

3150 W

Input voltage

AC: 200V to 240V

DC: -48V to -60V (nominal)

-40V to -72V
(min – max)

AC: 200V to 277V

DC: 240V to 380V (nominal)

192V to 400V
(min – max)

AC: 200V to 277V

DC: 240V to 380V (nominal)

192V to 400V
(min – max)

Number of inputs

1

2 (1500 W output per input)

1

2 (3150 W output per input)

Frequency

50 to 60 Hz

N/A

AC: 47 to 63 Hz

DC: N/A

AC: 47 to 63 Hz

DC: N/A

Efficiency

80PLUS Platinum

80PLUS Platinum Equivalent

80PLUS Platinum (AC)

80PLUS Platinum Equivalent (DC)

80PLUS Titanium (AC)

80PLUS Titanium Equivalent (DC)

Weight

6.2 lb (2.8 kg)

6.4 lb (2.9 kg)

5.9 lb (2. 7 kg)

9.9 lb (4.5 kg)

MTBF hours

868,870

1,761,580

965,700

838,900

Hot swappable

Yes

Airflow

Yes

Table 7.           Ordering information

Part number

Product description

Hardware

N9K-C9504 (=)

Cisco Nexus 9504 Chassis with 4 line card slots

N9K-C9508(=)

Cisco Nexus 9508 Chassis with 8 line card slots

N9K-C9516(=)

Cisco Nexus 9516 Chassis with 16 line card slots

N9K-SUP-A+(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 4-Core/8-Thread Supervisor

N9K-SUP-B+(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 6-Core/12-Thread Supervisor

N9K-SUP-A(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 4-Core/4-Thread Supervisor

N9K-SUP-B(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 6-Core/12-Thread Supervisor

N9K-SC-A(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 System Controller

N9K-PAC-3000W-B(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 3000W 200V to 240V AC PS, Port-Side Intake

N9K-PDC-3000W-B(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 3000W -48V-60V DC PS, Port-Side Intake

N9K-PUV-3000W-B(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 3000W 200V to 277V AC or 240V to 380V DC Universal high voltage AC/DC PS, Port-Side Intake

N9K-PUV2-3000W-B(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 3150W 200V to 277V AC or 240V to 380V DC Universal high voltage AC/DC PS, Port-Side Intake

N9K-C9504-FAN(=)

Fan Tray for Cisco Nexus 9504 Chassis

N9K-C9504-FAN2(=)

Nexus 9500 4-slot chassis 400G cloud scale fan tray (Generation 2)

N9K-C9504-FAN-PWR(=)

Nexus 9500 4-slot chassis 400G cloud scale fan tray power connector

N9K-C9508-FAN(=)

Fan Tray for Cisco Nexus 9508 Chassis

N9K-C9508-FAN2(=)

Nexus 9500 8-slot chassis 400G cloud scale fan tray (Generation 2)

N9K-C9508-FAN-PWR(=)

Nexus 9500 8-slot chassis 400G cloud scale fan tray power connector

N9K-C9516-FAN(=)

Fan Tray for Cisco Nexus 9516 Chassis

Accessories

N9K-C9500-RMK=

Cisco Nexus 9500 Rack Mount Kit for Nexus 9508 and Nexus 9516 chassis

N9K-C9504-RMK=

Cisco Nexus 9500 Rack Mount Kit for Nexus 9504

N9K-C9500-ACK=

Cisco Nexus 9500 Accessory Kit

Note

All part numbers with “=” sign refer to Spare part numbers for ordering.

Warranty

The Cisco Nexus 9500 platform has a 1-year limited hardware warranty. The warranty includes hardware replacement with a 10-day turnaround from receipt of a Return Materials Authorization (RMA).

Cisco environmental sustainability

Information about Cisco’s environmental sustainability policies and initiatives for our products, solutions, operations, and extended operations or supply chain is provided in the “Environment Sustainability” section of Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report.

Reference links to information about key environmental sustainability topics (mentioned in the “Environment Sustainability” section of the CSR Report) are provided in the following table:

Sustainability topic

Reference

Information on product material content laws and regulations

Materials

Information on electronic waste laws and regulations, including products, batteries, and packaging

WEEE compliance

Cisco makes the packaging data available for informational purposes only. It may not reflect the most current legal developments, and Cisco does not represent, warrant, or guarantee that it is complete, accurate, or up to date. This information is subject to change without notice.

Service and Support

Cisco offers a wide range of services to help accelerate your success in deploying and optimizing the Cisco Nexus 9500 platform in your data center. These innovative Cisco Services offerings are delivered through a unique combination of people, processes, tools, and partners and are focused on helping you increase operation efficiency and improve your data center network.

Cisco Advanced Services use an architecture-led approach to help you align your data center infrastructure with your business goals and achieve long-term value. Cisco SMARTnet Service helps you resolve mission-critical problems with direct access at any time to Cisco network experts and award-winning resources. With this service, you can take advantage of the Cisco Smart Call Home service, which offers proactive diagnostics and real-time alerts on your Cisco Nexus 9500 platform switch.

Spanning the entire network lifecycle, Cisco Services offerings help increase investment protection, optimize network operations, support migration operations, and strengthen your IT expertise.

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For more information

For more information about the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series, please visit https://www.cisco.com/go/nexus9000.

 

 

 

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