Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C9236C
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
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N9K: Cisco Nexus 9000 cloud-scale data center fixed switch product family
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C92: Nexus 9200 compact high-density leaf/spine switch hardware platform
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36: Total 36 universal QSFP28 multi-rate optical ports
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C: Classic fixed chassis with full breakout capability, powered by Cloud Scale ASIC, optimized for standalone NX-OS fabric deploymentCisco
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9236C, 1RU rack-mount high-density cloud data center leaf/spine switch, 36 universal multi-rate QSFP28 ports supporting 1/10/25/40/50/100G optical transmission, 7.2 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity, dual hot-swappable redundant power supplies and four variable-speed fan modules, running modular Cisco NX-OS, ideal for leaf aggregation, mid-tier spine layers, multi-tenant IaaS and virtualized enterprise data center fabric deploymentsCisco.
Cisco N9K-C9236C Front Panel
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9236C is a compact 1RU fixed-port high-performance Ethernet switch belonging to the Nexus 9200 platform portfolio, engineered for leaf and mid-tier spine roles in modern enterprise, service provider and IaaS cloud data centers. Equipped with 36 hot-pluggable universal QSFP28 slots with flexible independent breakout configurations, the switch delivers full line-rate Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding across all ports, featuring a total switching bandwidth of 7.2 Tbps and wire-rate forwarding throughput of 5.76 billion packets per second (bpps) Cisco. Each QSFP28 port supports multiple speed combinations: 1×100G, 1×40G, 2×50G, 4×25G, 4×10G or 1×1G via QSA adapters, accommodating mixed-speed servers, storage links and inter-switch uplinks to reduce hardware investment during infrastructure migration Cisco.
The chassis integrates dedicated out-of-band RJ45 management, mini-USB console and USB storage ports for zero-touch POAP provisioning and offline configuration backup. Dual redundant hot-swappable power supply modules and four N+1 variable-speed fan trays eliminate single points of hardware failure, supporting bidirectional airflow options (port-side intake / port-side exhaust) to match diverse rack thermal design requirements. It runs fault-isolated modular Cisco NX-OS software without mandatory ACI controller dependency, natively supporting EVPN/VXLAN overlay routing, hardware MACsec encryption, full streaming telemetry and open DevOps automation APIs, enabling scalable multi-tenant fabric architectures. With industry-leading 36-port 100G density within a 1RU footprint, the N9K-C9236C balances high optical bandwidth, flexible port breakout and space-saving rack density for top-of-rack leaf aggregation and mid-layer spine interconnection workloads Cisco.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Main Data Ports (36 × Universal QSFP28 Slots)
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Per-port multi-rate breakout options:
1 × 100GBASE-SR4/LR4, 1 × 40GBASE-SR4/LR4, 2 × 50GBASE-SR2/LR2, 4 × 25GBASE-SR/LR, 4 × 10GBASE-SR/LR, 1 × 1G via QSA adapter
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Compatible transceivers: QSFP28 100G, QSFP+ 40G, SFP28 25G, SFP+ 10G, SFP 1G with breakout cables / QSA modules
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Non-blocking wire-rate forwarding on all 36 ports simultaneously
Management & Auxiliary Ports
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1 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 out-of-band management port
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1 × Mini-USB RS232 console port for local CLI access
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1 × USB 2.0 Type-A port for firmware upload, config backup and POAP deployment
Power & Cooling
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Dual hot-swappable power supply options: 650W AC, 930W DC, 1200W HVAC/DC (1+1 redundancy, live hot-swap replacement)
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Four N+1 redundant variable-speed fan trays, bidirectional airflow selectable at ordering: PI (port-side intake) or PE (port-side exhaust)
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Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C full load; non-operating storage range: -40°C ~ 70°C
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Humidity tolerance: 5%–85% non-condensing; maximum operating altitude: 4000m
Physical Form Factor
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Dimensions: 1RU standard 19-inch rack-mount chassis, 4.4cm (H) × 43.9cm (W) × 57.1cm (D)
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Weight: 8.3kg without power supplies and fans; fully loaded weight around 12kg
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RoHS compliant, ENERGY STAR certified
Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
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Total switching capacity: 7.2 Tbps full duplex non-blocking
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Forwarding rate: 5.76 bpps (64-byte minimum frame wire-rate)
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Shared dynamic packet buffer: 30MB for congestion absorption
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MAC address table size: 128,000 MAC entries
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IPv4 / IPv6 unicast route table capacity: 128,000 entries
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Standard VLAN support: Up to 4094 independent VLANs
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System memory: 16GB RAM + 64GB onboard SSD storage
5. Core NX-OS Software Feature Suite
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Layer 2 & Layer 3 Routing: Static routing, RIP, OSPFv2/v3, EIGRP, BGP, VRRP, PIM sparse/dense multicast
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Cloud Fabric Overlay: Hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN, symmetric/asymmetric VXLAN routing, multicast optimization for VXLAN fabrics
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Enterprise Security: 802.1X port authentication, MAB, DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, CoPP, hardware MACsec 128/256-bit encryption, TrustSec SGT tagging and segmentation
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Monitoring & Telemetry: Sampled/unsampled IPFIX streaming telemetry, ERSPAN, SPAN, VSPAN, real-time buffer and queue visibility
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Automation & DevOps: POAP zero-touch provisioning, NX-API REST JSON/XML, native Linux Bash shell, Python scripting, containerized application hosting, hot patching without full reboot
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High Availability: Modular fault-isolated process architecture, stateful process restart, ISSU in-service software upgrade, redundant control plane
6. Typical Deployment Use Cases
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Top-of-Rack (ToR) leaf switch for 10G/25G server and storage rack aggregation
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Mid-tier spine switch for leaf-layer interconnection with mixed-speed breakout uplinks
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Multi-tenant IaaS cloud fabric border aggregation
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High-density 100G edge for storage network interconnection and cross-site disaster recovery links
7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9236C is a 1RU compact cloud-scale data center switch equipped with 36 multi-rate breakout-capable QSFP28 optical ports supporting 1/10/25/40/50/100G transmission, delivering 7.2 Tbps non-blocking switching performance with dual redundant power and cooling modules. Running modular Cisco NX-OS with native hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN overlay and enterprise security functions, it serves as a flexible leaf or mid-tier spine switch for enterprise, service provider and IaaS cloud fabrics, supporting open DevOps automation and zero-touch provisioning for large-scale virtualized data center deployments.
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