Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C9272Q
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
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N9K: Cisco Nexus 9000 cloud data center fixed switch series
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C92: Nexus 9200 compact high-density leaf/spine hardware platform
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72: Total 72 QSFP+ physical ports
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Q: QSFP+ 40G base port variant, supports breakout to 4×10G, powered by Cloud Scale ASIC
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9272Q, 1RU rack-mount high-density data center leaf/spine switch, 72 universal multi-rate QSFP+ ports supporting 10G and 40G optical transmission, 5.76 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity, dual hot-swappable redundant power supplies and variable-speed redundant fans, running modular Cisco NX-OS, optimized for high-port-density leaf aggregation, mid-tier spine layers, virtual enterprise and multi-tenant IaaS cloud fabric deployments.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9272Q is a space-saving 1RU fixed-port high-performance Ethernet switch within the Nexus 9200 product portfolio, designed for leaf and mid-tier spine roles in virtualized enterprise, carrier and IaaS cloud data centers. Equipped with 72 hot-pluggable universal QSFP+ slots that support independent breakout configurations, the switch delivers full wire-rate Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding on all ports, with a total switching bandwidth of 5.76 Tbps and a forwarding throughput of 4.61 Bpps for 64-byte minimum frames. Each QSFP+ port can work as a single 40G port or split into four independent 10G ports via breakout cables, flexibly adapting to mixed-speed servers, storage devices and inter-switch uplinks during data center evolution.
The chassis provides dedicated out-of-band RJ45 management, mini-USB console and USB storage interfaces to support POAP zero-touch provisioning and offline configuration backup. Dual hot-swappable redundant power supplies and N+1 redundant fan trays eliminate single points of hardware failure, with bidirectional airflow options (port-side intake or port-side exhaust) available at order time to match various rack thermal designs. It runs fault-isolated modular Cisco NX-OS, without mandatory ACI controller dependency, and natively integrates hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN overlay routing, hardware MACsec encryption, full streaming telemetry and open DevOps automation APIs to build scalable multi-tenant fabric architectures. Featuring industry-leading 72×40G port density within a single 1RU rack unit, the N9K-C9272Q maximizes rack space utilization for top-of-rack leaf aggregation and mid-layer spine interconnection scenarios.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Main Data Ports (72 × Universal QSFP+ Slots)
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Supported per-port mode: 1×40GBASE-SR4/LR4, 4×10GBASE-SR/LR via breakout cables
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Compatible transceivers: QSFP+ 40G optical modules, SFP+ 10G optical modules with breakout cables
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Non-blocking wire-speed forwarding across all 72 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, configuration 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 redundant, live hot-swap supported)
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N+1 redundant variable-speed fan trays, bidirectional airflow optional: PI (port-side intake) / PE (port-side exhaust)
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Operating temperature: 0°C ~ 40°C under full load; storage temperature: -40°C ~ 70°C
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Humidity: 5%–85% non-condensing; maximum operating altitude: 4000 meters
Physical Form Factor
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Size: 1RU standard 19-inch rack chassis, 4.4 cm (H) × 43.9 cm (W) × 57.1 cm (D)
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RoHS compliant, ENERGY STAR certified
Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
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Total switching capacity: 5.76 Tbps full-duplex non-blocking
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Forwarding rate: 4.61 Bpps (64-byte frame wire-rate)
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Shared dynamic packet buffer for congestion control
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MAC address table capacity: 128,000 MAC entries
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IPv4 / IPv6 unicast route table capacity: 128,000 entries
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VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard VLANs
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System memory: 16GB RAM + 64GB on-board 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, VXLAN multicast optimization
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Enterprise Security: 802.1X port authentication, MAB, DHCP Snooping, DAI, CoPP, hardware MACsec 128/256-bit encryption, TrustSec SGT segmentation
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Monitoring & Telemetry: Sampled/unsampled IPFIX streaming telemetry, ERSPAN, SPAN, VSPAN, real-time queue and buffer visibility
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Automation & DevOps: POAP zero-touch provisioning, NX-API REST JSON/XML, built-in Linux Bash shell, Python scripting, container 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 server and storage rack aggregation
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Mid-tier spine switch for interconnection between leaf layers via 40G uplinks
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Multi-tenant IaaS cloud fabric border aggregation
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High-density 40G edge for storage interconnection and cross-site disaster recovery links
7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9272Q is a 1RU compact cloud data center switch with 72 breakout-capable QSFP+ optical ports supporting 10G/40G transmission, offering 5.76 Tbps non-blocking switching performance with dual redundant power and cooling. Equipped with modular Cisco NX-OS and native hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN overlay plus enterprise security functions, it acts as a high-density leaf or mid-tier spine switch for enterprise, carrier and IaaS cloud fabrics, supporting open DevOps automation and zero-touch provisioning for large-scale virtualized data center deployments.
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