Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C9396TX
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
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N9K: Cisco Nexus 9000 series fixed data center switch family
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C93: First-generation Nexus 9300 classic fixed leaf/spine hardware platform
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96: Total 96 fixed RJ45 copper data ports
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TX: Auto-sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T copper RJ45 port variant, powered by Trident II ASIC, dual operational modes: standalone NX-OS and ACI fabric mode
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9396TX, 2RU rack-mount ultra-high-density leaf data center switch, 96 auto-sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45 copper ports, 1.92 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity, dual hot-swappable redundant power supplies and multiple variable-speed fan trays, dual-mode standalone NX-OS or ACI fabric operation, designed for massive copper server rack aggregation, converged FCoE fabrics and large-scale multi-tenant ACI data center deployments.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9396TX is a 2RU fixed-port Layer 2/3 Ethernet switch within the original Nexus 9300 classic portfolio, engineered for ultra-dense top-of-rack leaf aggregation in enterprise virtualized data centers, unified compute-storage FCoE fabrics and ACI intent-based cloud infrastructures. Equipped with 96 RJ45 copper ports supporting automatic speed negotiation of 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps, the chassis delivers full wire-rate non-blocking forwarding with total switching bandwidth of 1.92 Tbps and forwarding throughput of 1.44 billion packets per second for standard 64-byte minimum frames. All copper ports comply with IEEE 802.3ab and 802.3an standards; Cat6A cabling supports full 10G transmission up to 100 meters, while Cat5e cable limits operation to maximum 5 Gbps per port.
The chassis integrates dedicated out-of-band 1G RJ45 management, mini-USB RS232 console and dual USB Type-A ports to enable POAP zero-touch provisioning, offline configuration backup and firmware upgrades. Dual hot-swappable redundant power supply modules and N+1 redundant fan trays eliminate single points of hardware failure, with bidirectional airflow options (port-side intake / port-side exhaust) selectable at order time to adapt to various rack thermal design requirements. This platform supports two independent operating modes: modular standalone Cisco NX-OS for traditional routed data center architectures, or native ACI fabric mode for policy-driven automated multi-tenant infrastructure. Onboard ASIC hardware acceleration enables EVPN/VXLAN overlay routing, FCoE Fibre Channel over Ethernet storage convergence and hardware MACsec link encryption, paired with comprehensive streaming telemetry and open DevOps automation APIs to build scalable leaf-spine fabrics. With industry-leading 96-port 10G copper density within a single 2RU unit, the N9K-C9396TX drastically reduces rack space consumption for large-scale copper server aggregation workloads.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Main Data Ports (96 × Auto-Sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45)
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Auto-negotiated speeds: 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T, 10GBASE-T
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Cabling specification: Cat6A for full 10G 100m transmission; Cat5e supports max 5G only
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All 96 copper ports run wire-rate simultaneously under full load without port grouping speed limitations
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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Dual USB 2.0 Type-A ports for configuration backup, firmware upload and POAP zero-touch deployment
Power & Cooling
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Dual hot-swappable power supply options: 650W AC, 930W DC, 1200W HVAC/HVDC (1+1 active sharing redundancy, live hot-swap without traffic interruption)
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N+1 redundant variable-speed fan trays, airflow options: PI (port-side intake) / 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: 4000 meters
Physical Form Factor
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Dimensions: 2RU standard 19-inch rack chassis, 8.8 cm (H) × 43.9 cm (W) × 57.1 cm (D)
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RoHS-6 compliant, NEBS Level 3 qualified, 80Plus Platinum high-efficiency power certified
Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
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Total switching capacity: 1.92 Tbps full duplex non-blocking
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Forwarding rate: 1.44 Bpps (64-byte frame wire-rate)
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Shared dynamic packet buffer for congestion absorption
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MAC address table size: 128,000 MAC forwarding entries
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IPv4 / IPv6 unicast route table capacity: 128,000 routing entries
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VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
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System memory: 16GB DRAM + 64GB onboard SSD storage
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Typical cut-through switching latency: 1–2 microseconds for minimum-size Ethernet frames
5. Core Software Feature Suite (Dual NX-OS / ACI Operation Modes)
Layer 2 & Layer 3 Routing
Static routing, RIP, OSPFv2/v3, EIGRP, BGP, VRRP, PIM sparse/dense multicast, FCoE Fibre Channel over Ethernet for unified compute-storage fabrics
Cloud Fabric Overlay
Hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN, symmetric & asymmetric VXLAN routing, multi-tenant fabric segmentation
Enterprise Security
802.1X port authentication, MAB MAC bypass authentication, DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, CoPP control-plane policing, hardware 128-bit MACsec link encryption, TrustSec SGT zero-trust segmentation
Monitoring & Telemetry
Sampled IPFIX streaming telemetry, ERSPAN remote port mirroring, local SPAN / VSPAN, real-time port buffer and queue utilization monitoring
Automation & DevOps
POAP zero-touch provisioning, NX-API REST JSON/XML interfaces, embedded Linux Bash shell, Python scripting, containerized application hosting, ISSU in-service software upgrade without traffic downtime
High Availability
Modular fault-isolated process architecture, stateful process restart, redundant control plane, hot-swappable power supply and fan FRUs
6. Typical Deployment Use Cases
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Ultra-dense top-of-rack (ToR) leaf switch for massive 10G copper server rack aggregation
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Converged compute/storage fabric node supporting FCoE SAN block storage workloads
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High-port-count leaf access node for large-scale ACI Application Centric Infrastructure fabrics
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Enterprise virtualization data center access layer for heavy copper server infrastructure expansion
7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9396TX is a 2RU classic-generation ultra-high-density data center leaf switch equipped with 96 auto-sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45 copper ports, delivering 1.92 Tbps non-blocking switching performance with dual redundant power and cooling hardware. Supporting both standalone modular NX-OS and ACI fabric operational modes, it provides hardware VXLAN EVPN overlay, FCoE storage convergence and enterprise security acceleration, acting as a high-density aggregation leaf switch for large virtualized enterprise and enterprise-scale ACI cloud data centers built on 10G copper server cabling.
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