Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C93216TC-FX2
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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C93216: High-density hybrid copper/optical leaf chassis of Nexus 9300 FX2 next-generation platform
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T: Auto-sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45 copper downlink ports for server access
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C: QSFP28 multi-rate 40/100G fabric uplink ports for spine interconnection
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FX2: Second-generation FX Cloud Scale ASIC platform, expanded LPM route scale, larger shared packet buffer, enhanced RoCEv2 support, high-performance streaming telemetry, dual operational modes: standalone NX-OS and ACI intent-based fabric mode
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Nexus N9K-C93216TC-FX2, 2RU rack-mount ultra-high-density copper leaf data center switch, 96 auto-sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45 copper downlinks plus 12 universal QSFP28 40/100G fabric uplink ports, 4.32 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity, dual hot-swappable Platinum-efficiency redundant power supplies and three N+1 variable-speed fan trays, dual-mode standalone NX-OS or ACI fabric operation, optimized for massive 10G copper server rack aggregation, middle-of-row consolidation, converged FCoE compute-storage fabrics and large-scale multi-tenant cloud data center deploymentsCisco.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C93216TC-FX2 is a 2RU fixed-port Layer 2/3 leaf switch built on the upgraded Nexus 9300 FX2 Cloud Scale ASIC platform, purpose-built for ultra-dense top-of-rack and middle-of-row server aggregation in enterprise virtualization, unified compute-storage FCoE fabrics and ACI Application Centric Infrastructure environments. It delivers an unrivaled high copper port density layout with 96 RJ45 10G downlink ports paired with 12 high-bandwidth QSFP28 multi-rate uplink ports for spine layer interconnection, supporting full wire-rate non-blocking forwarding with total switching bandwidth of 4.32 Tbps and a forwarding throughput exceeding 2.5 billion 64-byte minimum frames per secondCisco.
All copper ports support automatic speed negotiation of 100M, 1G and 10G. Cat6A cabling enables full 10G transmission up to 100 meters, while Cat5E cabling limits port speed to a maximum of 5Gbps. Each QSFP28 uplink port supports flexible independent breakout configurations: 1×100G, 1×40G, 2×50G, 4×25G or 4×10G via passive DAC breakout cables to enable smooth fabric speed migration from 40G to 100G. Powered by FX2-series Cloud Scale silicon, this platform delivers a significantly expanded LPM route table capacity up to 896,000 IPv4/IPv6 entries, larger shared dynamic packet buffers, native hardware acceleration for EVPN/VXLAN overlay routing, wire-rate 128/256-bit MACsec encryption and optimized RoCEv2 lossless transport for storage and GPU workloads, alongside high-performance unsampled streaming telemetry integrated with Cisco Tetration Analytics.
The chassis integrates dual independent management interfaces: dedicated out-of-band RJ45 Ethernet and SFP fiber management uplink ports, plus mini-USB RS232 console and single USB Type-A port to support POAP zero-touch provisioning, offline configuration backup and firmware upgrades. Dual hot-swappable power supplies and N+1 redundant fan trays eliminate single points of hardware failure, with bidirectional airflow options (PI port-side intake / PE port-side exhaust) selectable at order time to adapt to diverse rack thermal design standards. This switch 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 cloud infrastructure. Equipped with comprehensive DevOps automation APIs and full FEX compatibility, the N9K-C93216TC-FX2 maximizes rack space efficiency for large-scale 10G copper server consolidation workloads.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Fixed Copper Downlink Ports (96 × Auto-Sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45)
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Auto-negotiation speeds: 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T, 10GBASE-T
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Cabling specification: Cat6A required for full 10G 100m transmission; Cat5E capped at 5Gbps
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All 96 copper ports run wire-rate simultaneously under full load without port grouping speed limitations
Fixed Fabric Uplink Ports (12 × Universal QSFP28 Multi-Rate Slots)
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Per-port speed & breakout options:
1×100G, 1×40G, 2×50G, 4×25G, 4×10G via breakout cables and QSA adapters
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Compatible transceivers: QSFP28 100G, QSFP+ 40G, SFP28 25G, SFP+ 10G
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Note: 1G QSA transceivers are not supported on uplink QSFP28 portsCisco
Management & Auxiliary Ports
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1 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 out-of-band management port
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1 × SFP multi-rate fiber out-of-band management uplink 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/HVDC (1+1 active load-sharing redundancy, live hot-swap without service interruption)
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Three variable-speed fan trays (N+1 redundancy), bidirectional airflow PI / PE configurable at ordering
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Power efficiency: 80Plus Platinum certified
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Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C under full load; non-operating storage range: -40°C ~ 70°C
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Humidity tolerance: 5%–90% non-condensing operating; 5%–95% non-condensing storage; maximum operating altitude: 4000 metersCisco
Physical Form Factor
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Dimensions: 2RU standard 19-inch rack chassis, 8.8cm (H) × 44.5cm (W) × 57.1cm (D)
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Empty weight (without PSUs and fans): ~13.5 kg
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Compliance: RoHS-6, NEBS Level 3, global safety and EMC certifications
Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
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Total switching capacity: 4.32 Tbps full duplex non-blocking
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Forwarding rate: 2.5 Bpps (64-byte frame wire-rate)
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Shared dynamic packet buffer: Larger FX2-series buffer pool for burst traffic absorption
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MAC address table size: 256,000 MAC forwarding entries
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IPv4 / IPv6 unicast LPM route table capacity: 896,000 routing entries
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VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
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System memory: 32GB DRAM + 128GB onboard SSD storage
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Typical cut-through switching latency: Less than 1 microsecond for minimum-size Ethernet frames
5. Core Software Feature Suite (Dual NX-OS / ACI Operating 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 routing, multi-tenant VXLAN segmentation, fabric multicast optimization, RoCEv2 lossless congestion control for storage/GPU workloads
Enterprise & Fabric Security
802.1X port authentication, MAB MAC bypass authentication, DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, CoPP control-plane policing, hardware 128/256-bit MACsec encryption on all uplink ports, TrustSec SGT zero-trust segmentation
Monitoring & Telemetry
High-performance sampled/unsampled IPFIX streaming telemetry, ERSPAN remote port mirroring, local SPAN/VSPAN, real-time buffer, queue and fabric link utilization visibility, full Cisco Tetration flow export compatibility
Automation & DevOps
POAP zero-touch provisioning, NX-API REST JSON/XML APIs, embedded Linux Bash shell, native Python scripting, Ansible/Puppet/Chef integration, containerized application hosting, hot patching and 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-high-density top-of-rack (ToR) leaf switch for massive 10G copper virtualization server rack aggregation
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Middle-of-row aggregation switch consolidating multiple small server racks to reduce total fabric spine links
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Converged compute/storage fabric node supporting FCoE block storage workloads
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Leaf access node for large-scale ACI Application Centric Infrastructure multi-pod fabrics
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Hybrid migration leaf for legacy 1G/10G copper server environments with scalable 100G uplink capacity to spine layer
7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C93216TC-FX2 is a 2RU FX2-generation ultra-high-density copper cloud data center leaf switch equipped with 96 auto-sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T copper downlinks and 12 multi-rate 40/100G QSFP28 fabric uplink ports, delivering 4.32 Tbps non-blocking switching performance with dual Platinum redundant power and cooling hardware. Supporting both standalone modular NX-OS and ACI intent-based fabric operational modes, it features upgraded FX2 ASIC with expanded routing scale, hardware EVPN/VXLAN overlay, wire-rate MACsec encryption and RoCEv2 lossless transport, serving as a space-efficient high-density aggregation leaf switch for large virtualized enterprise and multi-tenant cloud data centers built around 10G copper server infrastructure.
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