Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C9336C-FX2-E
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
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N9K: Cisco Nexus 9000 cloud-scale fixed data center switch family
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C9336: 36-port all-QSFP28 high-density spine/leaf fixed chassis of Nexus 9300 FX2 platform
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C: Universal QSFP28 multi-rate ports supporting native 40G / 100G with full breakout capability
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FX2: Second-generation upgraded Cloud Scale ASIC, expanded route scale, large shared packet buffer, optimized RoCEv2 lossless transport, full wire-rate MACsec
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E: ACI-optimized dedicated variant with predefined port partition logic for ACI leaf-spine pod deployment, fixed fabric reserved port mapping, optimized POAP and APIC integration profilesCisco
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9336C-FX2-E, 1RU rack-mount ACI-optimized all-optical spine/leaf data center switch, 36 universal multi-rate QSFP28 10/25/40/100G ports with pre-defined ACI port segmentation, 7.2 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity, dual hot-swappable Platinum-efficiency redundant power supplies and six N+1 variable-speed fan trays, dual-mode NX-OS standalone or ACI intent-based fabric, purpose-built for ACI multi-pod core spine interconnection, low-latency GPU/HPC clusters, border leaf nodes and hyperscale multi-tenant cloud ACI fabric deployments.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9336C-FX2-E is a compact 1RU fixed-port Layer 2/3 all-optical switch built on the FX2 second-gen Cloud Scale ASIC, a dedicated ACI-tailored variant of the standard N9K-C9336C-FX2 with factory-configured port partitioning rules optimized for ACI leaf-spine pod architecturesCisco. It functions flexibly as core spine, border leaf or high-speed GPU/HPC leaf switch for enterprise, hyperscale cloud and ACI Application Centric Infrastructure environments, delivering full wire-rate non-blocking forwarding with total switching bandwidth of 7.2 Tbps and forwarding throughput of 2.8 Bpps for minimum 64-byte Ethernet frames.
All 36 QSFP28 ports support independent flexible breakout: native 100G, native 40G, 2×50G NRZ, 4×25G or 4×10G via breakout cables and QSA adapters. Unique ACI port segmentation rules apply: ports 1–30 default as downlink leaf ports supporting 4×10G/4×25G breakout (max 34 breakout ports total), ports 31–36 are predefined fabric uplink ports, with ports 35 and 36 hardware-reserved for inter-pod spine fabric links; ports 7–32 support 1G transceivers via QSA adapters, while port groups 1–6 and 33–36 block 1G operation. Fibre Channel transceivers for FCoE are only supported on ports 9–36. Every port integrates native wire-rate 128/256-bit MACsec encryption to secure inter-fabric links without external security appliances.
Powered by FX2-series silicon, the platform delivers expanded LPM route table capacity up to 896,000 IPv4/IPv6 entries, a large shared dynamic packet buffer for absorbing burst traffic, hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN overlay routing, and optimized RoCEv2 lossless congestion control for low-latency AI GPU and HPC parallel computing workloads. High-performance unsampled streaming telemetry is fully integrated with Cisco Tetration Analytics for end-to-end fabric observability. The -E variant includes preloaded ACI automation profiles, simplified POAP zero-touch provisioning workflows and native APIC discovery tuning to reduce ACI fabric deployment time versus the standard FX2 model.
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 for offline configuration backup and firmware upgrades. Dual hot-swappable power supplies and six 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 match diverse rack thermal standards. This switch supports two independent operating modes: modular standalone Cisco NX-OS for traditional routed data centers, or native ACI fabric mode for policy-driven automated multi-tenant cloud infrastructure. Its all-100G optical compact 1RU design maximizes bandwidth density for ACI core spine layers and high-speed GPU leaf racks.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Universal QSFP28 Ports (36 × Full Multi-Rate Slots, all MACsec-capable)
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Native supported speeds: 40GBASE, 100GBASE
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Full breakout options per port:
1 × 100G, 1 × 40G, 2 × 50G NRZ, 4 × 25G, 4 × 10G via breakout cables / QSA adapters
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ACI fixed port partition rules:
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Ports 1–30: Default leaf downlinks, support full breakout
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Ports 31–36: Default fabric uplinks; ports 35/36 reserved for inter-pod spine links
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Ports 7–32: Support 1G transceivers with QSA adapters; ports 1–6,33–36 block 1G
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FCoE Fibre Channel transceivers only supported on ports 9–36
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Compatible transceivers & cables: QSFP28 100G, QSFP+ 40G, SFP28 25G, SFP+ 10G, passive short-reach DAC twinax cables
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: 750W AC, 1100W AC, 1100W DC, 1100W HVAC/HVDC (1+1 load-sharing redundancy, live hot-swap without traffic interruption)
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Six variable-speed fan trays (5+1 N+1 redundancy), bidirectional airflow PI / PE configurable at ordering (burgundy = PI intake, blue = PE exhaust)
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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; max operating altitude: 4000 meters
Physical Form Factor
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Dimensions: 1RU standard 19-inch rack chassis, 4.4cm (H) × 43.9cm (W) × 62.2cm (D)
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Empty weight (without PSUs and fans): 8.5 kg / 18.8 lb
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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: 7.2 Tbps full duplex non-blocking
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Forwarding rate: 2.8 Bpps (64-byte frame wire-rate)
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Shared dynamic packet buffer: 40MB for cross-port 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: 24GB 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; limited FCoE support only on designated port ranges
Cloud Fabric Overlay
Hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN symmetric & asymmetric routing, multi-tenant VXLAN segmentation, fabric multicast optimization, RoCEv2 lossless congestion control for GPU/HPC low-latency 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 36 data ports, TrustSec SGT zero-trust micro-segmentation
Monitoring & Telemetry
High-performance sampled/unsampled IPFIX streaming telemetry, ERSPAN remote port mirroring, local SPAN/VSPAN, real-time per-port/per-queue buffer utilization visibility, full Cisco Tetration flow export compatibility
ACI Optimized Special Features (-E Exclusive)
Predefined ACI port role mapping, optimized APIC discovery, streamlined POAP ACI zero-touch provisioning, built-in fabric link validation logic, preconfigured breakout port templates for ACI leaf workloads
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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ACI multi-pod core spine switch for large-scale leaf-spine fabric interconnection via 40G/100G optical links
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ACI border leaf node connecting on-prem ACI fabric to external WAN, storage or disaster recovery pods
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Low-latency leaf node for GPU virtualization, AI training and HPC parallel computing clusters
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High-speed all-optical leaf aggregation node for 25G/100G server racks without copper cabling
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Dedicated fabric core switch for enterprise-scale ACI Application Centric Infrastructure multi-pod environments
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Hyperscale IaaS cloud ACI core switch supporting multi-tenant isolated fabric segmentation with full wire-rate MACsec encryption
7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9336C-FX2-E is a 1RU FX2-generation ACI-optimized all-optical spine/leaf cloud data center switch equipped with 36 multi-rate 10/25/40/100G QSFP28 universal ports with factory pre-defined ACI port segmentation logic, delivering 7.2 Tbps non-blocking switching performance with dual Platinum redundant power and six redundant fan trays. Supporting both standalone modular NX-OS and native ACI intent-based fabric operational modes, it features upgraded FX2 ASIC with expanded L2/L3 routing scale, hardware EVPN/VXLAN overlay, full-port wire-rate MACsec encryption, optimized RoCEv2 lossless transport and exclusive ACI automation tuning, serving as a high-bandwidth compact core spine or border leaf aggregation switch exclusively optimized for ACI multi-pod fabrics, GPU/HPC and large virtualized enterprise data centers built around 40G/100G optical fabric infrastructure.
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