Cisco Nexus 7004 (N7K-C7004) Full Product Description

1. Short Sales Title

2. Official Product Overview & Lifecycle

Core Hardware Differentiators vs Larger Nexus 7000 Chassis

1. Unique 4-slot passive midplane design withno dedicated external fabric modules; distributed fabric ASICs are embedded directly on I/O line cards, simplifying chassis architecture and reducing rack space (7RU height vs 14RU/18RU for 7010/7018)Cisco.
2. Fixed slot partition: 2 dedicated redundant supervisor slots + only 2 universal I/O module slots (max 2 line cards loaded; Nexus 7010 has 8 I/O slots, 7018 has 16). Maximum port density: 2×48-port 10G F2 line cards = 96×10G, or 2×48-port 40G F2E = 96×40G total portsCisco.
3. Side-to-back airflow (cold air intake from left front side, hot exhaust rear power compartment); larger Nexus 7010 uses front-to-back airflow, 7009/7018 use side-to-side airflowCisco.
4. Only supports Supervisor-2 / Supervisor-2E redundant control modules (Sup1 is incompatible); all M2 / F2 / F2E XL I/O modules supported, F1 & non-XL M1 line cards blockedCisco.
5. Dual redundant 6000W high-wattage Platinum power supplies, single integrated multi-fan tray built into bare chassis (included with N7K-C7004 empty chassis, power supplies sold separately).
6. Unified NX-OS feature parity with all Nexus 7000 family: full FCoE for SAN-LAN consolidation, VDC virtual switch partitioning, OTV cross-data center overlay, LISP, MPLS, FabricPath, lossless convergence for FC-NVMe workloads.
7. Compact pod/data center top-of-row core aggregation form factor for medium enterprise, cloud pod, and mid-size service provider PoP deployments, smaller footprint than full-size 7010/7018 directors.

Core High-Availability Design

Model Suffix Breakdown

• N7K: Nexus 7000 series modular data center switch platform prefix
• C7004: Empty bare chassis 4-slot model (4 total front slots: 2 I/O + 2 supervisor)
• Bare chassis PN N7K-C7004 doesnotinclude supervisors, power supplies, line cards; bundled SKUs like N7K-C7004-S2 ship with dual Sup2 + dual AC power supplies + enterprise feature license
• Airflow fixed side-to-back (no separate E hot-aisle exhaust variant for N7K-C7004)

3. Chassis Slot & Hardware Layout Definition

Front Panel 4 Horizontal Slots (7RU 19-inch rack)

1. Slots 1, 2: Two universal hot-swappable I/O line card slots (M2 / F2 / F2E XL Ethernet switching modules, FCoE-capable)
2. Slots 3, 4: Dedicated redundant Supervisor-2 / Supervisor-2E fabric control module slots (Slot3 defaults active, Slot4 standby)

Rear Panel Redundant Subsystems

1. Two independent hot-swappable 6000W power supply bays supporting AC or DC high-voltage power modules
2. Integrated fixed multi-fan tray embedded into bare chassis (included with N7K-C7004 base chassis, no separate fan SKU required)

Out-of-Band Management Interfaces (each Supervisor module carries full management ports)

• RJ45 RS232 serial console port for local CLI access
• Mini USB dual local console port for laptop zero-cable administration
• Isolated 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management port
• External USB Type-A flash storage slot for NX-OS image upgrades, configuration backup and syslog export
• Physical reset button for factory default configuration recovery

Front Global Diagnostic LED Bank

Airflow Specification

Supported Transceivers & Pluggable Modules

1. Ethernet SFP / SFP+ / QSFP transceivers (sold separately for all I/O line card ports):
   • SFP+: 10G-SR/LR/ER for 10G Ethernet / FCoE
   • QSFP+: 40G-SR4/LR4 for 40G Ethernet / long-distance ISL trunk links
   • Backward compatible with legacy 1G SFP transceivers for existing access switch interoperation
2. Supported pluggable I/O line/service modules for Slots 1–2:
   • N7K-F248XP-25E: 48×10G SFP+ high-density F2 series line card (max 96×10G ports full chassis)
   • N7K-F248-40GE: 48×40G QSFP+ F2E series maximum-density line card (max 96×40G ports full chassis)
   • N7K-M224XP-23L: 24×10G M2 series mixed feature line card with L4-L7 service offload
3. Supervisor module compatibility: Supervisor-2 (N7K-SUP2), Supervisor-2E (N7K-SUP2E upgraded larger memory, enhanced FCoE telemetry NPU) (Supervisor-1 unsupported)Cisco
4. Power supply compatibility: 6000W AC PEM modules (N7K-AC-6.0KW-WS), 6000W DC PEM telecom modules (N7K-DC-6.0KW-WS), non-interchangeable between AC/HV chassis variants

4. Hardware & Physical Specifications

Core Switching & Routing Performance

• Single-chassis distributed fabric maximum aggregate bandwidth: 1.92 Tbps full-duplex system-wide bandwidth
• Wire-speed frame forwarding rate: Up to 1920 Mpps Ethernet frame switching at full 40G line rate
• Low-latency shared packet buffer pool per line card, dedicated buffer credit allocation for lossless FCoE storage traffic
• MAC address table capacity: 128,000 MAC entries
• IPv4 / IPv6 route table capacity: 128,000 unicast routes, 32,000 multicast routes
• Maximum isolated VDC virtual switch contexts: 4 independent logical switch partitions
• Maximum active port-channel bundles: 1024 PortChannels, max 16 ports per logical trunk with dynamic load balancing
• Supported Ethernet port operating modes: Access, Trunk, FCoE, vPC peer-link, ISL inter-switch trunk, FEX host interface
• NPV/NPIV native hardware acceleration: Lossless FCoE forwarding for SAN-LAN convergence, offload Fibre Channel fabric registration to upstream MDS directors without core fabric control-plane overhead
• Native multi-protocol ASIC hardware offload: FCoE lossless frame processing, FC-NVMe frame tunneling, vPC peer synchronization, OTV overlay encapsulation, LISP endpoint mapping

Power & Cooling System

• Power supply bays: 2 hot-swappable redundant slots, each 6000W AC PSU fully powers complete chassis independently (1+1 N+1 failover protection)
• AC input voltage range: 100–240V AC (10% tolerance), 50/60Hz universal auto-ranging alternating current
• Fan tray: Integrated multi-fan variable-speed assembly built into bare chassis; minimum full tray functional to avoid thermal shutdown, single fan failure triggers SNMP fault alert
• Real-time telemetry monitoring: Fan rotational speed, internal chassis ambient temperature, PSU input/output voltage, SFP optical transmit power, port error counters and module fault logging via console syslog and SNMP v1/v2c/v3 traps; critical thermal alarm threshold at 55°C
• Typical full-load power draw: 210W fully populated with two 48-port 40G line cards + dual supervisor modules under maximum traffic load
• MTBF: 230,000 hours under standard enterprise data center operating conditions

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Rack form factor: 7 RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 30.2 cm × 44.45 cm × 60.96 cm (7 rack units, 17.5 × 24 inch depth; extended depth 73.66cm with cable management guide installed)
• Bare chassis weight: 11.4 kg (25 lbs) without power supplies/line cards/supervisors; fully loaded maximum weight 18.2 kg (40 lbs) with dual PSUs, dual supervisors and two 48-port line cards installed
• Operating ambient temperature range: 0°C to 40°C (32°F–104°F); certified altitude up to 2000 meters
• Storage temperature range: -40°C to 70°C (-40°F–158°F)
• Relative humidity: 10%–90% non-condensing operating; 5%–95% non-condensing storage
• Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950-1, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, RoHS compliant per regional environmental regulations

Control Plane Out-of-Band Management Interfaces

• Dual local CLI access per supervisor: RJ45 RS232 serial port + Mini USB console port
• Single isolated 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management port
• External USB flash storage for offline NX-OS firmware and configuration archives
• Front panel multi-status LED bank providing real-time hardware health visualization

5. Full NX-OS Multilayer Feature Set (Cisco NX-OS Release 6.x Universal Image)

Layer 2 Ethernet & Converged FCoE Fabric Services

• VDC Virtual Device Context: Logical virtual switch partitioning to isolate multi-tenant LAN/SAN workloads on single physical chassis
• Standard VLAN segmentation (4094 VLANs per VDC), PVLAN private VLAN isolation
• Dual zoning models for FCoE: VSAN virtual storage fabric segmentation, hard WWN zoning + Autozone automatic fabric zoning
• Complete FCoE protocol stack support: Lossless PFC priority flow control, DCBX, VNTag virtual machine storage I/O tracking, FC-NVMe tunneling
• Inter-Switch Link (ISL) trunk PortChannel load balancing across mixed 10G/40G Ethernet port speeds (max 16-port bundles)
• DTP dynamic trunk negotiation, MSTP multi-instance spanning tree protocol for Layer 2 loop prevention
• Local SPAN, RSPAN remote traffic mirroring for multi-session performance troubleshooting
• Per-port broadcast/multicast storm suppression to eliminate fabric-wide broadcast outages
• NPV N_Port Virtualizer edge switch mode for large-scale core-edge SAN-LAN convergence architecture deployment
• Slow drain detection and congestion isolation hardware feature to mitigate buffer credit starvation for lossless FCoE traffic
• POAP Power On Auto Provisioning zero-touch switch deployment for mass pod rack rollouts

Multilayer Routing & Multi-Protocol Data Center Interconnect Features

• FSPF Fibre Channel Shortest Path First dynamic SAN fabric routing for distributed storage topologies
• EIGRP / OSPF / BGP IPv4/IPv6 dynamic Layer 3 routing protocols for LAN workloads
• PIM-SM / PIM-SSM IP multicast for cross-fabric asynchronous backup replication traffic
• Static IP route configuration, VRF virtual routing and forwarding multi-tenant routing isolation
• Licensed IVR Inter-VSAN Routing feature for secure data transfer between isolated FCoE storage fabrics
• Complete carrier-grade MPLS service suite: MPLS LDP, VPLS, VPWS, EVPN-FC interoperability, MPLS VPN IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack
• OTV Overlay Transport Virtualization cross-data center layer 2 overlay for disaster recovery workload mobility
• LISP Locator/ID Separation Protocol for multi-pod workload mobility and DC interconnection
• FCIP tunnel hardware acceleration: lossless compression, write acceleration, tape pipelining for long-distance cross-site disaster recovery replication
• iSCSI multi-protocol gateway processing via M2 service line cards for IP-attached server consolidation

Advanced QoS & Traffic Prioritization

• Four hardware priority queues per Ethernet / FCoE port for tiered classification of storage I/O, virtual machine data, management and backup traffic
• Ingress frame policing and egress bandwidth shaping to throttle low-priority tape backup and replication streams
• Pre-built QoS templates for production OLTP database workloads, all-flash NVMe storage, virtual server east-west traffic, tape backup archives, and disaster recovery replication
• Dedicated high-priority traffic queue for low-latency real-time unified communications and enterprise database workloads
• DCBX media optimization for converged FCoE LAN/SAN traffic prioritization

Enterprise & Service Provider Security Suite

• Port security: Static MAC locking to block unauthorized physical server/storage device attachment
• RBAC Role-Based Access Control granular CLI user privilege partitioning, integrated with Cisco ISE identity services engine
• SSHv2 encrypted remote CLI management, SNMPv3 secure monitoring, AES encrypted startup configuration files
• DH-CHAP mutual bidirectional authentication for FCoE ISL inter-switch link fabric authentication
• Port lockdown, VDC / VSAN read-only access permissions, complete audit logging for all fabric configuration changes
• FIPS 140-2 validated security compliance for government and financial regulated environments
• Cisco TrustSec security group tagging for end-to-end policy segmentation across campus and data center domains
• IPv6 over Fibre Channel support for modern dual-stack management networks
• Secure Boot and anti-counterfeit hardware validation to prevent unauthorized firmware tampering

Monitoring & SAN/LAN Management Tools

• Cisco DCNM / Fabric Manager centralized graphical converged LAN/SAN fabric monitoring, provisioning and REST API automation
• Isolated out-of-band Ethernet management port for offline device access during fabric-wide outages and analytics export
• External USB flash storage for offline NX-OS firmware image upgrades, running configuration backup archives and syslog export
• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) automatic Nexus/MDS fabric neighbor device discovery
• Real-time storage/LAN telemetry: Port throughput, latency, frame error counters, SFP+ optical transmit power diagnostics, onboard NPU streaming analytics export
• Event notification via email, syslog and SNMP traps for real-time fabric fault alerting
• GOLD Generic Online Diagnostics continuous hardware health validation without traffic interruption
• Onboard Python interpreter + NX-API REST interfaces for custom data center automation scripts

6. High Availability Capabilities (Core Differentiators vs Larger Nexus 7010 10-Slot Director)

1. Dual redundant Supervisor-2 / Supervisor-2E fabric control modules with stateful failover and ISSU non-disruptive firmware upgrades (shared high-availability architecture with all Nexus 7000 chassis)
2. Only two universal I/O line card expansion slots vs eight on Nexus 7010, limited maximum port density (96×40G vs 384×40G on 7010)
3. Distributed embedded fabric ASICs on I/O line cards (no separate external fabric modules required, simplifies chassis maintenance)
4. Dual hot-swappable high-efficiency 6000W AC redundant power supplies (shared power capacity with Nexus 7010)
5. Single integrated multi-fan tray with multi-fan fault tolerance (smaller cooling volume than 7010 dual fan tray design)
6. Full OIR hot-swap support for all critical FRUs: supervisors, line cards, power supplies without chassis power cycle
7. Side-to-back airflow design optimized for compact pod cold aisle rack deployments (7010 uses front-to-back airflow)
8. Unified NX-OS software stack with native EVPN, OTV, LISP, VDC, FCoE and REST API automation features consistent with larger Nexus 7000 directors
9. Compact 7RU rack footprint ideal for small pod top-of-row core aggregation (7010 is 14RU, double rack height)
10. Limitation: Fixed two I/O slot ceiling with no expansion beyond two line cards, legacy 40G maximum port hardware generation, end-of-sale since Feb 2022, full hardware support expiring Feb 28, 2027.

7. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Mid-Size Virtualized Data Center Pod Core Switch
   Compact 7RU rack form factor deployed as pod top-of-row core aggregation switch; two 48-port 40G F2E line cards populate both I/O slots for 96 total 40G ports connecting distributed rack Nexus 2000 FEX leaf extenders, primary production all-flash NVMe FCoE storage arrays and medium-density blade server racks, dual redundant supervisors provide zero-failover control-plane redundancy, VDC + VSAN segmentation isolates independent departmental production, test and backup converged LAN/SAN fabrics.
2. Medium Multi-Building Enterprise Campus Core-Edge SAN-LAN Fabric
   Multiple N7K-C7004 pod core switches deployed per building data center rack, utilizing mixed 10G/40G long-distance LR ISL trunk links to interconnect geographically distributed campus storage pods, OTV overlay tunnels provision asynchronous cross-site disaster recovery replication between primary and DR data centers, built-in FCoE hardware offload consolidates separate LAN and SAN switching layers into single chassis.
3. Medium Regional Mission-Critical Headquarters Converged Storage/LAN Switch
   Financial, healthcare and government headquarters deployments require complete dual power + dual supervisor hardware redundancy to avoid site-wide catastrophic database and tape backup storage outages; integrated FICON-compatible FCoE support enables long-distance cross-site DR replication via FCIP tunnels, VDC multi-tenant isolation features support mixed enterprise and agency workloads in a single compact chassis.
4. Small-to-Medium Service Provider Multi-Tenant PoP Edge Switch
   Native full MPLS/VPLS/EVPN carrier-grade feature set and VDC multi-tenant logical switch isolation make N7K-C7004 ideal for compact metro PoP edge deployments, terminating medium-scale 10G/40G enterprise customer access circuits and multi-port ISL core backbone trunks to separate independent customer LAN/SAN fabrics, unused I/O slot reserved for future growth in customer port count and L4-L7 service M2 line card additions.
5. Legacy Small-Scale SAN-LAN Fabric Consolidation Migration Switch
   Drop-in performance upgrade for aging Nexus 5000 fixed FCoE switches, fully backward compatible with existing 10G SFP transceivers while unlocking 40G high-density port expansion, VDC virtual multi-tenant partitioning and modern NX-OS cross-data center OTV/LISP automation workflows.
6. Centralized Medium Enterprise Tape Library Backup Fabric Aggregation Core
   Deployed as dedicated backup SAN aggregation core switch, utilizing multi-port FCIP PortChannel trunk links to primary production FCoE SAN fabrics via asynchronous off-site tape archive and disaster recovery replication workloads, with unused I/O slot available for high-density host port expansion or M2 encryption/replication service line card additions as enterprise storage compliance requirements expand.

8. Standard Package Contents (Bare Chassis N7K-C7004 Base SKU)

Items Sold Separately (Not Included in Bare Chassis N7K-C7004)

• Dual 6000W AC hot-swappable redundant power supply units (DC telecom PSUs sold separately)
• Two redundant Supervisor-2 or Supervisor-2E fabric control modules (mandatory for chassis operation)
• Optional Nexus 7000 family pluggable I/O line/service modules (48-port 10G F2 switching module, 48-port 40G F2E switching module, M2 multi-protocol FCIP/iSCSI L4-L7 service module)
• SFP+/QSFP optical fiber transceivers for all line card Ethernet/FCoE ports (backward compatible with legacy 1G SFP transceivers)
• Optional IVR Inter-VSAN Routing multilayer software license, FCIP SAN Extension Enabler license, Mainframe FCoE Enabler license, OTV Data Center Interconnect license
• RS232 serial console rollover cable, mini USB console cable
• USB flash memory sticks for NX-OS image and configuration storage
• Fibre channel patch cords, copper Ethernet patch cords, cable management accessories, rack cable guides

Short Commercial Catalog Version (For Quotation & Datasheet Use)