Cisco Nexus 7010 (N7K-C7010) Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

2. Official Product Lifecycle & Chassis Definition

• Bare chassis PN:N7K-C7010(empty frame without supervisors, fabric modules, power supplies, line cards; bundled SKUs like N7K-C7010-2K9 include dual Sup2 + dual AC power + enterprise feature license)
• EOL Timeline: EOS Feb 28, 2022; Last HW Support End Date Feb 28, 2027Cisco

Core Hardware Differentiators vs N7K-C7004 / N7K-C7009

1. Slot scale comparison: 8 universal I/O line card slots (N7K-C7004 only 2, N7K-C7009 only 7), peak 384×40G ports (8×48-port F2E line cards), higher port density than 7009’s 336-port ceiling.
2. Distinct front-to-back airflow (cold intake front, hot exhaust rear power compartment); N7K-C7004 uses side-to-back, N7K-C7009 uses side-to-side airflow, ideal for standard cold-aisle front-intake data center rack layoutsCisco.
3. Dual independent rear fan subsystems: Separate system fan tray for I/O/supervisor cooling + dedicated fabric fan tray for crossbar modules (N7K-C7009 only single integrated front fan tray without dedicated fabric cooling).
4. Up to five N7K-C7010-FAB-2 external active-active load-sharing fabric modules delivering 4.1 Tbps full-duplex throughput (N7K-C7004 embedded fabric only 1.92 Tbps; N7K-C7009 reaches 8.8 Tbps but uses side-to-side airflow)Cisco.
5. Up to three hot-swappable 6000W power supplies (2+1 N+1 power redundancy; N7K-C7004/7009 only dual PSUs with 1+1 redundancy limit).
6. Unified Nexus 7000 Gen2 module compatibility: All F2/F2E/M2 I/O line cards, Sup2/Sup2E supervisors interchangeable with N7K-C7004/7009 to reduce spare inventory cost.
7. Complete converged LAN+SAN hardware offload: Lossless PFC/DCBX FCoE, FC-NVMe tunneling, full FICON mainframe storage integration without external gateway appliances.
8. Full OIR hot-swap for all FRUs: fabric modules, supervisors, line cards, power supplies, fan trays without chassis power cycle for zero service interruption.

Core High-Availability Design

Model Suffix Breakdown

• N7K: Nexus 7000 modular data center switch platform prefix
• C7010: Bare empty 10-slot front chassis (8 universal I/O line card slots + 2 dedicated supervisor/fabric slots) plus rear fabric/fan/power subsystems
• Bare chassis N7K-C7010 has no K9 suffix; bundled SKUs with preloaded supervisors/power supplies carry -2K9 suffix
• Airflow fixed front-to-back cold intake (no separate E hot-aisle exhaust chassis variant)

3. Chassis Slot & Hardware Layout Definition

Front Panel 10 Horizontal Slots (21RU 19-inch rack)

1. Slots 1,2,3,4,7,8,9,10: Eight universal hot-swappable I/O line/service module slots (40G/10G FCoE Ethernet switching cards, DS-X9334 FCIP multi-protocol extension modules, SSM encryption/asynchronous replication service modules)
2. Slots 5,6: Dedicated redundant Supervisor-2 / Supervisor-2E fabric control module slots (Slot5 defaults active, Slot6 standby)

Rear Panel Redundant Subsystems

1. Up to five independent hot-swappable N7K-C7010-FAB-2 crossbar switching fabric modules (mandatory for full 4.1 Tbps non-blocking bandwidth)
2. Three independent hot-swappable power supply bays supporting AC or DC high-voltage 6000W power modules
3. Two separate hot-swappable multi-fan variable-speed fan assemblies:
   • N7K-C7010-FAN-S: System fan tray for front I/O/supervisor cooling
   • N7K-C7010-FAN-F: Dedicated fabric fan tray for rear crossbar module coolingCisco

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
• Dual isolated 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management ports (separate SAN analytics export dedicated interface)
• 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/FCoE optical transceivers (sold separately for all line card ports):
   • SFP+: 10G-SR/LR/ER for 10G Ethernet / lossless FCoE storage traffic
   • 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 1–4,7–10:
   • N7K-F248XP-25E: 48×10G SFP+ high-density F2 series line card
   • N7K-F248-40GE: 48×40G QSFP+ F2E maximum-density line card (8×48 = 384 total 40G ports full chassis)
   • N7K-M224XP-23L: 24×10G M2 mixed-feature line card with L4-L7 service offload, FCIP/iSCSI multi-protocol gateway capability
   • SSM Storage Services Module: Inline tape/media encryption, asynchronous cross-fabric replication, SAN performance analytics
3. Supervisor module compatibility: Supervisor-2 (N7K-SUP2), Supervisor-2E (N7K-SUP2E upgraded larger memory, enhanced FCoE telemetry NPU) (Supervisor-1 unsupported)
4. Crossbar module compatibility: N7K-C7010-FAB-2 Generation2 crossbar fabric modules (five required for full chassis bandwidth)
5. Power supply compatibility: 6000W Platinum 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 Performance Specifications

Core Switching & Routing Performance

• Single-chassis non-blocking fabric maximum aggregate bandwidth: 4.1 Tbps full-duplex system-wide bandwidth
• Wire-speed frame forwarding rate: Up to 4100 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 unicast route table capacity: 128,000 entries; IPv6 unicast: 64,000 entries; multicast routes: 32,000 entries
• 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, FCIP tunnel compression/tape acceleration

Power & Cooling System

• Power supply bays: 3 hot-swappable redundant slots, each 6000W AC PSU fully powers complete chassis independently (N+1 failover protection)
• AC input voltage range: 100–240V AC (10% tolerance), 50/60Hz universal auto-ranging alternating current, 80 Plus Platinum high efficiency
• Fan assemblies: Two independent hot-swappable multi-fan trays
  1. System fan tray: Front I/O/supervisor cooling
  2. Fabric fan tray: Dedicated rear crossbar module cooling
• Minimum functional fan requirement: At least one full fan tray operational to avoid thermal shutdown; single fan tray failure triggers SNMP fault alert without service interruption
• 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: 450W fully populated with eight 48-port 40G line cards + dual supervisor modules + five crossbar modules under maximum traffic load
• MTBF: 220,000 hours under standard enterprise data center operating conditions

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Rack form factor: 21 RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 92.7 cm × 43.9 cm × 84.1 cm (21 rack units, 17.3 × 33.1 inch depth; extended depth 96.5cm with cable management guide installed)
• Bare chassis weight: 90 kg (200 lbs) without power supplies/fan trays/line/crossbar modules; fully loaded maximum weight 136 kg (300 lbs) with three PSUs, two fan trays, five crossbar modules and eight 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, FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated

Control Plane Out-of-Band Management Interfaces

• Dual local CLI access per supervisor: RJ45 RS232 serial port + Mini USB console port
• Dual isolated 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management ports
• 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 RSCN 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 DS-X9334 service modules 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
• Dual isolated out-of-band Ethernet management ports 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 N7K-C7009 9-Slot Director)

1. Up to three hot-swappable high-efficiency 6000W AC redundant power supplies (N+1 redundant architecture; N7K-C7009 only dual PSUs with limited 1+1 power redundancy)
2. Two separate independent hot-swappable fan trays (system fan tray + dedicated fabric cooling fan tray) for layered redundant cooling (N7K-C7009 only single integrated front fan tray without dedicated crossbar cooling)
3. Eight universal I/O line card expansion slots vs seven on N7K-C7009, supporting up to 384 total 40G FC ports (higher maximum port density)
4. Six independent active-active load-sharing crossbar fabric modules delivering 4.1 Tbps full non-blocking bandwidth (N7K-C7009 reaches higher 8.8 Tbps but uses side-to-side airflow incompatible with standard cold-aisle front-intake racks)
5. Dual redundant Supervisor-2 / Supervisor-2E fabric control modules with stateful failover and ISSU non-disruptive firmware upgrades (shared HA architecture with all Nexus 7000 chassis)
6. Full OIR hot-swap support for all critical FRUs: crossbar modules, fan trays, power supplies, supervisors, line cards without chassis power cycle
7. Front-to-back airflow design optimized for mainstream cold aisle data center rack deployments (N7K-C7009 uses side-to-side airflow, limited rack compatibility)
8. Unified NX-OS software stack with native EVPN, OTV, LISP, VDC, FCoE and REST API automation features consistent with all Nexus 7000 family
9. 21RU rack footprint for large core aggregation (N7K-C7009 is 14RU, smaller rack height for compact data center pods)
10. Limitation: Fixed eight I/O slot ceiling with no expansion beyond eight built-in line card bays, legacy maximum 40G Ethernet hardware generation, end-of-sale since Feb 2022, hardware support expiring Feb 28, 2027.

7. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Large Virtualized Multi-Pod Data Center Core SAN-LAN Director
   21RU modular rack form factor deployed as campus central SAN/LAN core director; eight integrated pre-activated 40G F2E line cards populate all I/O slots for 384 total 40G ports connecting distributed building N7K-C7004 pod core switches, primary production all-flash NVMe FCoE storage arrays and massive blade server racks, dual redundant supervisors + five active-active crossbar modules provide zero-failover fabric control-plane and switching redundancy, VDC + VSAN segmentation isolates independent departmental production, test and backup converged LAN/SAN fabrics.
2. Multi-Building Enterprise Campus Core-Edge SAN-LAN Fabric
   Multiple N7K-C7010 mid-large core directors deployed per primary data center storage rack, utilizing mixed 10G/40G long-distance LR ISL trunk links to interconnect geographically distributed campus storage pods, dual layered fan trays ensure stable cooling during fan tray maintenance, built-in FCIP hardware offload provision asynchronous cross-site disaster recovery replication tunnels between primary and DR data centers.
3. Large Regional Mission-Critical Headquarters Converged Storage/LAN Switch
   Financial, healthcare and government headquarters deployments require complete triple power + dual fan tray + dual supervisor + five-crossbar 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 mid-large chassis.
4. Medium-to-Large 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-C7010 ideal for large metro PoP edge deployments, terminating large-scale 10G/40G enterprise customer access circuits and multi-port ISL core backbone trunks with logical VSAN multi-tenant isolation to separate independent customer LAN/SAN fabrics, unused I/O slots reserved for future growth in customer port count and encryption compliance SSM service modules.
5. Legacy Medium-Scale SAN-LAN Fabric Consolidation Migration Switch
   Drop-in performance upgrade for aging Nexus 7004 compact pod core switches, fully backward compatible with existing 10G SFP transceivers while unlocking 40G high-density port expansion, triple redundant power supplies 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 SSM encryption/replication compliance service module additions as enterprise storage compliance requirements expand.

8. Standard Package Contents (Bare Chassis N7K-C7010 Base SKU)

Items Sold Separately (Not Included in Bare Chassis N7K-C7010)

• Up to three 6000W Platinum AC hot-swappable redundant power supply units (DC telecom PSUs sold separately)
• Two matching hot-swappable variable-speed fan assemblies (N7K-C7010-FAN-S system fan tray + N7K-C7010-FAN-F fabric fan tray)
• Two redundant Supervisor-2 or Supervisor-2E fabric control modules (mandatory for chassis operation)
• Five DS-X97-FAB2 crossbar fabric switching modules (mandatory for full chassis bandwidth operation)
• Optional Nexus 7000 family pluggable I/O line/service modules (48-port 40G F2E switching module, N7K-F248XP-25E 10G line card, N7K-M224XP-23L multi-protocol FCIP/iSCSI gateway module, SSM storage encryption/replication module)
• DS-SFP-FC10G/40G optical fiber transceivers for all base Ethernet/FCoE ports (backward compatible with legacy 8G FC SFPs)
• Optional IVR Inter-VSAN Routing multilayer software license, FCIP SAN Extension Enabler license, Mainframe FCoE Enabler license, OTV Data Center Interconnect license, IOA I/O Acceleration license, DMM Data Migration Enabler 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 Summary (For Quotation & Datasheet Use)