Cisco N5K-C5672UP Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

• UP = Unified Port: 16 dedicated SFP+ ports configurable via CLI as 1/10G Ethernet/FCoE or 2/4/8G native Fibre Channel without transceiver/hardware replacement
• Dual airflow flexibility: Supports port-side intake (red handle) or fan-side intake (blue handle) power/fan modules for flexible rack hot/cold aisle layouts

2. Part Number Suffix Breakdown

1. N5K: Nexus 5600 unified FCoE data center switch product family
2. C5672UP: Base 1RU chassis model
   • 72 total wire-speed 10G ports maximum (48 fixed 10G SFP+ + breakout from 6×40G QSFP+)
   • UP = Unified Port: 16 out of 48 fixed SFP+ ports support dual Ethernet/Fibre Channel operation
3. No airflow suffix: Separate power/fan modules are purchased to define airflow direction (port-in or fan-in)

Factory Base Chassis Included Hardware (Bare Chassis SKU)

1. 1RU standard 19-inch EIA horizontal rack-mount passive midplane chassis
2. Front fixed port bank: 48 × 1/10G SFP+ interfaces (32 standard Ethernet/FCoE ports + 16 UP unified ports)
3. Six rear native 40G QSFP+ uplink ports (supports breakout to 4×10G SFP+ each via splitter cables)
4. Complete out-of-band management suite: RJ45 RS232 serial console, dual 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band management Ethernet, USB Type-A diagnostic flash port
5. Standard 19-inch rack mounting rails, front cable management brackets, hardware installation & global safety compliance documentation

Items Not Included (Must Be Ordered Separately)

• Hot-swappable redundant AC power supplies (1+1 redundant pair required)
• Three hot-swappable fan modules (2+1 cooling redundancy)
• SFP+/SFP optical transceivers, Twinax copper DAC cables for all 48 fixed 10G ports
• QSFP+ 40G transceivers, 40G-to-4×10G breakout splitter cables for uplink ports
• Software feature licenses: C1-N5672 Cisco ONE full feature bundle, XL extended scale, FCoE Enabler, Layer 3 Routing, MPLS, DMM storage migration, IOA acceleration
• Optional accessories: Lockable front door, extended cable management kit, air filter panel, serial console rollover cable

Key Differentiator vs N5K-C5672UP-16G

• N5K-C5672UP: 16 unified ports, max 8G native Fibre Channel speed, standard buffer-to-buffer credits for short SAN links
• N5K-C5672UP-16G: 24 unified ports with 16G Fibre Channel support, extended buffer credits for long-distance SAN extension up to 16km

3. Hardware Port Layout

Front Panel Fixed 48 × SFP+ Ports

1. First 32 SFP+ ports: Standard dual-speed 1G/10G Ethernet/FCoE only, no native Fibre Channel capability
2. Last 16 SFP+ unified ports (UP): Two CLI-selectable operating modes
   • Ethernet/FCoE Mode: 1G/10G SFP/SFP+ for server leaf connections, leaf-spine FCoE inter-switch links
   • Native Fibre Channel Mode: 2/4/8G Fibre Channel for direct disk array, all-flash storage and tape library SAN attachment
     All 48 fixed ports comply with IEEE DCB lossless standards (802.1Qbb PFC, 802.1Qaz ETS) for FCoE transport.

Rear Six 40G QSFP+ Uplink Ports

Management Interfaces

• RJ45 serial console port for local CLI configuration
• Dual independent 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band management Ethernet ports for remote device access during data plane outages
• USB Type-A flash port for offline NX-OS firmware upgrades, configuration backup and diagnostics

Front Panel LED Status Array

4. Hardware Performance Specifications

1. Non-blocking full-duplex switching fabric aggregate bandwidth: 1440 Gbps (1.44 Tbps)
2. Wire-speed Layer 2/Layer 3 forwarding throughput: 1071 Mpps (64-byte minimum frame size)
3. Cut-through switching latency: ~1 microsecond consistent low latency for all 10G/40G ports
4. Shared packet buffer: 25 MB dynamic per 12-port port group, optimized for mixed LAN/SAN burst traffic
5. MAC address table capacity: Base 64,000 IPv4 host entries; XL license unlocks extended MAC/ARP/multicast table scale
6. Port-channel scaling limit: 1024 LACP logical trunk bundles, maximum 16 physical ports per vPC/ISL trunk
7. Maximum supported Nexus 2000 FEX fabric extenders: 48 FEX leaf units (XL scale license required)
8. Hardware offload feature suite:
   • Full lossless FCoE SAN stack: PFC priority flow control, ETS bandwidth scheduling, VNTag virtualization, FC-NVMe low-latency storage tunneling
   • VXLAN/NVGRE hardware offload for multi-tenant cloud virtual workload bridging & routing
   • OTV cross-data-center overlay encapsulation, LISP workload mobility for multi-pod distributed fabrics
   • Hardware-accelerated FCIP tunnel compression, write acceleration and tape pipelining for disaster recovery SAN replication
   • DMM non-disruptive storage data migration, IOA storage I/O optimization, real-time streaming LAN/SAN telemetry export
   • 15 buffer-to-buffer credits per unified FC port, supporting SAN extension up to 3.7km at 8G Fibre Channel

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Form Factor: 1 RU (4.4 cm height), standard 19-inch EIA horizontal rack mount
• External dimensions (H × W × D): 4.4 cm × 43.9 cm × 76.2 cm
• Bare chassis weight (no power supplies/fans/transceivers): ~9.5 kg (21 lbs)
• Fully loaded maximum weight (dual PSUs + three fans + full transceivers): ~14.5 kg (32 lbs)
• Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C (32°F ~ 104°F); certified altitude up to 3,000 meters
• Storage temperature range: -40°C ~ 70°C (-40°F ~ 158°F)
• Operating relative humidity: 8%–80% non-condensing; storage humidity 5%–95% non-condensing
• Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950-1, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, GR63 seismic Zone 4, RoHS 6 compliant, FIPS 140-2 Level 1 validated

Redundant Power & Fan Modules (Sold Separately)

• AC power supply: Hot-swappable, 1+1 N+1 redundant architecture; multiple wattage options matching airflow direction
• Fan trays: Three independent hot-swappable fan modules, 2+1 cooling redundancy; mixed airflow directions between power and fan modules trigger thermal protection shutdown

5. Full NX-OS Feature Set Supported

Layer 2 Ethernet & Converged FCoE Storage Fabric

• Single default VDC architecture (Nexus 5600 series does not support multiple independent VDC partitions)
• 802.1Q VLAN tagging, PVLAN private VLAN anti-spoofing isolation
• MSTP multi-instance spanning tree for Layer 2 loop prevention, vPC dual-active peer-link redundancy for storage/Ethernet uplinks
• Hardware slow drain detection and buffer credit isolation to eliminate FCoE storage packet loss
• NPV/NPIV FCoE edge virtualization to reduce upstream MDS SAN director control-plane overhead
• POAP zero-touch automatic switch provisioning for mass rack rollouts
• Native Nexus 2000 FEX fabric extender support for high-density server leaf aggregation
• Dynamic unified port mode switching via CLI to toggle the 16 UP ports between Ethernet/FCoE and native Fibre Channel without hardware replacement

Multilayer Routing & Cross-Data Center Interconnect (Layer 3 License Required)

• Full IPv4/IPv6 dynamic routing protocols: OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, static routing, ECMP load balancing
• VRF virtual routing and forwarding for multi-tenant Layer 3 traffic isolation
• Licensed IVR Inter-VSAN Routing for secure cross-storage-fabric data forwarding
• OTV Overlay Transport Virtualization for Layer 2 workload mobility across geographically separated disaster recovery sites
• LISP Locator/ID Separation Protocol for multi-pod distributed data center interconnection
• Full carrier MPLS stack including LDP, VPLS, VPWS, EVPN-FC dual-stack multi-tenant transport
• Hardware-accelerated FCIP tunnel compression, write acceleration and tape pipelining for long-distance off-site backup replication
• iSCSI multi-protocol gateway functionality via supported transceivers for IP-attached storage consolidation

Advanced QoS & Traffic Prioritization

• Four hardware priority queues per port (10G SFP+ and 40G QSFP+) for tiered classification of storage I/O, VM east-west traffic, management and backup streams
• Ingress frame policing and egress bandwidth shaping to throttle low-priority tape backup and replication traffic
• Pre-built QoS templates optimized for OLTP databases, all-flash NVMe storage, virtual server workloads, tape archives and disaster recovery replication
• Dedicated high-priority low-latency queue for real-time unified communications and enterprise database workloads
• DCBX media optimization for converged FCoE LAN/SAN traffic over all 10G unified SFP+ interfaces

Enterprise & Service Provider Security Suite

• Port security with static MAC locking to block unauthorized server/storage device attachment
• Granular RBAC multi-tier administrative access control, native integration with Cisco ISE identity engine
• SSHv2 encrypted remote management, SNMPv3 secure monitoring, AES encrypted startup configurations, DH-CHAP FCoE inter-fabric authentication
• Port lockdown, VSAN read-only permission controls, complete audit logging for all fabric configuration changes
• FIPS 140-2 Level 1 compliance for government, financial and regulated enterprise deployments
• Cisco TrustSec security group tagging for end-to-end policy segmentation across campus and data center fabrics
• 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 centralized graphical converged LAN/SAN fabric monitoring, provisioning and REST API automation
• Dual isolated out-of-band management Ethernet ports for offline device access during fabric-wide outages and analytics export
• External USB flash storage for offline NX-OS firmware upgrades, running configuration backup and offline diagnostics
• CDP automatic neighbor discovery for Nexus/MDS fabric devices
• Real-time streaming telemetry: port throughput, latency, frame error counters, SFP optical transmit power diagnostics
• Fault alert notifications via email, syslog and SNMP traps
• GOLD Generic Online Diagnostics for continuous hardware health validation without production traffic interruption
• Onboard Python interpreter + NX-API REST interfaces for custom data center automation scripts

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios for N5K-C5672UP Bare Chassis

1. Medium virtualized leaf-spine data center ToR aggregation core: Flexible 16 unified ports balance 10G server leaf links and direct native Fibre Channel disk/tape storage attachment; six 40G QSFP+ uplinks connect to spine layer for high-capacity fabric scaling
2. Enterprise financial/mainframe zSystems converged unified storage core: Native FCoE + direct FC port mode eliminates dedicated FC expansion card costs for mixed copper/fiber server and SAN storage environments; dual redundant power/fan modules purchased separately to eliminate single power/cooling failure points
3. Multi-building enterprise campus core converged LAN/SAN switch: Modular airflow power/fan options adapt to any cold/hot aisle rack layout; built-in FCIP hardware offload provides asynchronous cross-site disaster recovery replication between primary and DR data centers
4. Medium MPLS service provider multi-tenant metro PoP leaf switch: Full carrier-grade MPLS/EVPN/VXLAN feature suite supported via separate C1 license; VLAN/VSAN multi-tenant isolation separates independent enterprise customer LAN/SAN fabrics on a single chassis
5. Legacy Nexus 5500 fabric performance upgrade: Backward compatible with existing 10G SFP transceivers while delivering doubled fabric bandwidth, hardware VXLAN offload and ultra-low 1μs cut-through latency for virtualized workloads
6. Centralized enterprise medium-scale tape library backup fabric aggregation core: Dedicated SAN aggregation switch utilizing multi-port FCIP port-channels to primary production FCoE fabrics for asynchronous off-site archive replication workloads; unified front ports can switch to native FC for direct tape array attachment

7. Standard Package Contents of N5K-C5672UP Bare Chassis SKU

Separately Mandatory Components (Not Included in This Bare Chassis Bundle)

• Two hot-swappable AC power supplies (matching selected airflow direction: port-side intake or fan-side intake)
• Three matching airflow hot-swappable fan trays (airflow must align with power supplies to avoid thermal faults)
• SFP+/SFP optical transceivers and Twinax DAC copper cables for all 48 fixed 10G SFP+ front ports
• QSFP+ 40G transceivers and 4×10G breakout splitter cables for six rear 40G uplink ports
• Optional feature software licenses: C1-N5672 XL Scale, IVR Inter-VSAN Routing, FCIP SAN Extension Enabler, Mainframe FCoE Enabler, OTV Data Center Interconnect, IOA I/O Acceleration, DMM Data Migration, MPLS Suite
• RS232 serial console rollover cable, mini USB console cable, fiber/copper patch cords, rack cable management accessories, lockable front door, air filter panel

Short Commercial Catalog Summary for Quotation