Cisco N5K-C56128P Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

• P = Port-only base chassis: Fixed front SFP+ ports support Ethernet/FCoE only; native Fibre Channel capability is exclusively provided via optional N56-M24UP2Q expansion modules
• Dual airflow flexibility: Supports port-side intake or port-side exhaust power/fan FRUs to match any hot/cold aisle rack layout
• High redundancy architecture: 2+2 redundant AC power supplies and 3+1 redundant fan trays for carrier-grade production uptimeCisco

2. Part Number Suffix Breakdown

1. N5K: Nexus 5600 unified FCoE data center switch product family
2. C56128P: 2RU expandable base chassis
   • 48 fixed 1/10G SFP+ ports (Ethernet/FCoE only, no native FC on base ports)
   • 4 native 40G QSFP+ uplink ports on front panel
   • 2 independent GEM expansion slots for port scalability
   • P: Base fixed ports are pure Ethernet/FCoE, unified Fibre Channel ports require dedicated expansion modules
3. No airflow suffix: Power supply and fan trays are sold separately to define chassis airflow direction

Factory Bare Chassis Included Hardware

1. 2RU standard 19-inch EIA horizontal rack-mount passive midplane chassis
2. Front fixed port bank: 48 × 1/10G auto-sensing SFP+ interfaces (Ethernet/FCoE only, no native Fibre Channel mode)
3. Front panel four native 40G QSFP+ uplink ports for leaf-spine fabric interconnection
4. Two independent hot-swappable GEM expansion module slots on rear upper section
5. Full rear management & power infrastructure: Four power supply bays, four fan tray slots
6. 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
7. Standard 19-inch rack mounting rails, front cable management brackets, hardware installation & global safety compliance documentationCisco

Items Not Included (Must Be Ordered Separately)

1. Hot-swappable AC power supplies (minimum 2 required for 2+2 N+N redundancy; airflow must match fan trays)
2. Four hot-swappable fan trays (3+1 cooling redundancy; mismatched airflow directions trigger thermal protection shutdown)
3. N56-M24UP2Q dedicated expansion modules (only supported GEM for this chassis):
   • 24 × unified SFP+ ports (CLI switchable between 1/10G Ethernet/FCoE or 2/4/8G native Fibre Channel)
   • 2 × additional 40G QSFP+ uplink ports per module
4. Transceivers & cables: SFP+/SFP optical transceivers, Twinax copper DAC, 40G QSFP+ transceivers, 40G-to-4×10G breakout splitter cables
5. Software feature licenses: C1-N56128 Cisco ONE full feature bundle, XL extended scale, FCoE Enabler, Layer 3 Routing, MPLS, DMM storage migration, IOA acceleration
6. Optional accessories: Lockable front door, extended cable management kit, air filter panel, serial console rollover cableCisco

Key Hardware Differentiator vs N5K-C5672UP / N5K-C5672UP-16G

3. Hardware Port & Slot Layout

Front Panel Fixed Ports

1. 48 × 1/10G SFP+ Ports
   Auto-sensing 1G/10G Ethernet/FCoE interfaces, fully compliant with IEEE DCB lossless standards (802.1Qbb PFC, 802.1Qaz ETS) to guarantee lossless storage traffic transport. These base ports cannot be configured as native Fibre Channel; FC functionality is only available via expansion modules.
2. 4 × 40G QSFP+ Uplink Ports
   Wire-speed 40G Ethernet/FCoE uplinks for leaf-spine core interconnection; each QSFP+ port supports breakout to four independent 10G SFP+ channels via splitter cables.

Rear Two Hot-Swappable GEM Expansion Slots

• 24 × unified SFP+ ports with two CLI-selectable operating modes:
  • Ethernet/FCoE Mode: 1G/10G SFP/SFP+ for server leaf links or inter-switch FCoE trunks
  • Native Fibre Channel Mode: 2/4/8G Fibre Channel for direct disk array, all-flash storage and tape library SAN attachment
• 2 × extra 40G QSFP+ uplink ports per module, doubling fabric uplink capacity when dual GEMs are installed

Rear Power, Cooling & Management Block

1. Four hot-swappable AC power supply bays (2+2 redundant architecture)
2. Four independent hot-swappable fan tray slots (3+1 cooling redundancy)
3. Dedicated management port block: Dual 1G out-of-band Ethernet, serial console, USB flash port for offline firmware upgrades and configuration backup
4. Global chassis health LED, power/fan fault indicator LEDs, UID locator beacon for rack asset identification

4. Hardware Performance Specifications

1. Non-blocking full-duplex switching fabric aggregate bandwidth: 2560 Gbps (2.56 Tbps)
2. Wire-speed Layer 2/Layer 3 forwarding throughput: 1904 Mpps (64-byte minimum frame size)
3. Cut-through switching latency: Consistent ~1 microsecond across all 10G/40G ports
4. Dynamic shared packet buffer: 25 MB allocated per 12-port port group, optimized for mixed LAN/SAN burst traffic
5. Address table scaling: Base 64,000 MAC entries; XL license unlocks combined 256,000 MAC/ARP host entries and expanded multicast tables
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. ASIC hardware offload feature suite:
   • Full lossless FCoE SAN stack: PFC priority flow control, ETS bandwidth scheduling, VNTag virtualization, FC-NVMe low-latency storage tunneling
   • Line-rate VXLAN/NVGRE hardware offload for multi-tenant cloud VM 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 cross-site disaster recovery SAN replication
   • DMM non-disruptive storage data migration, IOA storage I/O optimization, real-time streaming LAN/SAN telemetry export
   • Buffer-to-buffer credits on GEM unified ports supporting medium-distance Fibre Channel SAN extension

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Form Factor: 2 RU (8.8 cm height), standard 19-inch EIA horizontal rack mount
• External dimensions (H × W × D): 8.8 cm × 43.9 cm × 76.2 cm (3.5 × 17.3 × 30 inches)Cisco
• Bare chassis weight (no PSUs/fans/modules/transceivers): ~11.3 kg (25 lbs)
• Fully loaded maximum weight (4 PSUs + 4 fans + two GEM modules + full transceivers): ~31.75 kg (70 lbs)Cisco
• 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

AC Power Supply Spec (Factory Separate FRU)

• Input: Universal 90–264V AC, 47–63Hz
• Rated single PSU output: 1100W; typical full-load power draw ~880W with dual GEM modules installedCisco
• Hot-swappable OIR replacement, N+N redundant power architecture

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 (max 4094 VLANs)
• 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 only available on N56-M24UP2Q expansion module ports; base chassis SFP+ ports operate Ethernet/FCoE exclusively

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 GEM unified port modules 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 fiber 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/QSFP 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-C56128P Bare Chassis

1. Medium virtualized leaf-spine data center expandable ToR aggregation core: Base 48×10G ports connect rack servers via short fiber DAC; dual GEM expansion modules add extra 10G leaf links and native Fibre Channel ports for direct disk/tape SAN attachment, scaling total 10G capacity to 96 ports
2. Enterprise financial/mainframe zSystems converged storage core: Deploy N56-M24UP2Q expansion modules to add native 2/4/8G Fibre Channel without replacing the main chassis; factory-supported dual airflow power/fan FRUs eliminate single power/cooling failure points for mission-critical SAN workloads
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 expandable chassis
5. Legacy Nexus 5500 fabric high-port-density 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; GEM unified expansion ports can switch to native FC for direct tape array attachment

7. Standard Package Contents of N5K-C56128P Bare Chassis SKU

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

• Minimum two hot-swappable AC power supplies (2+2 N+N redundancy, airflow matched to fan trays)
• Four matching airflow hot-swappable fan trays (airflow must align with power supplies to avoid thermal faults)
• Optional N56-M24UP2Q GEM expansion modules for two rear expansion slots
• 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 four front fixed 40G uplink ports and GEM module QSFP ports
• Optional feature software licenses: C1-N56128 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