Cisco N2K-C2148T Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

• Core architecture: All data/control traffic is forwarded to the parent switch over 10G fabric links; zero local switching, unified single-pane management via parent NX-OS
• Oversubscription flexibility: Supports 1:1 non-oversubscribed up to maximum 4.8:1 oversubscription ratios based on active fabric uplink countCisco

2. Part Number Suffix Breakdown

1. N2K: Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender product family
2. C2148T: Base 1RU FEX chassis model
   • 48 fixed 1000BASE-T RJ45 copper host ports for server/workstation connections
   • T = 1000BASE-T copper interfaces; four dedicated SFP+ 10G fabric uplink ports marked with yellow labels
3. No airflow suffix: Power and fan modules follow fixed front-to-back cooling design, compatible with standard hot/cold aisle data center rack layouts

Factory Bare Chassis Included Hardware

1. 1RU standard 19-inch EIA horizontal rack-mount passive chassis
2. Rear panel fixed port bank:
   • 48 × auto-sensing 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 host ports for end-host server attachment
   • 4 × yellow-marked SFP+ 10G fabric uplink ports for parent switch interconnection
3. Front panel service slots: Dual power supply bays, dual hot-swappable fan tray slots
4. Basic status LED indicators (global health, power, fan, port link/activity, UID beacon)
5. Standard 19-inch rack mounting rails, hardware installation & global safety compliance documentation

Items Not Included (Must Be Ordered Separately)

• Hot-swappable AC power supplies (single PSU for basic operation, dual PSUs for N+1 power redundancy)
• Hot-swappable fan trays (single fan for basic operation, dual fans for redundant cooling)
• SFP+ transceivers and Twinax DAC copper cables for four 10G fabric uplink ports (SR/LR/ER optical or short-range copper direct attach)
• Optional accessories: Lockable front door, air filter panel, cable management brackets

Supported Parent Switch Platforms

3. Hardware Port & Slot Layout

Rear Panel Fixed Ports

1. 48 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 Host Ports
   Auto-negotiating 1G copper interfaces for rack server, storage and virtualization host connections; compliant with standard IEEE 802.3ab Gigabit Ethernet. All Layer 2/DCB/FCoE policies are enforced on the upstream parent switch instead of the FEX itself.
2. 4 × SFP+ 10G Fabric Uplink Ports (Yellow Labeled)
   Wire-speed 10G Ethernet uplinks dedicated to fabric connectivity to the parent switch; supports SFP+ optical transceivers (SR, LR, ER) and passive Twinax copper DAC cables. Multiple uplinks can be bundled into LACP port-channels for load balancing and redundancy.

Front Panel Redundant FRU Slots

1. Two independent hot-swappable AC power supply bays (N+1 redundant deployment supported)
2. Two independent hot-swappable fan tray slots (dual fan redundancy to avoid cooling single point of failure)

LED Status Array

4. Hardware Performance Specifications

1. Total host port capacity: 48×1G wire-speed downlink ports
2. Fabric uplink bandwidth: 4×10G full-duplex uplinks, total 40G aggregate upstream bandwidth
3. Supported oversubscription ratios:
   • 4 active uplinks: 48:40 = 1.2:1 mild oversubscription
   • 1 active uplink: 48:10 = 4.8:1 maximum oversubscriptionCisco
4. Packet buffer: Shared dynamic ingress/egress buffer optimized for bursty server LAN traffic
5. Supported maximum VLANs: 4094 standard IEEE VLANs, configured centrally on parent switch
6. Port-channel scaling: Each FEX supports up to 16 physical ports per vPC/host port-channel
7. Zero-touch provisioning: Automatic firmware image sync, configuration download and upgrade synchronized with parent switch during FEX discovery; bulk upgrades triggered via parent switch single commandCisco
8. Supported offload & lossless features (controlled by parent switch):
   • IEEE DCB standards (PFC Priority Flow Control, ETS Enhanced Transmission Selection) for FCoE lossless storage transport
   • vPC dual-homing, port security, PVLAN private VLAN, MSTP spanning tree, QoS traffic classification
   • VNTag virtual machine-aware traffic tagging for virtualized server environments

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Form Factor: 1 RU (4.4 cm height), standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 4.4 cm × 43.9 cm × 50.8 cm
• Bare chassis weight (no PSUs/fans/transceivers): ~5.4 kg (11.9 lbs)
• Fully loaded maximum weight (dual PSUs + dual fans + full transceivers): ~7.2 kg (15.9 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: 5%–95% non-condensing
• Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950-1, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, GR63 seismic compliance, RoHS 6 validated

AC Power Supply FRU Specifications (Sold Separately)

• Input: Universal 100–240V AC, 47–63Hz
• Typical power consumption: 165W full load with all ports activeCisco
• Hot-swappable OIR replacement, supports N+1 redundant power deployment

5. NX-OS Feature Set (Managed Centrally on Parent Switch)

Layer 2 Ethernet & Converged FCoE Fabric

• Single centralized management plane; all FEX ports appear as logical interfaces on the parent NX-OS switch
• 802.1Q VLAN tagging, PVLAN private VLAN isolation
• MSTP multi-instance spanning tree, vPC dual-active peer-link redundancy for server high availability
• IEEE DCB lossless standards (PFC, ETS) enabling FCoE storage traffic over 1G copper host ports
• NPV/NPIV FCoE edge virtualization for unified LAN/SAN convergence
• POAP zero-touch automatic provisioning for mass rack FEX deployment
• Port security, static MAC locking to restrict unauthorized server attachment

QoS & Traffic Prioritization

• Four hardware priority queues per port (1G copper and 10G fabric uplinks)
• Ingress policing, egress bandwidth shaping for storage, VM east-west and backup traffic
• Pre-built QoS templates for virtualized servers, OLTP databases and tape backup workloads
• DCBX auto-negotiation for lossless FCoE traffic over copper host ports

Monitoring & Automation Tools

• Cisco DCNM centralized converged fabric monitoring, provisioning and REST API automation
• Real-time telemetry: port throughput, latency, frame error counters, transceiver optical power diagnostics
• Fault alert notifications via email, syslog and SNMP traps
• GOLD Generic Online Diagnostics for continuous FEX hardware health validation without traffic interruption
• Unified firmware upgrade: Singleinstall allcommand on parent switch upgrades all attached FEX units simultaneouslyCisco

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios for N2K-C2148T FEX

1. Traditional 1G server top-of-rack expansion: Deployed beside parent Nexus ToR switches to add 48 low-cost Gigabit copper server ports per rack, reducing expensive 10G parent port consumption for legacy 1G rack servers
2. Small/medium enterprise unified LAN/FCoE storage rack: Supports lossless FCoE over 1G CAT6 copper for entry-level all-flash storage arrays, extending the parent switch’s SAN convergence capability without extra high-density unified port line cards
3. Virtualization farm rack aggregation: Mass low-density VM host connectivity with centralized vPC and security policy management on the parent switch, simplifying consistent policy enforcement across hundreds of rack servers
4. Legacy data center migration cost optimization: Reuse existing CAT5e/CAT6 copper cabling infrastructure while maintaining unified fabric management; gradual migration path to 10G server ports via parent switch uplink hardware refresh
5. Multi-tenant small PoP edge access: Low-cost rack-level multi-tenant port expansion with VLAN isolation fully controlled on the upstream core parent switch

7. Standard Package Contents of N2K-C2148T Bare Chassis SKU

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

• One or two hot-swappable AC power supplies (dual PSUs recommended for N+1 power redundancy)
• One or two matching hot-swappable fan trays (dual fans recommended for cooling redundancy)
• SFP+ optical transceivers and Twinax DAC copper cables for four 10G fabric uplink ports
• Optional accessories: Lockable front door, air filter panel, serial console cable for parent switch management

Short Commercial Catalog Summary for Quotation