Cisco N2K-C2232TM Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

• Core copper 10G design: Uses low-cost CAT6a/CAT7 twisted-pair cabling for 10G server access, supporting lossless FCoE transmission up to 30 meters over copper cabling
• Dual airflow flexibility: Port-side intake (blue handle) or port-side exhaust (red handle) power/fan FRUs to match any hot/cold aisle rack layout; airflow direction of all power and fan modules must match to avoid thermal protection shutdown
• Fixed 4:1 maximum oversubscription ratio: 320G total host bandwidth vs 80G aggregate fabric uplink bandwidth
• Carrier-grade redundancy: Hot-swappable dual AC power supplies and dual fan trays for non-stop production operation

2. Part Number Suffix Breakdown & Hardware Differentiation

Full PN Breakdown

1. N2K: Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender product family
2. C2232TM: 1RU high-density copper FEX chassis model
   • 32 × auto-sensing 1/10GBASE-T RJ45 copper host ports
   • T = 10GBASE-T copper interfaces;M = Multiple 10G SFP+ fabric uplinks (8 ports total)
3. No fixed airflow preset: Power supply and fan trays are ordered separately to define chassis cooling direction

Key Hardware Gap vs N2K-C2232PP-10GE (All-Fiber Model)

Key Hardware Gap vs Enhanced N2K-C2232TM-E

Factory Bare Chassis Included Hardware

1. 1RU standard 19-inch EIA horizontal rack-mount passive chassis
2. Rear panel fixed port bank:
   • 32 × auto-negotiating 1/10GBASE-T RJ45 copper host ports (supports FCoE over CAT6a/CAT7 up to 30m)
   • 8 × yellow-labeled SFP+ 10G fabric uplink ports dedicated to parent switch interconnection
3. Front panel redundant FRU slots: Dual AC power supply bays, dual hot-swappable fan tray slots
4. Integrated status LED indicators: Global system health, power supply fault, fan fault, per-port link/activity, UID rack locator beacon
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 AC power supplies (single PSU for basic operation, dual PSUs for N+1 power redundancy; airflow matched to fan trays)
• Hot-swappable fan trays (single fan for basic operation, dual fans for redundant cooling; airflow must align with power supplies)
• SFP+ transceivers, Twinax copper DAC cables and FET-10G fabric extender transceivers for eight 10G fabric uplink ports (SR/LR optical or short-range passive copper)
• Optional accessories: Lockable front door, air filter panel, cable management guides, serial console rollover cable

Supported Parent Switch Platforms

3. Hardware Port & Slot Layout

Rear Panel Fixed Ports

1. 32 × 1/10GBASE-T RJ45 Host Ports
   Auto-sensing 1G/10G copper interfaces compliant with IEEE 802.3an 10GBASE-T and IEEE DCB lossless standards (802.1Qbb PFC, 802.1Qaz ETS) to carry lossless FCoE storage traffic over CAT6a/CAT6a cabling with maximum 30-meter reach. All Layer 2, SAN and security policies are enforced centrally on the parent switch, not the FEX itself.
2. 8 × SFP+ 10G Fabric Uplink Ports (Yellow Labeled)
   Wire-speed 10G Ethernet/FCoE uplinks for fabric connectivity to the upstream parent switch. Supports SFP+ optical transceivers, passive Twinax DAC cables and dedicated FET-10G fabric extender transceivers. All eight uplinks can be bundled into LACP port-channels for load balancing and full link failure 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 eliminates single cooling point of failure)

Front Panel LED Status Array

4. Hardware Performance Specifications

1. Total host port capacity: 32×10G wire-speed downlink ports, total 320 Gbps aggregate host bandwidth
2. Fabric uplink bandwidth: 8×10G full-duplex uplinks, total 80 Gbps aggregate upstream bandwidth
3. Fixed oversubscription ratio: 4:1 (320G host / 80G uplink bandwidth)Cisco
4. Full-duplex switching capacity: 160 Gbps; wire-speed forwarding throughput: 595 Mpps (64-byte minimum frame size)
5. Shared dynamic packet buffer: 8 MB fixed buffer optimized for standard virtualization and FCoE storage traffic
6. VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q VLANs, configured and managed exclusively on the parent switch
7. Port-channel scaling: Supports up to 8 physical host ports per LACP host port-channel / vPC trunk
8. Zero-touch provisioning: Automatic firmware synchronization, configuration download and bulk upgrades triggered from the parent switch singleinstall allcommand
9. Hardware offload & lossless features (controlled by parent NX-OS):
   • IEEE DCB standards (PFC Priority Flow Control, ETS Enhanced Transmission Selection) for lossless FCoE storage transport over 10G copper
   • vPC dual-homing, PVLAN private VLAN, MSTP spanning tree, QoS traffic classification
   • VNTag virtual machine-aware traffic tagging for virtualized server environments
   • Buffer-to-buffer credits for short-range Fibre Channel SAN extension via fabric uplink transceivers

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Form Factor: 1 RU (4.37 cm height), standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 43.7 mm × 439.4 mm × 449.6 mm (1.72 × 17.3 × 17.7 inches)Cisco
• Fully loaded chassis weight (dual PSUs + dual fans + transceivers): ~8.4 kg (18.5 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: 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 90–264V AC, 50–63Hz
• Typical full-load power consumption: 210W with all 32 host ports active
• 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 HIF (Host Interface) 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 10GBASE-T copper host ports up to 30m
• NPV/NPIV FCoE edge virtualization for unified LAN-SAN data center convergence
• POAP zero-touch automatic provisioning for mass rack FEX deployment
• Port security, static MAC locking to restrict unauthorized server/storage device attachment
• Auto-sensing 1G/10G operation on all RJ45 host ports without transceiver replacement

QoS & Traffic Prioritization

• Four hardware priority queues per port (both 10GBASE-T copper and 10G SFP+ fabric uplinks)
• Ingress policing, 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 and tape archives
• DCBX auto-negotiation for lossless FCoE LAN/SAN traffic over CAT6a copper cabling

Monitoring & Automation Tools

• Cisco DCNM centralized converged fabric monitoring, provisioning and REST API automation
• 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 FEX hardware health validation without production traffic interruption
• Unified bulk firmware upgrade: Single command on parent switch upgrades all attached FEX devices simultaneously

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios for N2K-C2232TM FEX

1. Virtualized leaf-spine data center copper 10G rack expansion: 32-port 10GBASE-T design leverages existing CAT6a copper cabling for high-density virtualization servers; eight 10G fabric uplinks deliver redundant high-bandwidth connectivity to the parent ToR switch
2. Enterprise unified LAN/FCoE storage rack: Cost-effective 10G copper solution for medium-scale all-flash storage arrays, consolidating virtual server traffic and lossless FCoE storage on a single FEX chassis
3. Mid-tier blade server rack access extension: Compact 1RU form factor pairs with blade server enclosures, expanding 10G copper port density without consuming extra high-value 10G ports on the parent core switch
4. Legacy Gigabit data center migration: Smooth transition path from 1G to 10G server access, reusing existing rack copper cabling infrastructure while maintaining single-pane unified fabric management
5. Medium multi-tenant PoP edge access: High-density 10G copper rack-level port expansion with complete VLAN isolation controlled on the upstream core parent switch

7. Standard Package Contents of N2K-C2232TM 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, airflow matched to fan trays)
• One or two matching hot-swappable fan trays (dual fans recommended for cooling redundancy; airflow must align with power supplies to avoid thermal faults)
• SFP+ optical transceivers, Twinax DAC copper cables and FET-10G transceivers for eight 10G fabric uplink ports
• Optional feature software licenses: All fabric, routing and storage features are licensed on the parent upstream Nexus switch, no separate FEX licenses required
• 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