Cisco Nexus 9500 Comparison-Chassis, Supervisors and Modules…

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Cisco Nexus 9500 Series is the modular one in the big star family-Nexus 9000 Series Switches. (The other one is the fixed-9300 switches). The Nexus 9000 is Cisco’s new SDN master plan.

The Nexus 9000 is a new series of data center switches as part of its SDN-flavored Application Centric Infrastructure.

The Nexus 9000 switches run NX-OS–the operating system that powers all of Cisco’s Nexus data center switches–but they also run in a slimmed-down ACI mode that allows the switches to participate in the SDN framework. We know that it is the top-of-rack and chassis switches with its Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) product suite. In this article we will have a look at the main elements of a Cisco Nexus 9500 Series, and more comparisons can help you to understand the main features and differences between each model. So let’s check, from Chassis to three main modules…

Cisco Nexus 9500-Advantage

Cisco Nexus 9500 Chassis

  • Modular Chassis
  • 1/10/40/100 GE Ethernet
  • NX-OS and ACI
Nexus 9504 Switch Nexus 9508 Switch Nexus 9516 Switch
Form factor 7 RU 13 RU 21 RU
Line card slots 4 8 16
Supervisor slots 2 2 2
Fabric module slots 6 6 6
ACI support Yes * Yes Yes *
Bandwidth per slot (Tbps) 3.84 3.84 3.84
Bandwidth per system (Tbps) 15 30 60
Maximum number of 1/10G BASE-T ports 192 384 768
Maximum number of 10 GE ports 576 1152 2304
Maximum number of 40 GE ports 144 288 576
Maximum number of 100GE ports 32 64 128
Airflow Front to back Front to back Front to back
Power supplies (3-kW AC) Up to 4 Up to 8 Up to 10
Fan trays 3 3 3

 

Nexus 9500 Supervisors

  • Support across all chassis
  • 4 and 6 Core CPU
Supervisor A Supervisor B
Processor 4 core, 1.8 GHz CPU 6 core, 2.2 GHz CPU
Memory (RAM) 16 GB 24 GB
Storage (SSD) 64 GB 256 GB

 

Nexus 9500 100GE Modules

  • NX-OS mode
  • High Performance Interconnect
X9408PC-CFP2
Usage High Performance Backbone and Router Interconnect
Front panel ports 8 x 100 GE
Standalone Yes
ACI leaf No
ACI spine No
Chassis support 4, 8, and 16 slot
Switching performance Non-blocking
Buffer (MB) 24
Typical power per port (watts) 54
Orderable Q1CY15
SKU N9K-X9408PC-CFP2

*Future

 

Nexus 9500 40GE Modules

  • Leaf, Aggregation, ACI Spine
  • NX-OS and ACI
  • FEX Aggregation
9636PQ 9536PQ 9432PQ 9736PQ
Usage 40 GE high-performance aggregation and FEX* 40 GE aggregation, ACI leaf, and FEX* 40 GE aggregation and FEX* ACI spine
Front-panel ports 36 x 40 GE 36 x 40 GE 32 x 40 GE 36 x 40 GE
Standalone Yes Yes Yes No
ACI leaf No Yes* No No
ACI spine No No No Yes
Chassis support 4 and 8, slot 4, 8, and 16 slot 4, 8, and 16 slot 4*, 8, and 16*
40 GE ports 36 36 32 36
Switching performance Nonblocking 1.5:1 oversubscribed Line rate more than 200 byte Nonblocking
Buffer (MB) 36 104 24 42
Typical power (watts) 260 360 240 197
Minimum software version 6.1(2)I1(1) 6.1(2)I2(2a) 6.1(2)I2(2a) ACI-N9KDK9-11.0
Orderable Nov 2013 Jun 2014 Jun 2014 Jul 2014
SKUs N9K-X9636PQ N9K-X9536PQ N9K-X9432PQ N9K-X9736PQ

*Future

 

Nexus 9500 10GE Modules

  • 10GE Fiber and copper
  • NX-OS and ACI
  • 40GE Uplinks
9564PX 9464PX 9564TX 9464TX
Usage 10 aggregation, ACI leaf*, and FEX* 10 aggregation and FEX* End of row and ACI leaf* End of row
Front-panel ports 48 x 10 GE + 4 x 40 GE 48 x 10 GE + 4 x 40 GE 48 x 10 GE + 4 x 40 GE 48 x 10 GE + 4 x 40 GE
Standalone Yes Yes Yes Yes
ACI leaf Yes* No Yes* No
ACI spine No No No No
Chassis support 4, 8, and 16 slot 4, 8, and 16 slot 4, 8, and 16 slot 4, 8, and 16 slot
100 M/1 GE/10 GE copper ports NA NA 48 48
10 GE fiber ports 48 48 NA NA
40 GE ports 4 4 4 4
Switching performance Nonblocking Line rate greater than 200 byte Nonblocking Line rate greater than 200 Byte
Buffer (MB) 104 12 104 12
Typical power 300 160 450 320
Minimum software version 6.1(2)I2 6.1(2)I2(2a) 6.1(2)I2 6.1(2)I2(2a)
Orderable Mar 2014 Jun 2014 Mar 2014 Jun 2014
SKU N9K-X9564PX N9K-X9464PX N9K-X9564TX N9K-X9464TX

*Future

Notes: Detailed optics support & Current software support you can refer to

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/interfaces-modules/transceiver-modules/products-device-support-tables-list.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/products-release-notes-list.html

Reference from https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/models-comparison.html

More Related Cisco Nexus 9000 Switch Topics

Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches Overview

Cisco 9500 Nexus Switch Overview-Model Comparison

Cisco Nexus 9000 Models Comparison: Nexus 9500 & Nexus 9300 Series

Three Cisco Nexus 9300 Models Overview

The 8-slot Nexus 9508 Switch Review

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