Datasheet

Data Sheet
© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 5 of 13
The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series supports an optimal cabling strategy that simplifies network operations and
prepares for future technologies:
Short intra-rack runs of copper: Intra-rack cables connecting to Gigabit Ethernet servers can be Cat5e, 6,
6A, or 7 with the Cisco Nexus 2148T, 2224TP, and 2248TP fabric extenders. Twinax cables connect
servers to ToR Cisco Nexus 2232PP Fabric Extenders. This model allows server racks and PoDs to be
preconfigured by server vendors so they can be rolled into place and put into service upon arrival.
Longer inter-rack horizontal runs of fiber: Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders in each rack are
connected to parent switches that are placed at the end or middle of the row: For long reach between the
fabric extender and the parent switch, Cisco Fabric Extender Transceiver, SFP+ short-reach (SR), and
SFP+ long-reach (LR) optics over OM2 or OM3 cables can be used. Fiber protects investments into the
future because it will support upcoming Ethernet standards, including 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet. If the
distance to the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch or Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switch is less than 10 meters,
Twinax cables (CX1 direct attach) can be used.
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Effective bandwidth utilization: Today’s data center servers are either single- or dual-homed to the network.
However, network designs almost always involve redundant deployment. Through the virtual PortChannel
(vPC) feature support on the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series, a server can be dually connected to a pair of fabric
extenders, or each fabric extender can be connected to a pair of Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches, thus
giving customers both server and fabric extender connectivity redundancy and providing active-active
connectivity with twice the bandwidth utilization as in active-standby or forwarding-blocking configurations.
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Reduced power and cooling: Cost-effective 10 Gigabit Ethernet solutions, optimal cabling, device
consolidation, rack-space reduction, and efficient bandwidth utilization all contribute to a significant reduction
in power and cooling needs in the data center.
Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Deployment Scenarios
The fabric extenders can be used in the following deployment scenarios:
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Rack servers with 100 Megabit Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, or 10 Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards
(NICs); the fabric extender can be physically located at the top of the rack and the Cisco Nexus parent switch
can reside in the middle or at the end of the row, or the fabric extender and the Cisco Nexus parent switch
can both reside at the end or middle of the row
●
10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE deployments, using servers with converged network adapters (CNAs) for
unified fabric environments with the Cisco Nexus 2232PP
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Server racks with integrated lights-out (iLO) management, with 100 Megabit Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet
management and iLO interfaces
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Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet blade servers with pass-through blades
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Low-latency, high-performance computing environments
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Virtualized access
For more information, visit the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series case studies page:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10110/prod_case_studies_list.html.
The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series can be used in conjunction with a Cisco Nexus parent switch in two main design
scenarios (shown in Figure 3):
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Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders single-connected to one upstream Cisco Nexus 5000 or 7000
Series Switch: In this deployment scenario, access-layer redundancy is achieved through redundant server
connections to two upstream distributed modular systems, using vPC (Cisco Nexus 5000 Series) or server
NIC teaming to two Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders.