Datasheet

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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. Alternatively, copper cables can be used to
reach End of Row or Middle of Row 1GBASE-T or 10GBASE-T Fabric Extenders.
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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.
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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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1/10 Gigabit Ethernet BASE-T server connectivity with ease of migration from 1 to 10GBASE-T and
effective reuse of structured cabling.
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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.
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Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders dual-connected to two upstream Cisco Nexus 5000 Series
Switches (vPC): In this deployment scenario, access-layer redundancy is achieved through a combination