Description
Cisco Nexus® 7000 Series Switches combine high levels of scalability with operational flexibility.
Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches provide the foundation for Cisco® Unified Fabric. They are a modular data center-class product line designed for highly scalable 1/10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet networks with a fabric architecture that scales beyond 17 terabits per second (Tbps). Designed to meet the requirements of the most mission-critical data centers, the switches deliver continuous system operation and virtualized, pervasive services. The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series is based on the proven Cisco NX-OS Software operating system, with enhanced features to deliver real-time system upgrades with exceptional manageability and serviceability.
The first in the next generation of switch platforms, the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series (Figure 1) provides integrated resilience combined with features optimized specifically for the data center for availability, reliability, scalability, and ease of management.
Features & Benefits
Coupled with Cisco NX-OS, the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series delivers a comprehensive set of features with nonstop operation in four chassis form factors:
● 18-slot chassis with 18 front-accessible module slots and side-to-side airflow in a compact horizontal form factor with purpose-built integrated cable management.
● 10-slot chassis with 10 front-accessible vertical module slots and front-to-back airflow and an integrated cable management system.
● 9-slot with 9 front-accessible module slots and side-to-side airflow in a compact horizontal form factor with purpose-built integrated cable management.
● 4-slot chassis with all front-accessible module slots and side-to-back airflow in a small form factor with purpose-built integrated cable management.
All Cisco Nexus 7000 Series chassis use a passive mid-plane architecture, providing physical connectors and copper traces for interconnecting the fabric modules and the I/O modules for direct data transfer. All intermodule switching is performed via the crossbar fabric ASICs on the individual I/O modules and fabric modules. In the case of Cisco Nexus 7004 chassis, since there are no fabric modules, the mid-plane provides the connectors and traces to interconnect the fabric ASICs on the I/O modules directly.
A scalable, fully distributed fabric architecture composed of up to five fabric modules combined with the chassis midplane delivers up to 550 Gbps per slot for 8.8 Tbps, 9.9 Tbps, and 18.7 Tbps of forwarding capacity in the 9-slot, 10-slot, and 18-slot switches, respectively. The 4-slot chassis delivers up to 1.92 Tbps of forwarding capacity in combination with the built-in fabric system.
The midplane design on the 9-slot, 10-slot, and 18-slot chassis and the backplane design on the 4-slot chassis support flexible technology upgrades as your needs change, providing ongoing investment protection.
Cisco Nexus 7000 4-Slot Switch Chassis
The Cisco Nexus 7000 4-Slot chassis with two I/O module slots supports up to 96 x 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 12 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 4 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, meeting the needs of small to medium-size data centers, co-locations, access- and aggregation-layer deployments, high-speed core deployments, and smaller operation zones. The Cisco Nexus 7000 4-Slot chassis also has two dedicated supervisor slots to provide full redundancy and high availability. The 4-slot chassis does not require fabric modules. The local I/O module fabrics are connected back to back to form a two-stage crossbar that interconnects the I/O modules and the supervisor engines. The backplane capacity is determined by the installed I/O modules.
● Side-to-rear airflow increases the system density in a seven-rack-unit (7RU) footprint, optimizing the use of rack space. The optimized density provides the capability to stack up to six 4-slot chassis in a 42RU rack.
● The fan tray with built-in fan and controller redundancy helps ensure reliability of the system and support for hot swapping of fan trays. The fan tray is on the top side of the chassis and draws the air from the right side of the chassis through the line card and supervisor slots and propagates it through the empty space on the left side of the chassis. The air then flows up to the fan tray on the top side and finally flows out from the vent holes on the back side of the chassis.
● Even though Nexus 7004 does not have fabric modules, fabric redundancy is still provided. If the local fabric on one of the I/O modules fails, the entire I/O module is taken offline.
● All modules, including power supplies and the fan tray, are accessible from the front.
Cisco Nexus 7000 9-Slot Switch Chassis
● The Cisco Nexus 7000 9-Slot chassis with up to seven I/O module slots supports up to 336 x 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 42 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 14 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, meeting the demands of mission-critical campus core and data center deployments. It has two dedicated supervisor slots to provide full redundancy.
● Side-to-side airflow increases the system density in a 14RU footprint, optimizing the use of rack space. The optimized density provides the capability to stack up to three 9-slot chassis in a 42RU rack.
● Independent variable-speed system and fabric fans provide efficient cooling capacity to the entire system. Fan-tray redundancy features help ensure reliability of the system and support for hot swapping of fan trays.
● I/O modules, supervisor modules, and fabric modules are accessible from the front. Power supplies and fan trays are accessible from the back.
Cisco Nexus 7000 10-Slot Switch Chassis
● The Cisco Nexus 7000 10-Slot chassis with up to eight I/O module slots supports up to 384 x 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 48 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 16 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, meeting the demands of large data center deployments. It has two dedicated supervisor slots to provide full redundancy.
● Front-to-back airflow helps ensure that use of the Cisco Nexus 7000 10-Slot chassis addresses the requirement for hot-aisle and cold-aisle deployments without additional complexity.
● The system uses dual system and fabric fan trays for cooling. Each fan tray is redundant and composed of independent variable-speed fans that automatically adjust to the ambient temperature, helping reduce power consumption in well-managed facilities while helping enable optimum operation of the switch. The system design increases cooling efficiency and provides redundancy capabilities, allowing hot swapping without affecting the system; if either a single fan or a complete fan tray fails, the system continues to operate without a significant degradation in cooling capacity.
● The system supports an optional air filter to help ensure clean air flow through the system. The addition of the air filter satisfies Network Equipment Building Standards (NEBS) requirements.
● I/O modules and supervisor modules are accessible from the front, and fabric modules, power supplies, and fan trays are accessible from the back.
Cisco Nexus 7000 18-Slot Switch Chassis
● The Cisco Nexus 7000 18-Slot chassis with up to 16 I/O module slots supports up to 768 x 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 96 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 32 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, meeting the demands of the largest data center deployments. It has two dedicated supervisor slots to provide full redundancy.
● Side-to-side airflow increases the system density in a 25RU footprint, optimizing the use of rack space. The optimized density provides more than 16RU of free space in a standard 42RU rack for cable management and patching systems.
● Independent variable-speed system and fabric fans provide efficient cooling capacity to the entire system. Fan-tray redundancy features help ensure reliability of the system and support for hot swapping of fan trays.
● I/O modules and supervisor modules are accessible from the front, and fabric modules, power supplies, and fan trays are accessible from the back.
Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Chassis Common Components
All Cisco Nexus 7000 Series chassis have the following components:
● Integrated cable management system designed to support the cabling requirements of a fully configured system at either or both sides of the switch, allowing outstanding flexibility. All system components can easily be removed with the cabling in place, providing ease of maintenance tasks with little disruption.
● A series of LEDs at the top of the chassis provide a clear summary of the status of the major system components, alerting operators to the need to conduct further investigation. These LEDs report the power supply, fan, fabric, supervisor, and I/O module status.
● A purpose-built optional front-module door provides protection from accidental interference with both the cabling and modules installed in the system. The transparent front door allows easy observation of cabling and module indicators and status lights without any need to open the doors, reducing the likelihood of faults caused by human interference. The door supports a dual-opening capability for flexible operation and cable installation while fitted. The door can easily be completely removed for both initial cabling and day-to-day management of the system.
Energy-Efficient Design
The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series uses power supplies that are up to 90 percent efficient, so less power is wasted as heat, and more power is available for the system to use than with typical power supplies.
The fan modules in the chassis adjust to compensate for changing thermal characteristics. At lower speeds, they use less power. In the 9-slot chassis, the fan tray is designed to completely turn off the power for a row of fans when the corresponding slots are unused.
Consolidation of multiple switches in the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series is enabled by the powerful combination of high density and performance, support for device virtualization, and comprehensive reliability and availability features. This consolidation increases the power efficiency by reducing wasted power from multiple partially loaded and inflexible systems.
