The Cisco Nexus 2232TM-E fabric extender supports scalable 1/10GBASE-T environments, ease of migration from 100BASE-T/1GBASE-T to 10GBASE-T, and effective reuse of existing structured cabling. It comes with an uplink module that supports eight 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces. It is a superset of the Cisco Nexus 2232TM with the latest generation of 10GBASE-T PHY, enabling lower power and improved bit error rate (BER). The Cisco Nexus 2232TM-E supports DCB and LAN and SAN consolidation. FCoE support distances of up to 30 meters with Category 6a and 7 cables from the adapter to the fabric extender.
The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series architecture provides the following benefits:
● Architecture flexibility: A common, scalable, and adaptive architecture across data center racks and points of delivery (PoDs) supports various server options, connectivity options, physical topologies, and evolving needs.
● Highly scalable server access: 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet server access is scalable, with no reliance on Spanning Tree Protocol.
● Simplified operations: One single point of management and policy enforcement using upstream Cisco Nexus switches eases the commissioning and decommissioning of server racks through zero-touch installation and automatic configuration of fabric extenders.
● Increased business benefits: Consolidation, cabling reduction, rack-space reduction, reduced power and cooling, investment protection through feature inheritance from the parent switch, and the capability to add functions without the need for a major equipment upgrade of server-attached infrastructure all contribute to reduced operating expenses and capital expenditures.
The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series design aligns with that of servers. It offers front-to-back cooling, compatible with data center hot-aisle and cold-aisle designs, all switch ports at the rear of the unit in close proximity to server ports, and all user-serviceable components accessible from the front panel. It also offers back-to-front cooling, with switch ports in front of the chassis, aligned with the cold aisle, for optimized cabling in network racks. The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series is built for nonstop operation, with redundant hot-swappable power supplies and a hot-swappable fan tray with redundant fans. Its compact 1-rack-unit (1RU) form factor takes up relatively little space, making it easy to incorporate into rack designs. The fabric extenders are available in several models to provide speed, connectivity, and port-density options.