C1-N9K-C9396PX Cisco ONE Nexus C1-N9K-C9396PX Switch 48 Ports

Technical Specifications & Hardware Architecture

The Cisco C1-N9K-C9396PX ONE is a 2-Rack-Unit (2RU) fixed-port switch built for top-of-rack (ToR) or middle-of-row deployments. Its hardware is meticulously designed for high throughput and low latency, essential for data-intensive and real-time applications.

Port Configuration & Interface Details

The switch offers a balanced and future-ready interface configuration, providing significant investment protection.

Front-Panel Port Layout

48 x 1/10GBASE-T SFP+ Ports: These copper ports support 100M/1G/10G speeds, offering flexible connectivity for servers, storage, and other networking devices using standard Cat6a/Cat7 cabling. Auto-negotiation and IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) are standard.
12 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet QSFP+ Uplink Ports: These high-bandwidth uplinks operate natively at 40G and can be used for spine connectivity in a leaf-spine architecture or for high-capacity aggregation. They offer critical flexibility for network design.

Uplink Flexibility & Breakout Capabilities

A standout feature of this category is the flexible uplink strategy. Each of the 12 QSFP+ ports can be converted, using breakout cables or optics, into 4 independent 10G SFP+ interfaces. This effectively allows the switch to be configured with up to 96 x 10G ports (48 fixed + 48 via breakout), providing immense design flexibility to adapt to changing network demands without hardware replacement.

Performance & Switching Capacity

The internal architecture is built to handle non-blocking performance at full wire speed across all ports simultaneously.

Switching Capacity: Offers an aggregate throughput of 2.4 Tbps, ensuring no internal bottlenecks.
Forwarding Rate: Up to 1.2 billion packets per second (Bpps), enabling line-rate forwarding for even the smallest packet sizes, crucial for financial or high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.
Buffer Memory: Equipped with ample shared buffer memory to absorb microbursts and prevent packet loss during congestion, maintaining application performance.

Power & Cooling Design

Reliability is engineered into the power and cooling subsystems.

Power Supplies: Supports hot-swappable, redundant AC or DC power supplies (configurable options). Features include power supply redundancy (1+1) and variable-speed fans for optimized power efficiency.
Energy Efficiency: Incorporates Cisco’s EnergyWise technology and EEE on 10GBASE-T ports to dynamically reduce power consumption during periods of lower utilization, contributing to a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

Software & Feature Set: Cisco NX-OS Advantage

The switch runs the proven, mission-critical Cisco NX-OS operating system, providing a stable, secure, and feature-rich environment. NX-OS is modular and resilient, with features like in-service software upgrades (ISSU) for zero-downtime maintenance.

Virtualization & Network Segmentation

These switches provide foundational technologies for modern multi-tenant data centers.

Virtual Device Contexts (VDC)

Allows a single physical switch to be partitioned into multiple logical devices (up to 4 VDCs). Each VDC operates independently with its own management, control plane, and data plane, enabling role-based administration, infrastructure consolidation, and secure separation of dev/test/prod environments.

VXLAN & Overlay Networking

Native support for VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) gateways is a key capability. VXLAN enables Layer 2 and Layer 3 overlay networks, breaking the traditional VLAN scale limits (16 million vs. 4094 segments). This is essential for large-scale cloud deployments, facilitating workload mobility across subnets and data centers.

VXLAN EVPN Control Plane

The switch supports VXLAN with Ethernet VPN (EVPN) as the control plane, providing a robust, standards-based method for MAC/IP address learning and distribution, simplifying network automation and reducing broadcast traffic.

Advanced Routing & Multicast

Full Layer 3 capabilities are built-in, making the switch a true distributed routing platform.

Routing Protocols: Comprehensive support for OSPFv2/v3, IS-IS, BGP, EIGRP for IPv4 and IPv6.
Multicast: Feature-rich PIM Sparse Mode, Bidirectional PIM, and SSM for efficient delivery of streaming media, financial data, and group communications.

Security & Visibility

Security is embedded at every layer, from management access to data plane traffic.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) & AAA: Integrates with TACACS+, RADIUS, and LDAP for centralized, auditable user management.
ACLs & TrustSec: Supports security group tags (SGTs) for Cisco TrustSec, enabling policy enforcement based on logical identity, not just IP address.
Encryption: Management traffic encryption via SSHv2, SNMPv3, and SSL.
Telemetry & Monitoring: Advanced features like NetFlow, ERSPAN, and NX-API for deep network visibility, troubleshooting, and streaming telemetry for analytics platforms.

Deployment Scenarios & Primary Use Cases

The versatility of the Cisco 9396PX makes it suitable for a wide range of data center and enterprise core deployments.

Top-of-Rack (ToR) Server Access Leaf

This is its most common role. Deployed in each server rack, it provides high-density 10G copper connectivity to servers (physical and virtual) and establishes high-speed 40G uplinks to the network spine. Its low latency is critical here.

Middle-of-Row (MoR) or End-of-Row (EoR) Aggregation

With its high port count and uplink capacity, it can act as an aggregation switch for a row of cabinets, consolidating traffic from multiple 1G or 10G access switches before forwarding to the core.

Collapsed Core or Small Data Center Fabric

In smaller environments, a pair of these switches in a vPC pair can form a highly available collapsed core, providing both access layer connectivity and routing functions in a compact footprint.

Big Data & High-Performance Computing (HPC) Clusters

The non-blocking architecture, high packet-forwarding rate, and support for lossless Ethernet (using Priority Flow Control - PFC) make it ideal for Hadoop, Spark, or other clustered computing environments where east-west traffic dominates.

Private Cloud Foundation with ACI Ready

While operating in NX-OS mode is standard, this switch is part of the Cisco ONE software portfolio. It is inherently ACI-ready. With a software license change and controller integration, it can seamlessly transition to operate as an ACI leaf switch, enabling automated, policy-driven application deployment within a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) fabric.

High Availability & Resiliency Features

Network uptime is paramount. This category of switches incorporates multiple levels of redundancy and fault tolerance.

Virtual PortChannel (vPC)

Cisco's proprietary multi-chassis link aggregation technology is a cornerstone of its design. vPC allows a device (like a server or switch) to use a PortChannel across two separate Nexus switches, eliminating the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) blocked ports and using all available uplink bandwidth, while providing sub-second failover.

In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU)

The modular nature of NX-OS allows for software upgrades with no downtime. Patches and major releases can be applied without disrupting data plane traffic, which is critical for 24/7 operations.

Hardware Redundancy

All critical components are redundant: hot-swappable power supplies with load sharing, redundant fan trays, and a redundant system clock.

Graceful Insertion and Removal (GIR)

This feature allows an administrator to take a switch out of service for maintenance in a controlled manner, redirecting traffic to redundant paths before the switch is powered down, ensuring zero impact on production traffic.

Management & Programmability

Beyond the traditional CLI, this switch category offers modern tools for automation and integration.

Cisco NX-API

A RESTful API that exposes CLI commands over HTTP/HTTPS, returning structured data (XML or JSON). This allows network operators and developers to write scripts, build custom applications, and integrate switch management with DevOps tools like Ansible, Puppet, or Chef.

Management Tools

Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM): Provides comprehensive lifecycle management for Nexus switches, including provisioning, visualization, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
Cisco Prime Infrastructure: Offers broader enterprise network management capabilities.
Direct CLI & Cisco Intersight: Managed via direct console/SSH or through Cisco's cloud-based Intersight platform for a SaaS management experience.