Cisco N9K-C9508-FM-G Fabric Module
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Model: N9K-C9508-FM-G
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The Cisco N9500 Series Switches represent a family of modular data center switches built to address the evolving networking demands of modern enterprise and cloud environments. Designed for scalability, high performance, and energy efficiency, this platform enables seamless transitions to higher-speed connectivity while maintaining operational flexibility across diverse deployment models.
Operating in two distinct operational modes—Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) or standard Cisco NX-OS—these switches give organizations the choice between a fully automated, intent-based policy architecture and a traditional or programmable Layer 2/3 network foundation equipped with advanced technologies like VXLAN EVPN and Segment Routing.
Product overview
The Cisco N9500 Series modular switching platform includes three primary hardware chassis options: the Cisco N9504 Chassis (4-slot), the Cisco N9508 Chassis (8-slot), and the Cisco N9516 Chassis (16-slot). These switches share common modular components across the entire line, including supervisors, system controllers, power supply units, and line card options, while utilizing chassis-specific fabric modules and vertical fan trays mounted at the rear.
Equipped with a comprehensive selection of modular line cards and fabric modules, the N9500 Series platform supports high-density port configurations spanning 1, 10, 25, 40, 50, 100, 200, and 400 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Depending on the chosen chassis and line card selection, systems can scale to support up to 256 ports of 400G, 524 ports of 200G, 1024 ports of 100G, 2048 ports of 50G, 1024 ports of 40G, or 2304 ports of 25G or 1/10G Ethernet.
The product portfolio features multiple line card families tailored for targeted use cases, including high-density Cloud-Scale line cards, Classic line cards, and deep-buffer R-Series line cards. These options accommodate diverse networking roles ranging from high-speed spine and aggregation designs to dense leaf access and multi-tenant cloud fabrics.
Features and benefits
- High Performance and Low Latency: Delivers non-blocking switching throughput with latency as low as 5 microseconds across all supported port speeds, facilitating high-speed data transfer across dense network fabrics.
- Comprehensive Operational Flexibility: Supports dual operational modes—automated policy-driven management via Cisco ACI or programmable Layer 2/3 routing and switching using modular Cisco NX-OS.
- High-Density Multi-Speed Aggregation: Enables smooth migration pathways from 1G, 10G, and 25G access layers to 40G, 100G, and 400G core and spine architectures without forcing disruptive infrastructure overhauls.
- Advanced Telemetry and Visibility: Integrates extensive flow-level and switch-level telemetry to deliver real-time operational metrics, performance monitoring, and actionable network visibility.
- High Availability and Redundancy: Eliminates single points of failure through redundant supervisors, system controllers, power supplies, fan trays, and up to 6 fabric modules that ensure graceful capacity degradation during module issues.
- Future-Proof Architecture: Designed to support continuous bandwidth scaling and future generation high-speed transceivers within existing modular chassis infrastructure.
Product overview
Application architectures and deployment modes are rapidly evolving. Modern applications are multinode, highly modular, and deployed over a combination of bare-metal, virtual, and cloud data center environments. In addition to that, individual departments within an organization have varying infrastructure and networking needs. These factors require that data center networks be simple, programmable, extensible, scalable, and shareable to meet the demands of applications.
The Cisco N9000 Series Switches operate in one of two modes – Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) or Cisco NX-OS. In Cisco ACI mode, these switches provide a turnkey, fully automated, policy-based architecture to design and manage data center fabrics. In Cisco NX-OS mode, these switches provide the capability to use foundational layer 2/3 technologies, as well as modern technologies such as VXLAN, with a Border Gateway Protocol‒Ethernet VPN (BGP-EVPN) control plane, Segment routing, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and automation via NX-APIs.
The Cisco N9000 Series Switches include the N9500 Series modular switches and the N9200/N9300 Series fixed switches.
Cisco N9000 Series Switch Chassis
The Cisco N9500 Series modular switches support a comprehensive selection of line cards and fabric modules that provide 1-, 10-, 25-, 40-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 400-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Using these line cards the Cisco N9500 Series switches can be configured with up to.
1. 256 400-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
2. 524 200-Gigabit Ethernet ports# (or)
3. 1024 100-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
4. 2048 50-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
5. 1024 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
6. 2304 25-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)
7. 2304 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet ports
The supervisor, system controller, power supplies, and line cards are common across all three switches. Each switch, however, has unique fabric modules, and fan trays that plug in vertically in the rear of the chassis.
Table 1. Features and benefits
| Feature |
Benefit |
| High performance |
The Cisco N9500 Series switch delivers nonblocking performance at a latency of 5 microseconds or less at 400-, 100-, 50-, 40-, 25-, 10-, and 1-Gigabit Ethernet speeds. This enables customers to build robust and scalable high-speed fabrics that can support several thousands of high-speed access ports. |
| Telemetry |
The Cisco N9500 Series switches support extensive switch and flow telemetry capabilities that provide extensive real-time visibility into switch and fabric states. |
| High-density 1-, 10-, 25-, 40- and 50-Gigabit Ethernet access configuration |
Organizations can transition from low-speed (100-Megabit Ethernet and 1-Gigabit Ethernet) server access designs to high-speed (1-, 10-, 25-, 40-, and 50-Gigabit Ethernet) server access designs with the same port density. |
| High-density 10-, 40-, 100- and 400-Gigabit Ethernet aggregation and spine configuration |
The Cisco N9500 Series Switches help organizations transition from 1- and 10-Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure to 10-, 40-, 100-, and 400-Gigabit Ethernet infrastructures to support the increased bandwidth demands of scale-out, multinode application environments. The compatibility of 400-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP-DD modules, 100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 modules, and 40-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP+ modules enables the migration and coexistence of 40-, 100- and 400-Gigabit Ethernet ports in the fabric. |
| High availability, reliability, and scalability |
The Cisco N9500 Series Switches are designed with redundant supervisors, system controllers, power supplies, and fan trays, which eliminate any single point of failure in the chassis. These switches also support up to 6 fabric modules, which provide redundancy and graceful degradation of switching capacity in the event of fabric module failures. All transceivers are pluggable to support the highest possible Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) for the switch. |
| Designed for the future |
The Cisco N9500 Series Switches are designed for future expansion with the capability to support higher speed ports and more bandwidth. |
| Power efficiency |
The Cisco N9500 Series Switches are the first switch chassis designed without a midplane. The line cards and fabric modules connect directly. This revolutionary design provides optimal front-to-back airflow and helps the switch operate with less power. In addition, all Cisco N9500 Series switch power supplies are rated at or higher than 80PLUS Platinum for AC inputs and equivalent efficiency for DC inputs. The typical power consumption per 10-Gigabit Ethernet port is less than 3.5 watts (W). The typical power consumption per 40- and 100-Gigabit Ethernet port is less than 14W and 22W respectively. |
Deployment scenarios
The Cisco N9500 Series Switches support various deployment scenarios:
● Spine nodes in a spine-leaf fabric
● Core or aggregation node in an L2/L3 network
● Border gateway in a L2/L3 network
Spine-leaf fabric architecture
The high port-density and ability to support multispeed ports on the same chassis make the Cisco N9500 Series Switches the ideal choice as a spine in spine-leaf fabric architectures. The Cisco N9500 Series Switches can function as a spine in either Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) or Cisco NX-OS operating modes (Figure 2).
Spine-Leaf Architecture using Cisco N9300 and N9500 Switches
Cisco ACI is the most comprehensive solution to enable data center automation and application agility. It provides a secure, scalable, deterministic, and integrated policy-based architecture, which enables rapid application deployment and workload mobility in data centers. The Cisco N9000 Series cloud-scale switches are the foundation to deploy and run Cisco ACI. The Cisco N9500 Series cloud-scale switches and select Cisco N9300 Series cloud-scale switches provide the ACI spine functionality in the Cisco ACI fabric. The Cisco N9300 Series cloud-scale switches provide the ACI leaf functionality in the Cisco ACI fabric.
In Cisco NX-OS mode, the Cisco N9500 Series Switches support foundational routing and switching technologies along with modern technologies such as VXLAN with BGP-EVPN control plane, segment routing, MPLS, and open APIs. These technologies provide the flexibility to build spine-leaf data center fabrics or classical three-tier data center networks. In this mode, the Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) can manage the Cisco N9500 Series Switches.
Core, Aggregation, and gateway roles
The Cisco N9500 Series Switches support line cards that provide a choice of smart buffers, deep buffers, large tables, and high-density, high-speed Ethernet interfaces. These hardware capabilities, along with extensive routing and switching software capabilities, make the Cisco N9500 Series Switches an excellent choice as a core, aggregation, or gateway switch.
End-of-row access layer switch
As the Cisco N9500 Series Switches support high-density, multispeed Ethernet ports, these switches can also be deployed as end-of-row switches providing access connections to blade or rack servers. The Cisco N9500 Series Switches also provide the flexibility to incrementally transition from lower-speed server connections to higher-speed server connections.
Switch components for the Cisco N9500 series
The Cisco N9500 Series Switch includes the components shown in Figure 3.
Cisco N9500 Series Switch Components
The Cisco N9500 Series switches support several line cards and fabric modules. The following data sheets describe each family of line cards and fabric modules:
● Cisco N9500 Cloud Scale Line Cards and Fabric Modules. URL: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/n-9000-series-switches/datasheet-c78-736677.html.
● Cisco N9500 R-Series (Deep Buffer) Line Cards and Fabric Modules. URL: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/n-9000-series-switches/datasheet-c78-738321.html.
● Cisco N9500 Classic Line Cards and Fabric Modules. URL: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/n-9000-series-switches/datasheet-c78-741336.html.
Switch chassis for the Cisco N9500 series
The Cisco N9500 Series Switch has Three Chassis – a 4-Slot, 8-Slot, and 16-Slot Chassis.
| N9K-C9504: 4-Slot Chassis
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● Up to 4 line cards
● Up to 4 power supplies
● Up to 6 fabric modules of the same type
● Up to 2 system controllers
● Up to 2 supervisors of the same type
● Up to 3 fan trays
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| N9K-C9508: 8-Slot Chassis
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● Up to 8 line cards
● Up to 8 power supplies
● Up to 6 fabric modules of the same type
● Up to 2 system controllers
● Up to 2 supervisors of the same type
● Up to 3 fan trays
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| N9K-C9516: 16-Slot Chassis
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● Up to 16 line cards
● Up to 10 power supplies
● Up to 6 fabric modules of the same type
● Up to 2 system controllers
● Up to 2 supervisors of the same type
● Up to 3 fan trays
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Table 2. Cisco N9500 series switch chassis specifications
| Cisco N9504 Chassis |
Cisco N9508 Chassis |
Cisco N9516 Chassis |
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| Number of line card slots |
4 |
8 |
16 |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) |
12.25 x 17.50 x 33.15 in. (31.1 x 44.50 x 84.20 cm) |
22.70 x 17.50 x 31.76 in. (57.78 x 44.50 x 80.67 cm) |
36.70 x 17.50 x 31.76 in. (93.41 x 44.50 x 80.67 cm) |
| Weight |
84 lb (38.2 kg) |
150 lb (68.2 kg) |
192 lb (87.3 kg) |
| Rack Units |
7 |
13 |
21 |
| Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) Hours |
1,038,080 |
928,910 |
680,000 |
| Operating temperature |
32 to 104°F (0 to 40°C) |
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| Nonoperating temperature |
-40 to 158°F (-40 to 70°C) |
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| Humidity |
5 to 95% (noncondensing) |
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| Altitude |
0 to 13,123 ft (0 to 4,000m) |
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| Regulatory compliance |
Products should comply with CE Markings according to directives 2004/108/EC and 2006/95/EC |
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| Safety |
UL 60950-1 Second Edition CAN/CSA-C22.2 No. 60950-1 Second Edition EN 60950-1 Second Edition IEC 60950-1 Second Edition AS/NZS 60950-1 GB4943 |
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| EMC: Emissions |
47CFR Part 15 (CFR 47) Class A AS/NZS CISPR22 Class A CISPR22 Class A EN55022 Class A ICES003 Class A VCCI Class A EN61000-3-2 EN61000-3-3 KN22 Class A CNS13438 Class A |
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| EMC: Immunity |
EN55024 CISPR24 EN300386 KN 61000-4 series |
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| RoHS |
The product is RoHS-6 compliant with exceptions for leaded-ball grid-array (BGA) balls and lead press-fit connectors. |
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Supervisor modules for the Cisco N9500 series
A pair of redundant supervisor modules manages all switch operations using a state-synchronized, active-standby model. The supervisor accepts an external clock and supports management through multiple ports – two USB ports, a serial port, and a 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet port. All supervisors support Cisco ACI or NX-OS deployments. Redundant supervisors should be of the same type within a chassis.
Table 3. Cisco N9500 series supervisor modules specifications
| N9K-SUP-A |
N9K-SUP-A+ |
N9K-SUP-B |
N9K-SUP-B+ |
|
| Processor |
4 core, 4 thread 1.8GHz x86 |
4 core, 8 thread 1.8GHz x86 |
6 core, 12 thread 2.2GHz x86 |
6 core, 12 thread 1.9GHz X86 |
| DRAM |
16GB |
16GB |
24GB |
32GB |
| SSD |
64GB |
64GB |
256GB |
256GB |
| Weight |
4.84 lb (2.2 kg) |
5.2 lb (2.37 kg) |
6.00 lb (2.72 kg) |
5.3 lb (2.39 kg) |
| Typical power |
69 W |
69 W |
75 W |
75 W |
| Maximum power |
80 W |
80 W |
80 W |
90 W |
| MTBF hours |
312,070 |
414,240 |
292,110 |
421,040 |
| Hot swappable |
Yes |
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| Airflow |
Port-side intake |
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System controller for the Cisco N9500 platform
A pair of redundant system controllers offloads chassis management functions from the supervisor modules. The controllers are responsible for managing the power supplies and fan trays; they are also the central point for the Gigabit Ethernet Out-of-Band Channel (EOBC) between the supervisors, fabric modules, and line cards.
Table 4. Cisco N9500 series system controller specifications
| N9K-SC-A |
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| Weight |
1.91 lb (0.9 kg) |
| Typical power |
14 W |
| Maximum power |
25 W |
| MTBF hours |
1,380,210 |
| Hot swappable |
Yes |
| Airflow |
Port-side intake |
Fabric module for the Cisco N9500 platform
Each Cisco N9500 Series Chassis supports up to six fabric modules, which plug in vertically at the back of the chassis behind the fan trays. The Cisco N9500 line card and fabric module data sheets provide additional information about the various fabric modules.
Fan trays for the Cisco N9500 platform
The Cisco N9500 chassis supports two versions of hot-swappable fan trays that are compatible with specific fabric modules. Each fan tray covers two fabric module slots and enables front-to-back air-flow for the entire chassis. An appropriate fabric module blank card should be installed in all empty fabric module slots to ensure proper air-flow and cooling of the chassis.
Table 5. Fan tray specifications
| N9K-C9504-FAN |
N9K-C9504-FAN2 |
N9K-C9508-FAN |
N9K-C9508-FAN2 |
N9K-C9516-FAN |
|
| Fabric Module |
N9K-C9504-FM-E N9K-C9504-FM-R N9K-C9504-FM-S N9K-C9504-FM |
N9K-C9504-FM-G |
N9K-C9508-FM-E2 N9K-C9508-FM-E N9K-C9508-FM-R N9K-C9508-FM-S N9K-C9508-FM |
N9K-C9508-FM-G |
N9K-C9516-FM-E2 N9K-C9516-FM-E N9K-C9504-FM |
| Fabric Module Blank |
N9K-C9504-FM-CV |
N9K-C9504-FAN-PWR |
N9K-C9508-FM-CV |
N9K-C9508-FAN-PWR |
N9K-C9516-FM-CV |
| Weight |
5.76 lb (2.6 kg) |
8.2 lb (3.7 kg) |
9.59 lb (4.4 kg) |
8.6 lb (3.9 kg) |
11.50 lb (5.2 kg) |
| Typical power |
95 W |
306W |
176 W |
450W |
330 W |
| Maximum power |
150 W |
600W |
250 W |
900W |
451 W |
| Hot swappable |
Yes |
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| Airflow |
Port-side intake |
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Cisco N9500 platform power supply
The Cisco N9500 platform supports hot-swappable, front-panel-accessible AC, DC, and universal high voltage AC/DC power supplies. The total power budget required for the mix and number of line cards and fabric modules installed in the chassis determines the ability to support power supply redundancy modes – combined, n + 1, n + n, or input-source redundancy.
The 3150W high voltage AC/DC power supply offers two power inputs each of which can provide up to 3150 W of output power. This unique capability offers more flexibility in provisioning power redundancy for the chassis.
Table 6. Power supply specifications
| Cisco N9500 3000W AC Power Supply |
Cisco N9500 3000W DC Power Supply |
Cisco N9500 3000W HV AC/DC Power Supply |
Cisco N9500 3150W HV AC/DC Power Supply |
|
| Output power |
3000 W |
3000 W |
3000 W |
3150 W |
| Input voltage |
AC: 200V to 240V |
DC: -48V to -60V (nominal) -40V to -72V |
AC: 200V to 277V DC: 240V to 380V (nominal) 192V to 400V |
AC: 200V to 277V DC: 240V to 380V (nominal) 192V to 400V |
| Number of inputs |
1 |
2 (1500 W output per input) |
1 |
2 (3150 W output per input) |
| Frequency |
50 to 60 Hz |
N/A |
AC: 47 to 63 Hz DC: N/A |
AC: 47 to 63 Hz DC: N/A |
| Efficiency |
80PLUS Platinum |
80PLUS Platinum Equivalent |
80PLUS Platinum (AC) 80PLUS Platinum Equivalent (DC) |
80PLUS Titanium (AC) 80PLUS Titanium Equivalent (DC) |
| Weight |
6.2 lb (2.8 kg) |
6.4 lb (2.9 kg) |
5.9 lb (2. 7 kg) |
9.9 lb (4.5 kg) |
| MTBF hours |
868,870 |
1,761,580 |
965,700 |
838,900 |
| Hot swappable |
Yes |
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| Airflow |
Yes |
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Table 7. Ordering information
| Part number |
Product description |
| Hardware |
|
| N9K-C9504 (=) |
Cisco N9504 Chassis with 4 line card slots |
| N9K-C9508(=) |
Cisco N9508 Chassis with 8 line card slots |
| N9K-C9516(=) |
Cisco N9516 Chassis with 16 line card slots |
| N9K-SUP-A+(=) |
Cisco N9500 4-Core/8-Thread Supervisor |
| N9K-SUP-B+(=) |
Cisco N9500 6-Core/12-Thread Supervisor |
| N9K-SUP-A(=) |
Cisco N9500 4-Core/4-Thread Supervisor |
| N9K-SUP-B(=) |
Cisco N9500 6-Core/12-Thread Supervisor |
| N9K-SC-A(=) |
Cisco N9500 System Controller |
| N9K-PAC-3000W-B(=) |
Cisco N9500 3000W 200V to 240V AC PS, Port-Side Intake |
| N9K-PDC-3000W-B(=) |
Cisco N9500 3000W -48V-60V DC PS, Port-Side Intake |
| N9K-PUV-3000W-B(=) |
Cisco N9500 3000W 200V to 277V AC or 240V to 380V DC Universal high voltage AC/DC PS, Port-Side Intake |
| N9K-PUV2-3000W-B(=) |
Cisco N9500 3150W 200V to 277V AC or 240V to 380V DC Universal high voltage AC/DC PS, Port-Side Intake |
| N9K-C9504-FAN(=) |
Fan Tray for Cisco N9504 Chassis |
| N9K-C9504-FAN2(=) |
N9500 4-slot chassis 400G cloud scale fan tray (Generation 2) |
| N9K-C9504-FAN-PWR(=) |
N9500 4-slot chassis 400G cloud scale fan tray power connector |
| N9K-C9508-FAN(=) |
Fan Tray for Cisco N9508 Chassis |
| N9K-C9508-FAN2(=) |
N9500 8-slot chassis 400G cloud scale fan tray (Generation 2) |
| N9K-C9508-FAN-PWR(=) |
N9500 8-slot chassis 400G cloud scale fan tray power connector |
| N9K-C9516-FAN(=) |
Fan Tray for Cisco N9516 Chassis |
| Accessories |
|
| N9K-C9500-RMK= |
Cisco N9500 Rack Mount Kit for N9508 and N9516 chassis |
| N9K-C9504-RMK= |
Cisco N9500 Rack Mount Kit for N9504 |
| N9K-C9500-ACK= |
Cisco N9500 Accessory Kit |
Note
All part numbers with “=” sign refer to Spare part numbers for ordering.
For more information
For more information about the Cisco N9000 Series, please visit https://www.cisco.com/go/n9000.
| Model | N9K-C9508-FM-G |