Data sheet

Cisco public

Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3

Series Switch

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 1 of 14

Contents
Product overview 3
Switch model 3
Features and benefits 4
Product specifications 6
Software licensing and optics supported 10
Ordering information 10
Warranty, service and support 12
Cisco environmental sustainability 13
Cisco Capital 14
For more information 14

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 2 of 14

Product overview
Based on the Cisco Cloud Scale technology the Cisco Nexus® 9300-FX3 Series is the latest generation of
access switches. Building on the successful Nexus 9300-FX series, the platform supports cost-effective cloud-
scale deployments, an increased number of endpoints, and is capable of wire-rate security and telemetry. The
platform is built on modern system architecture designed to provide high performance and meet the evolving
needs of highly scalable data centers and growing enterprises.

Cisco provides two modes of operation for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches. Organizations can deploy Cisco
Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI®) or Cisco NX-OS mode.

Cisco ACI is a holistic, intent-driven architecture with centralized automation and policy-based application
profiles. It provides a robust, transport network for dynamic workloads and is built on a network fabric that
combines time-tested protocols with new innovations to create a highly flexible, scalable and resilient
architecture of low-latency, high-bandwidth links. This fabric delivers a network that can support the most
demanding and flexible data center environments.

Designed for the programmable network, the Cisco NX-OS operating system automates configuration and
management for customers who want to take advantage of the DevOps operation model and tool sets.

Switch model
Table 1. Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 Series Switch

Model Description

Cisco Nexus 93180YC-FX3S 48 x 1/10/25-Gbps fiber ports and 6 x 40/100-Gbps QSFP28 ports

The Cisco Nexus 93180YC-FX3S Switch (Figure 1) is a 1RU switch that supports 3.6 Tbps of bandwidth and
1.2 bpps. The 48 downlink ports on the 93180YC-FX3S are capable of supporting 1-, 10-, or 25-Gbps
Ethernet, , offering deployment flexibility and investment protection. The 6 uplink ports can be configured as 40
and 100-Gbps Ethernet, offering flexible migration options. Please see the Licensing guide section to enable
features on the platform. Cisco Nexus 93180YC-FX3S switch supports standard PTP Telecom profiles with
SyncE and PTP boundary clock functionality for Telco data center edge environments.

Figure 1.
Cisco Nexus 93180YC-FX3S Switch

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 3 of 14

Features and benefits
The Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 series provide the following features and benefits:

● PTP Telecom Profile

◦ Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is a protocol for distributing precise time and frequency over packet
networks. PTP is defined in the IEEE Standard 1588. It defines an exchange of timed messages. The
G.8275.1 profile is also used in telecom networks where phase or time-of-day synchronization is
required and where each network device participates in the PTP protocol.

◦ Support for PTP Telecom profile 8275.1 with SyncE

◦ PTP Boundary clock

◦ PTP Profile G.8273.2 - Class B

● Architectural Flexibility

◦ Industry leading Software Defined Networking Solution Cisco ACI™support.

◦ Support for standards based VXLAN EVPN fabrics, inclusive of hierarchical multi-site support (refer to
VXLAN Network with MP-BGP EVPN Control Plane for more information).

◦ Three-tier BGP architectures, enabling horizontal, non-blocking IPv6 network fabrics at web-scale.

◦ Segment routing allows the network to forward Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) packets and
engineer traffic without Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) Traffic Engineering (TE). It provides a
control-plane alternative for increased network scalability and virtualization.

◦ Comprehensive protocol support for Layer 3 (v4/v6) unicast and multicast routing protocol suites,
including BGP, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP),
Routing Information Protocol Version 2 (RIPv2), Protocol Independent Multicast Sparse Mode (PIM-
SM), Source-Specific Multicast (SSM), and Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP).

◦ The switch also suppors a software “FEX mode” [1]

. The switch can be converted to a Fabric Extender
by the use of a command.
● Extensive Programmability

◦ Day zero automation through Power On Auto Provisioning, drastically reducing provisioning time.

◦ Industry leading integrations for leading devops configuration management applications – Ansible,
Chef, Puppet, SALT. Extensive Native YANG and industry standard OpenConfig model support
through RESTCONF/NETCONF.

◦ Pervasive API’s for all switch CLI functions (JSON based RPC over HTTP/HTTPs).
● High Scalability, Flexibility, and Security

◦ Flexible forwarding tables support up to 2 million shared entries on FX3 model. Flexible use of TCAM
space allows for custom definition of Access Control List (ACL) templates.

◦ IEEE 802.1ae MAC Security (MACsec) [2] and Cloudsec [2] (VTEP to VTEP encryption) support on all
ports of 9300-FX2 models with speed greater than or equal to 1-Gbps, allows traffic encryption at
the physical layer and provides secure server, border leaf, and leaf-to-spine connectivity.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 4 of 14

 ● Intelligent Buffer Management

◦ The platform offers Cisco’s innovative intelligent buffer management, that offers capability to
distinguish mice and elephant flows and apply different queue management schemes to them based
on their network forwarding requirements in the event of link congestion.

◦ Intelligent buffer management functions are:

◦ Approximate Fair Dropping (AFD) with Elephant Trap (ETRAP). AFD distinguishes long-lived elephant
flows from short-lived mice flows, by using ETRAP. AFD exempts mice flows from the dropping
algorithm so that mice flows will get their fair share of bandwidth without being starved by
bandwidth-hungry elephant flows. Also, AFD tracks elephant flows and subjects them to the AFD
algorithm in the egress queue to grant them their fair share of bandwidth.

◦ ETRAP measures the byte counts of incoming flows and compares this against the user defined
ETRAP threshold. After a flow crosses the threshold, it becomes an elephant flow.

◦ Dynamic Packet Prioritization (DPP) provides the capability of separating mice flows and elephant
flows into two different queues so that buffer space can be allocated to them independently. Mice
flows, sensitive to congestion and latency can take priority queue and avoid re-ordering that allows to
elephant flows to take full link bandwidth.
● RDMA over Converged Ethernet – RoCE Support

◦ Platform offers lossless transport for RDMA over Converged Ethernet with support of DCB protocols:

◦ Priority-based Flow Control – (PFC) to prevent drops in the network and pause frame propagation per
priority class.

◦ Enhanced Transmission Selection – (ETS) to reserve bandwidth per priority class in network
contention situation.

◦ Data Center Bridging Exchange Protocol – (DCBX) to discover and exchange priority and bandwidth
information with end points.

◦ Platform also supports Explicit Congestion Notification – (ECN) that provides end-to-end notification
per IP flow by marking packets that experienced congestion, without dropping traffic. The platform is
capable to track ECN statistics of number of marked packet that have experienced congestion.
● Hardware and Software High Availability

◦ Virtual Port-Channel (vPC) technology provides Layer 2 multipathing through the elimination of
Spanning Tree Protocol. It also enables fully utilized bisectional bandwidth and simplified Layer 2
logical topologies without the need to change the existing management and deployment model.

◦ The 64-way Equal-Cost MultiPath (ECMP) routing enables the use of Layer 3 fat-tree designs. This
feature helps organizations prevent network bottlenecks, increase resiliency, and add capacity with
little network disruption.

◦ Advanced reboot capabilities include hot and cold patching.

◦ The switch use hot-swappable Power-Supply Units (PSUs) and fans with N+1 redundancy.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 5 of 14

 ● Purpose-Built Cisco NX-OS Software Operating System with Comprehensive, Proven Innovations

◦ Single binary image that supports every switch in the Cisco Nexus 9000 series, simplifying image
management. The operating system is modular, with a dedicated process for each routing protocol: a
design that isolates faults while increasing availability. In the event of a process failure, the process
can be restarted without loss of state. The operating system supports hot and cold patching and
online diagnostics.

◦ Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) is the network management platform for all NX-OS-enabled
deployments, spanning new fabric architectures, IP Fabric for Media, and storage networking
deployments for the Cisco Nexus®-powered data center. Accelerate provisioning from days to
minutes, and simplify deployments from day zero through day N. Reduce troubleshooting cycles with
graphical operational visibility for topology, network fabric, and infrastructure. Eliminate configuration
errors and automate ongoing change in a closed loop, with templated deployment model and
configuration compliance alerting with automatic remediation. Real-time health summary for fabric,
devices, and topology. Correlated visibility for fabric (underlay, overlay, virtual and physical
endpoints), including compute visualization with VMware.

◦ Network traffic monitoring with Cisco Nexus Data Broker builds simple, scalable, and cost-effective
network Test Access Points (TAPs) and Cisco Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) aggregation for
network traffic monitoring and analysis.
● Cisco Data Center Network Assurance and Insights

◦ Support to Intelligent automation to Day 2 Operations with Cisco Data Center Network Assurance and
Insights. Click here to learn more.

Product specifications
The Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 series offer industry-leading density and performance with flexible port
configurations that can support existing copper and fiber cabling (Tables 2).

Table 2. Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 Series Switch specifications

Feature Cisco Nexus 93180YC-FX3S

Ports 48 x 1/10/25-Gbps and 6 x 40/100-Gbps QSFP28 ports

Downlink supported speeds 1/10/25-Gbps Ethernet

CPU 6 cores

System memory Upto 32 GB

SSD drive 128 GB

System buffer 40 MB

Management ports 1 RJ-45 port

USB ports 1

1PPS GPS 1PPS input or output

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 6 of 14

 Feature Cisco Nexus 93180YC-FX3S

10MhZ GPS 10Mhz input or output.

Time of Date (TOD) 1 RJ-45

ANT Antenna for GNSS

RS-232 serial ports 1

Power supplies (up to 2) 650W AC, 930W DC, or 1200W HVAC/HVDC

Typical power (AC/DC)* 375W

Maximum power (AC/DC)* 600W

Input voltage (AC) 100 to 240V

Input voltage 200 to 277V

(High-Voltage AC [HVAC])

Input voltage (DC) –48 to –60V

Input voltage –240 to –380V

(High-Voltage DC [HVDC])

Frequency (AC) 50 to 60 Hz

Fans 4

Airflow Port-side intake and exhaust

Physical dimensions 1.72 x 17.3 x 19.6 in.

(H x W x D) (4.4 x 43.9 x 49.6 cm)

Acoustics Port Side Exhaust :

Fan speed at 50%:63.4 dBA
Fan speed at 70%:74.3 dBA
Fan speed at 100%: 83.4 dBA
Port Side Intake:
Fan speed at 50%:64.6 dBA
Fan speed at 70%:76.1 dBA
Fan speed at 100%: 85.4 dBA

RoHS compliance Yes

MTBF 288,760 Hours

Minimum ACI image Roadmap

Minimum NX-OS image NXOS-9.3.5

*
Typical and maximum power values are based on input drawn from the power circuit. The power supply value (for example, 650W AC
power supply: NXA-PAC-650W-PI) is based on the output rating to the inside of the switch

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 7 of 14

Table 3 lists the performance and scalability specifications for the Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 series switch.
(Check the software release notes for feature support information).
Table 3. Hardware performance and scalability specifications*

Item Cisco Nexus 9300-FX Series Switches

Maximum number of Longest Prefix Match (LPM) routes** 1,792,000

Maximum number of IP host entries** 1,792,000

Maximum number of MAC address entries** 512,000

Maximum number of multicast routes 128,000

Number of Interior Gateway Management Protocol (IGMP) Shipping: 8,000

snooping groups
Maximum: 32,000

Maximum number of Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders 16

per switch

Maximum number of Access Control List (ACL) entries Single-slice forwarding engine:
5000 ingress
2000 egress

Maximum number of VLANs 4096**

Number of Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instances Shipping: 1,000

Maximum: 16,000

Maximum number of ECMP paths 64

Maximum number of port channels 512

Maximum number of links in a port channel 32

Number of active SPAN sessions 4

Maximum number of VLAN’s in Rapid per-VLAN Spanning Tree (RPVST) 3,967

instances

Maximum number of Hot-Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) groups 490

Number of Network Address Translation (NAT) entries 1,023

Maximum number of Multiple Spanning Tree (MST) instances 64

Flow-table size used for Cisco Tetration Analytics platform*** 64,000

Number of Queues 8

*
More templates and greater scalability are on the roadmap. Refer to the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Verified Scalability Guide documentation
for the latest exact scalability values validated for specific software
***
27 VLANs out of 4096 are reserved

**
Raw capacity of flow table

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 8 of 14

Table 4 lists the environmental properties, and Table 5 lists the weight for the Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 series
switch.

Table 4. Environmental properties

Property Description

Operating temperature 32 to 104°F (0 to 40°C)

Nonoperating (storage) temperature –40 to 158°F (–40 to 70°C)

Humidity 5 to 95% (noncondensing)

Altitude 0 to 13,123 ft (0 to 4000m)

Table 5. Weight

Component Weight

Cisco Nexus 93180YC-FX3S without power supplies or 21 lb (9.52 kg)

fans

650W AC power supply 2.42 lb (1.1 kg)

930W DC power supply 2.42 lb (1.1 kg)

1200W HVDC/HVAC power supply 2.42 lb (1.1 kg)

Fan tray: NXA-FAN-35CFM-F or NXA-FAN-35CFM-B 0.26 lb (0.12 kg)

Table 6 summarizes regulatory standards compliance for the Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 series switch.

Table 6. Regulatory Standards Compliance: Safety and EMC

Specification Description

Regulatory compliance Products should comply with CE Markings according to directives 2004/108/EC and
2006/95/EC

Safety NEBS
● 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

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 9 of 14

 Specification Description

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

EMC: Immunity ● EN55024

● CISPR24
● EN300386

● KN 61000-4 series

RoHS The product is RoHS-6 compliant with exceptions for leaded-Ball Grid-Array (BGA) balls
and lead press-fit connectors.

Software licensing and optics supported

The software packaging for the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series offers flexibility and a comprehensive feature set. The
default system software has a comprehensive Layer 2 security and management feature set. To enable
additional functions, including Layer 3 IP unicast and IP multicast routing and Cisco Nexus Data Broker, you
must install additional licenses. To meet customer requirements, licensing is available as both subscription and
perpetual. The licensing guide illustrates the software packaging and licensing available to enable advanced
features. For the latest software release information and recommendations, refer to the product bulletin at
https://www.cisco.com/go/nexus9000.

For details about the optics modules available and the minimum software release required for each supported
module, visit
https://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps5455/products_device_support_tables_list.html.

Ordering information
Table 7 presents ordering information for the Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 series switch.

Table 7. Ordering information

Part Number Product Description

Base Part Numbers

N9K-C93180YC-FX3S Nexus 9300 with 48p 1/10G/25G SFP and 6p 40G/100G QSFP28

Power Supplies

NXA-PAC-650W-PE Nexus 9000 650W AC PS, Port-side Exhaust

NXA-PAC-650W-PI Nexus 9000 650W AC PS, Port-side Intake

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 10 of 14

Part Number Product Description

NXA-PDC-930W-PI Nexus 9000 930W DC PS, Port-side Intake

NXA-PDC-930W-PE Nexus 9000 930W DC PS, Port-side Exhaust

N9K-PUV-1200W Nexus 9300 1200W Universal Power Supply, Bi-directional air flow and Supports
HVAC/HVDC

Fans

NXA-FAN-35CFM-F Nexus Single Fan, 30CFM, port side exhaust airflow

NXA-FAN-35CFM-B Nexus Single Fan, 30CFM, port side intake airflow

Licenses on Nexus 9300-FX3

C1E1TN9300XF-3Y ACI & NX-OS Subscription Essential package for 10/25/40G+ Nexus 9K Leaf, 3 Year Term

C1E1TN9300XF-5Y ACI & NX-OS Subscription Essential package for 10/25/40G+ Nexus 9K Leaf, 5 Year Term

C1A1TN9300XF-3Y ACI & NX-OS Subscription Advantage package for 10/25/40G+ Nexus 9K Leaf, 3 Year Term

C1A1TN9300XF-5Y ACI & NX-OS Subscription Advantage package for 10/25/40G+ Nexus 9K Leaf, 5 Year Term

ACI-ES-XF ACI Essential SW license for a 10/25/40G+ Nexus 9K Leaf

ACI-AD-XF ACI Advantage SW license for a 10/25/40G+ Nexus 9K Leaf

NX-OS-ES-XF NX-OS Essential SW license for a 10/25/40G+ Nexus 9K Leaf

NX-OS-AD-XF NX-OS Advantage SW license for a 10/25/40G+ Nexus 9K Leaf

DCN-SYNCE-XF SyncE Add on license

Power Cords

CAB-250V-10A-AR AC Power Cord - 250V, 10A - Argentina (2.5 meter)

CAB-250V-10A-BR AC Power Cord - 250V, 10A - Brazil (2.1 meter)

CAB-250V-10A-CN AC Power Cord - 250V, 10A - PRC (2.5 meter)

CAB-250V-10A-ID AC Power Cord - 250V, 10A, South Africa (2.5 meter)

CAB-250V-10A-IS AC Power Cord - 250V, 10A - Israel (2.5 meter)

CAB-9K10A-AU Power Cord, 250VAC 10A 3112 Plug, Australia (2.5 meter)

CAB-9K10A-EU Power Cord, 250VAC 10A CEE 7/7 Plug, EU (2.5 meter)

CAB-9K10A-IT Power Cord, 250VAC 10A CEI 23-16/VII Plug, Italy (2.5 meter)

CAB-9K10A-SW Power Cord, 250VAC 10A MP232 Plug, SWITZ (2.5 meter)

CAB-9K10A-UK Power Cord, 250VAC 10A BS1363 Plug (13 A fuse), UK (2.5 meter)

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 11 of 14

Part Number Product Description

CAB-9K12A-NA Power Cord, 125VAC 13A NEMA 5-15 Plug, North America (2.5 meter)

CAB-AC-L620-C13 North America, NEMA L6-20-C13 (2.0 meter)

CAB-C13-C14-2M Power Cord Jumper, C13-C14 Connectors, 2 Meter Length (2 meter)

CAB-C13-C14-AC Power cord, C13 to C14 (recessed receptacle), 10A (3 meter)

CAB-C13-CBN Cabinet Jumper Power Cord, 250 VAC 10A, C14-C13 Connectors (0.7 meter)

CAB-IND-10A 10A Power cable for India (2.5 meter)

CAB-N5K6A-NA Power Cord, 200/240V 6A North America (2.5 meter)

CAB-HVAC-SD-0.6M HVAC Power cable for Anderson-LS-25

CAB-HVAC-C14-2M HVAC power cable for C14, 2 meters (no more than 240 V)

CAB-HVAC-RT-0.6M HVAC Power cable with right angle connector for RF-LS-25

Accessories on Nexus 9300-FX3 Series

NXK-ACC-KIT-1RU Nexus Fixed Accessory Kit with 4-post rack mount kit

Warranty, service and support

The Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 series has a 1-year limited hardware warranty. The warranty includes hardware
replacement with a 10-day turnaround from receipt of a Return Materials Authorization (RMA).

Cisco offers a range of professional, solution, and product support services for each stage of your Cisco Nexus
9300-FX3 series deployment:

● Cisco Data Center Quick Start Service for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switch: This offering provides
consulting services that include technical advice and assistance to help deploy Cisco Nexus 9000 Series
Switch.
● Cisco Data Center Accelerated Deployment Service for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switch: This service
delivers planning, design, and implementation expertise to bring your project into production. The
service also provides recommended next steps, an architectural high-level design, and operation-
readiness guidelines to scale the implementation to your environment.
● Cisco Migration Service for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switch: This service helps you migrate from Cisco
Catalyst® 6000 Series Switch to Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switch.
● Cisco Product Support: Support service is available globally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for Cisco
software and hardware products and technologies associated with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switch.
Enhanced support options delivered by Cisco also include solution support for Cisco ACI, Cisco
SMARTnet™ Service, and Cisco Smart Net Total Care™* service.
● For more information, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/services.
* For Cisco products only

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 12 of 14

Cisco environmental sustainability
Information about Cisco’s environmental sustainability policies and initiatives for our products, solutions,
operations, and extended operations or supply chain is provided in the “Environment Sustainability” section of
Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report.

Reference links to information about key environmental sustainability topics (mentioned in the “Environment
Sustainability” section of the CSR Report) are provided in the following table:

Sustainability topic Reference

Information on product material content laws and regulations Materials

Information on electronic waste laws and regulations, including products, batteries, WEEE compliance
and packaging

Reference links to product-specific environmental sustainability information that is mentioned in relevant

sections of this data sheet are provided in the following table:

Sustainability Topic Reference

General

Product Compliance Table 6. Safety and Compliance Information

Power

Power Supply Table 2. Product specifications: Power Supplies, Typical and

Max power specification

Material

Unit Weight Table 5. Weight

Dimensions and Mean Time between Failures Metrics Table 2. Product specifications

Cisco makes the packaging data available for informational purposes only. It may not reflect the most current
legal developments, and Cisco does not represent, warrant, or guarantee that it is complete, accurate, or up to
date. This information is subject to change without notice.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 13 of 14

Cisco Capital
Flexible payment solutions to help you achieve your objectives

Cisco Capital makes it easier to get the right technology to achieve your objectives, enable business
transformation and help you stay competitive. We can help you reduce the total cost of ownership, conserve
capital, and accelerate growth. In more than 100 countries, our flexible payment solutions can help you acquire
hardware, software, services and complementary third-party equipment in easy, predictable payments.
Learn more.

For more information

For more information about the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series and latest software release information and
recommendations, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/nexus9000.
[1]
Capabilities to enable FEX mode, please see latest software release notes for details.
[2]
Capabilities to enable MACsec needs feature license, please see the Cisco Nexus 9000 Licensing Guide and
release notes for details

Printed in USA C78-744052-01 08/20

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Page 14 of 14