Cisco Fabric Extenders
Cisco Fabric Extender (FEX) technology comprises technologies that enable fabric extensibility with simplified management enabling the switching access layer to extend and expand all the way to the server hypervisor as the customer’s business grows. Based on the emerging standard IEEE 802.1BR, the Cisco FEX technology solution is composed of a parent switch that can be a Nexus 7000 Series Switch, Nexus 9000 Series Switch, or a Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect. The parent switch is then extended to connect to the server either as a remote line card with Nexus 2200/2300 Series fabric extenders or logically partitioned or virtualized adapter ports to connect to any type of server (rack and/or blades) with Cisco Adapter FEX and Cisco Data Center VM-FEX technologies. Although this chapter is for the Cisco Nexus family of products, we will also introduce the fabric extender products used on the Unified Compute side so that you know what fabric extender products exist today.
Cisco Nexus 2200 Platform Fabric Extenders
The Cisco Nexus 2200 platform fabric extenders comprise a category of data center products designed to simplify data center access architecture and operations. The Cisco Nexus 2200 platform fabric extenders use the Cisco fabric extender architecture to provide a highly scalable unified server-access platform across a range of 100-Megabit Ethernet, 1- and 10-Gigabit Ethernet, Unified Fabric, copper and fiber connectivity, and rack and blade server environments. The platform is well-suited to support today’s traditional 1-Gigabit Ethernet environments while allowing transparent migration to 10-Gigabit Ethernet, virtual machine-aware, Unified Fabric technologies.
The Cisco Nexus 2200 platform fabric extenders behave like remote line cards for a parent Cisco Nexus switch. The fabric extenders are essentially extensions of the parent Cisco Nexus switch fabric, with the fabric extenders and the parent switch together forming a distributed modular system. This architecture enables physical topologies with the flexibility and benefits of both ToR and EoR (end-of-row) deployments.
The Cisco Nexus 2200 platform fabric extenders provide two types of ports: ports for end-host attachment (host interfaces) and uplink ports (fabric interfaces). Fabric interfaces, differentiated with a yellow color, are for connectivity to the upstream parent Cisco Nexus switch.
Figure 2-6 shows various Cisco Nexus 2200 platform fabric extenders.
Figure 2-6 Cisco Nexus 2200 Platform Fabric Extenders: Cisco Nexus 2232TM-E (Top Left), Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E (Top Right), and Cisco Nexus Cisco Nexus 2232PP (Bottom)
Table 2-4 summarizes the Cisco Nexus 2200 platform fabric extender models.
Table 2-4 Cisco Nexus 2200 Platform Fabric Extenders
| Model | Description |
| Cisco Nexus 2232PP 10GE | 32 x 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) host interfaces (SFP+) and 8 x 10-Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE fabric interfaces (SFP+) |
| Cisco Nexus 2232TM-E 10GE | 32 x 100M, 1/10GBASE-T host interfaces and uplink modules (8 x 10-Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces [SFP+]); FCoE support for up to 30m with Category 6a and 7 cables |
| Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E | 48 x 100/1000BASE-T host interfaces and 4 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces (SFP+) |
Cisco Nexus 2300 Platform Fabric Extenders
Cisco Nexus 2300 platform fabric extenders are the successors to the Cisco Nexus 2200 Series fabric extenders. The Cisco Nexus 2300 platform with its Cisco fabric extender architecture provides a highly scalable unified server-access platform across a range of connectivity options, such as 100-Megabit Ethernet; 1-, 10-, and 40-Gigabit Ethernet; Unified Fabric; copper and fiber connectivity; and rack and blade server environments. The platform offers excellent support for migration from traditional 1-Gigabit Ethernet to 10- and 40-Gigabit Ethernet and virtual machine–aware Unified Fabric technologies.
The Cisco Nexus 2300 platform maintains all the existing Cisco Nexus 2200 Series features, including a single point of management, high availability with virtual port channels (vPC), vPC+, Enhanced vPC, and LAN and SAN convergence using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
Figure 2-7 shows various Cisco Nexus 2300 platform fabric extenders.
Figure 2-7 Cisco Nexus 2300 Platform Fabric Extenders: Cisco Nexus 2332TQ (Top Left), Cisco Nexus 2348UPQ (Middle Left), Cisco Nexus 2348TQ (Bottom Left), and Cisco Nexus 2348TQ-E (Right)
Table 2-5 summarizes the Cisco Nexus 2300 platform fabric extender models.
Table 2-5 Cisco Nexus 2300 Platform Fabric Extenders
| Model | Description |
| Cisco Nexus 2348UPQ 10GE | 48 x 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet and Unified Port host interfaces (SFP+) and up to 6 QSFP+ 10/40-Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces |
| Cisco Nexus 2348TQ 10GE | 48 x 100MBASE-T and 1/10GBASE-T port host interfaces (RJ-45) and up to 6 QSFP+ 10/40-Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces; FCoE support for up to 30m with Category 6a and 7 cables |
| Cisco Nexus 2332TQ 10GE | 32 x 100MBASE-T and 1/10GBASE-T port host interfaces (RJ-45) and up to 4 QSFP+ 10/40-Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces; FCoE support for up to 30m with Category 6a and 7 cables |
| Cisco Nexus 2348TQ-E 10GE | 48 x 100MBASE-T and 1/10GBASE-T port host interfaces (RJ-45) and up to 6 QSFP+ 10/40-Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces; FCoE support for up to 30m with Category 6a and 7 cables |
Cisco Nexus B22 Blade Fabric Extender
The Cisco Nexus B22 blade fabric extender is designed to simplify data center server-access architecture and operations in environments in which third-party blade servers are used. The platform offers excellent support for the integration of third-party blade chassis into a Cisco Unified Fabric.
The Cisco Nexus B22 blade fabric extender behaves like a remote line card for a parent Cisco Nexus switch, together forming a distributed modular system. This architecture simplifies data center access operations and architecture by combining the management simplicity of a single high-density access switch with the cabling simplicity of integrated blade switches and ToR access switches.
The Cisco Nexus B22 provides two types of ports: ports for blade server attachment (host interfaces) and uplink ports (fabric interfaces). Fabric interfaces, located on the front of the Cisco Nexus B22 module, are for connectivity to the upstream parent Cisco Nexus switch.
The Cisco Nexus B22 comes in four models, as shown in Figure 2-8.
Figure 2-8 Cisco Nexus B22 Blade Fabric Extender for Dell (Left), IBM (Middle), HP (Top Right), and Fujitsu (Bottom Right)
Table 2-6 summarizes the Cisco Nexus B22 fabric extender models.
Table 2-6 Cisco Nexus B22 Fabric Extenders
| Model | Description |
| Cisco Nexus B22HP fabric extender (blade fabric extender for HP) | 16 x 1/10GBASE-KR internal host interfaces and 8 x 10-Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces (Enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable [SFP+]) |
| Cisco Nexus B22IBM fabric extender (blade fabric extender for IBM) | 14 x 1/10GBASE-KR internal host interfaces and 8 x 10-Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces (SFP+) |
| Cisco Nexus B22F fabric extender (blade fabric extender for Fujitsu) | 16 x 10GBASE-KR internal host interfaces and 8 x 10-Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces (SFP+) |
| Cisco Nexus B22DELL fabric extender (blade fabric extender for Dell) | 16 x 1/10GBASE-KR internal host interfaces and 8 x 10-Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces (SFP+) |
Cisco Adapter FEX
Cisco Adapter FEX extends the Cisco FEX technology into traditional rack servers. Cisco Adapter FEX enables the server adapter to be logically partitioned into multiple virtual network interface cards (vNICs). Each vNIC behaves like a physical NIC port and meets the network connectivity needs for each application so that security and quality of service (QoS) policies can be applied for each vNIC and application. Cisco has partnered with server adapter vendors including Emulex, Broadcom, and QLogic to deliver this capability.
Cisco Data Center VM-FEX
Cisco Data Center VM-FEX extends the Cisco FEX technology to virtualized servers. Cisco Data Center VM-FEX partitions the server adapter into multiple vNICs, and each vNIC is assigned to individual virtual machines. Because the switching of VM traffic is provided in hardware switches instead of a software switch within the hypervisor, greater performance is achieved through the consolidation of the virtual and physical access layers.
Cisco UCS Fabric Extenders
The Cisco UCS 2200/2300/2400 Series fabric extenders extend the Cisco FEX technology to Cisco Unified Computing System blade servers. The Cisco UCS fabric extenders together with the Cisco UCS fabric interconnects form a parent switch and line card architecture to deliver scalability. More on Cisco UCS fabric extenders in Chapter 16.
