The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders behave as remote I/O modules for a parent Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch. The fabric extender is essentially an extension of the parent Cisco Nexus switch fabric with the fabric extender and the parent Cisco Nexus switch together forming a virtual modular system.

The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series forwards all traffic to the parent Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch over 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. Passing all traffic to the parent switch allows traffic to be shaped according to policies established on the parent Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch with a single point of management.

• 32 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) server access ports using SFP+ SR and LR optical or CX1 direct-attach copper interconnects
• 8 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE uplink ports using SFP+ SR and LR optical or CX1 direct-attach copper interconnects
• Low-latency cut-through switching ideal for 10 Gigabit Ethernet server and pass-through blade server connectivity
• Unified fabric environments
• IEEE Data Center Bridging (DCB)
• Host PortChannel and vPC (up to 8 PortChannel members per PortChannel with no restriction on the number of PortChannels)
• ISSU
• Highly scalable virtual modular system with up to 384 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports
• Compact 1RU form factor
• Front-to-back cooling compatible with data center hot-aisle and cold-aisle designs with all switch ports at the rear of the unit in close proximity to server ports
• Hardware capable of back-to-front cooling (requires new power supply and fan tray)
• Dual-redundant power supplies included in default configuration
• Hot-swappable fan trays
• All user-serviceable components accessible from the front panel
• Hardware capable of Gigabit Ethernet on all ports (requires new software)
• Operates as a remote I/O module extending the switch fabric for Cisco Nexus 5010 and 5020 Switches
• Can be mixed and matched with different types of Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders to the same parent switch to support various types of connectivity
• Zero-touch provisioning including configuration and upgrade