Introduction to cisco-nexus-9300-h-series-switches.pdf
The cisco-nexus-9300-h-series-switches.pdf provides comprehensive technical specifications for Cisco’s Nexus 9300-H Series data center switches, detailing hardware architecture and software compatibility requirements. This document serves as the primary reference for network architects designing hyperscale infrastructures requiring 25G/100G/400G port density.
Updated in Q4 2024, it covers chassis dimensions, power consumption metrics, and thermal profiles for environments deploying Cisco NX-OS 16.0(x) or ACI 5.3(x) firmware. The document explicitly supports N9K-C9336C-FX2 and N9K-C93240YC-FX2 line cards with validated airflow patterns for front-to-back and reverse cooling configurations.
Key Features and Improvements
- Port Density Optimization
- 2.5x higher 400G QSFP-DD density compared to previous EX/FX platforms
- 36x 400G ports per 2RU chassis with 14.4Tbps forwarding capacity
- Energy Efficiency
- 0.35W per Gbps throughput in ECO mode
- Dynamic power adjustment based on optical transceiver types
- Hardware Security
- Secure boot with hardware-rooted trust chain validation
- Tamper-evident chassis intrusion detection system
- Protocol Support
- VXLAN EVPN multi-site with 10ms convergence
- Precision Time Protocol (PTP) grandmaster capability
Compatibility and Requirements
| Supported Chassis | Minimum NX-OS Version | Power Supply Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| N9K-C9336C-H | 16.0(7e) | 3000W AC/DC (N9K-PUV-3000W) |
| N9K-C93240YC-H | 15.2(5h) | 2100W HVAC (N9K-PUV-2100W) |
Incompatible with legacy N9K-M12PQ line cards due to ASIC architecture limitations. Requires Cisco Nexus 9500 Series supervisors for multi-chassis virtualization.
n9000-epld.9.3.6.img Cisco Nexus 9000 Series EPLD/FPGA Firmware 9.3(6) Download Link
Introduction to n9000-epld.9.3.6.img Software
The n9000-epld.9.3.6.img contains essential Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) updates for Nexus 9300/9500 series switches, resolving hardware-level compatibility issues with 400G QSFP-DD optics. This 2025 Q1 release addresses critical CVE-2024-20358 vulnerability in SerDes signal processing while maintaining backward compatibility with NX-OS 9.3(x) releases.
Key Features and Improvements
- Optical Interface Stability
- Fixes “sfp-missing” errors with 400G-FR4 transceivers
- Improves signal integrity for 800m LR8 optics
- Security Patches
- Hardware-level mitigation for timing side-channel attacks
- Secure FPGA reprogramming validation via SHA-384
- Performance Enhancements
- 15% reduction in FEC error correction latency
- Adaptive equalization for degraded backplane traces
- Diagnostic Capabilities
- Real-time BER monitoring through CLI
- Predictive failure analysis for PHY components
Compatibility and Requirements
| Supported Hardware | Minimum Bootloader | FPGA Chipset |
|---|---|---|
| N9K-C9336C-FX2 | 16.0(3e) | Xilinx Ultrascale+ |
| N9K-C9504-FM-E | 15.2(5h) | Intel Stratix 10 |
Requires forced power cycle after installation via /usr/sbin/chassis-power-cycle.sh. Incompatible with N9K-X97160YC-EX line cards manufactured before 2023.
Both files are available for authenticated download at https://www.ioshub.net/cisco-downloads with cryptographic validation through SHA-512 checksums. Enterprise subscribers can request expedited delivery via TLS 1.3 encrypted channels.
