Cisco N9K-C9364C | Nexus 9300 64-Port 40/100G QSFP28 Switch, 12.8 Tbps, 2RU Spine

Q: What operating modes does the N9K-C9364C support?
A: The N9K-C9364C supports dual operational modes: Cisco NX-OS for traditional standalone switching and Cisco ACI spine mode for policy-driven, automated data center fabrics. This flexibility allows you to deploy the switch in existing NX-OS environments or adopt Application Centric Infrastructure as your network evolves.

Q: Can the QSFP28 ports be used for 10G or 25G breakout connections?
A: No, breakout is not supported on the N9K-C9364C. The 64 QSFP28 ports operate at 40G or 100G speeds only, simplifying design and operations for spine switch deployments in leaf-spine architectures.

Q: What is the MACsec capability on this switch?
A: The N9K-C9364C supports wire-rate MACsec encryption on the last 16 QSFP28 ports (ports 49-64) when software support is enabled. This allows you to secure high-speed spine interconnects or border-to-spine uplinks without performance degradation.

Q: Is this switch suitable for both spine and leaf roles?
A: While the N9K-C9364C is primarily designed and optimized as a spine switch for high-density data center fabrics, it can technically be deployed in leaf roles depending on architecture requirements. However, its high port density and 2RU form factor make it most cost-effective in spine-layer aggregation scenarios.

Q: What power supply redundancy options are available?
A: The N9K-C9364C supports up to two redundant hot-swappable power supplies. You can choose from 1200W AC, 930W DC, or 1200W HVAC/HVDC power supply units, enabling N+1 redundancy for mission-critical data center deployments.