Cisco Nexus 2348TQ-E Fabric Extender

CiscoSKU: 11418494

Price:
Sale price$13,095.85

Description

Elevate your data center access with the Cisco Nexus 2348TQ-E Fabric Extender, a powerhouse in the Cisco Nexus 2300 family designed to simplify and scale your network while delivering consistent, enterprise-grade performance. As the successor to the widely adopted Nexus 2000 Series, the 2348TQ-E extends the fabric efficiently from the core to the access layer, enabling centralized management, streamlined cabling, and a unified policy framework across your entire data center. This Fabric Extender (FEX) leverages Cisco’s proven NX-OS-based fabric architecture to provide a seamless, policy-driven experience that reduces operational complexity and accelerates deployment in modern, multi-site deployments.

Designed to work in harmony with Cisco Nexus switches, the Nexus 2348TQ-E acts as a remote access point for servers, storage, and virtualization resources, while the parent Nexus switch handles the control plane and policy enforcement. This approach helps IT teams consolidate management, improve visibility, and maintain strict security and performance standards across racks and rows. Whether you’re building a greenfield data center, expanding capacity, or refreshing an aging infrastructure, the Nexus 2348TQ-E fabric extender is engineered to fit into a wide range of deployment models, including traditional data centers and Cisco ACI-enabled environments.

  • Unified fabric access with reduced complexity — The Cisco Nexus 2348TQ-E sits at the data center access layer and forwards traffic to a centralized parent Nexus switch, simplifying topology, cabling, and policy enforcement while preserving full feature parity across the fabric.
  • High-density server connectivity with flexible uplinks — Designed to deliver dense port access for servers, storage, and virtualization workloads, the 2348TQ-E supports flexible uplink options to match your existing infrastructure and future scalability needs without compromising performance.
  • NX-OS-driven management for consistent operations — Managed through the parent Nexus switch, this FEX benefits from familiar Cisco NX-OS tooling, CLI familiarity, robust automation APIs, and centralized monitoring for streamlined operations.
  • Low-latency, reliable data path — Built to deliver deterministic, low-latency forwarding critical for latency-sensitive applications, while offering high availability features to reduce downtime and ensure business continuity.
  • Seamless integration with Cisco fabric ecosystems — Works alongside Cisco ACI, Cisco Nexus switches, and Cisco’s policy-based automation framework, enabling scalable, automated deployments and a single control plane across the data center fabric.

Technical Details of Cisco Nexus 2348TQ-E Fabric Extender

  • Architecture: Cisco Nexus 2300 platform fabric extender architecture that offloads data-path processing to the parent Nexus switch while relying on NX-OS for control and policy enforcement from the fabric.
  • Form factor: 1U appliance designed for rack mounting in data center rows, optimized for space efficiency and reliable operation in high-density environments.
  • Port density and connectivity: High-density access interfaces intended for server and storage connectivity with scalable uplink options to compatible Nexus switches; supports standard Ethernet speeds appropriate to data center requirements.
  • Management: Integrated into the Cisco Nexus family with central management through the parent switch, leveraging NX-OS, familiar CLI, and Cisco management tools for visibility, monitoring, and automation.
  • Compatibility and ecosystem: Designed to operate within Cisco Nexus and ACI ecosystems, enabling policy-driven automation, consistent security models, and cohesive fabric deployment across multi-site environments.

How to install Cisco Nexus 2348TQ-E Fabric Extender

  • Plan placement and cabling: Determine the optimal location in the data center for the FEX, close to the servers or storage resources it will serve, and plan uplink cabling to minimize latency and maximize cable hygiene.
  • Prepare the parent Nexus switch: Ensure the chosen parent Nexus switch supports fabric extender integration and NX-OS-based control of the FEX, updating firmware if necessary to match compatibility requirements.
  • Connect the FEX to the parent switch: Use the recommended uplink interfaces and cabling to connect the Fabric Extender to the parent switch, following Cisco’s guidelines for interconnectivity and port mapping to ensure proper policy distribution.
  • Power-on and initial verification: Power up the 2348TQ-E and verify that the fabric is recognized by the parent switch. Confirm that the FEX appears in the management console, and that the link state, health, and policy propagation are active.
  • Policy enrollment and validation: Apply the appropriate policies, security rules, and QoS settings from the parent switch, ensuring servers and storage connected through the FEX receive consistent treatment across the fabric. Validate traffic flow, latency, and failover behavior to confirm a ready-to-operate state.

Frequently asked questions

  • What is a Fabric Extender (FEX) and how does the Nexus 2348TQ-E fit into a data center? The Nexus 2348TQ-E is a Fabric Extender that extends the Cisco Nexus fabric to the access layer. It relies on a parent Nexus switch for control and policy, simplifying management, reducing cable complexity, and enabling scalable, policy-driven network architectures in data centers.
  • Is the 2348TQ-E compatible with Cisco ACI? Yes. Fabric Extenders from the Nexus 2300 family are designed to work within Cisco’s fabric ecosystems, including ACI, to enable centralized policy and automation across the data center.
  • What are the typical deployment scenarios for this FEX? Common use cases include data center access layer consolidation, server virtualization environments requiring scalable port density, and environments that benefit from centralized management and simplified cabling while preserving performance.
  • How is management handled for the Nexus 2348TQ-E? Management is centralized through the parent Nexus switch using NX-OS, with access to Cisco management tools, automation APIs, and CLI for consistent configuration, monitoring, and policy enforcement across the fabric.
  • What benefits does the 2348TQ-E offer in terms of reliability and scalability? The fabric extender provides high availability options, streamlined deployment, and scalable connectivity to support growing data center workloads while maintaining predictable performance and simplified operations.

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