Nexus is Cisco's data centre switching line, used for top-of-rack and spine roles where east-west traffic and port density matter more than campus features like PoE. Airflow direction is worth settling early, because it has to match the rack.
Individual networking products are not listed on this site yet. Availability of any particular model is confirmed by quote rather than published here, so the fastest route is to request a quote.
What to tell us
- Model or part number — the exact SKU if you have it, or the role and port profile.
- Role — top-of-rack, leaf or spine.
- Port speeds and count — 10G, 25G, 40G or 100G, and how many.
- Optics and cabling — SFP+, QSFP or QSFP28, and whether transceivers or DAC cables are needed.
- Airflow — front-to-back or back-to-front, to match your rack.
- Quantity — and whether it is a one-off or a repeat requirement.
- Compatibility — what this has to work alongside.
- Licensing — tell us which NX-OS tier your design needs. We can report the software version present on a quoted unit, but TekBoost supplies the hardware only: Cisco software licences and subscriptions are not included and are not sold by TekBoost, and must be obtained separately from Cisco or an authorised Cisco partner where they are required.
Put the technical detail in the Quote Details field and the volume in Estimated Quantity.
Range: Nexus 9300. For campus switching see Catalyst 9000 Series.
Airflow is the specification people forget
On a data-centre switch, airflow direction is not a detail — it decides whether the unit can go in the rack at all. Cisco offers Nexus 9300 platform switches in two configurations: port-side intake and port-side exhaust. Cisco identifies them by coloured tabs, blue for intake and red for exhaust, and the part number carries it too — N9K-PAC-650W against N9K-PAC-650W-B, where the “-B” suffix denotes the reversed direction.
Fans and power supplies must match each other and match the aisle containment. A used switch can easily arrive with a mixed or simply wrong set, so tell us which direction you need and we will confirm what the quoted units are fitted with.
NX-OS or ACI
Cisco states that organizations can run the Nexus 9000 Series in standard Cisco Nexus environments using NX-OS Software, and that the hardware infrastructure is also ready to support Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). Which mode you intend to run affects the software and licensing you need, so say which at quote stage.
On licensing, Cisco names N93-LAN1K9 for enhanced L3 routing alongside NX-OS Essential (NX-OS-ES-XF) and NX-OS Advantage (NX-OS-AD-XF). Licences are not hardware: we do not represent that any licence or support entitlement transfers with a quoted unit.
These are platform capabilities from Cisco’s documentation, not a description of any particular unit. Optics for the 40G and 100G uplinks are separate items — see uplinks and optics.
See all ranges on the networking hub. Networking equipment bought through a TekBoost quote carries our standard 3-year warranty — buying by quote rather than from an online listing makes no difference to cover — subject to the terms, exclusions and conditions on that page. Manufacturer warranty, software licensing and support entitlements are separate and are not included.