Question 1

What is the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender?

Accepted Answer

The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender is a remote line card that attaches to parent Nexus chassis switches, extending port density and simplifying management by proxy-configuring through the parent device.

Question 2

How does a Nexus 2000 integrate with parent Nexus switches?

Accepted Answer

A Nexus 2000 fabric extender operates in tandem with a parent Nexus 5K/6K/7K switch over dedicated fabric links, presenting all ports on the parent’s control plane and inheriting its software and management domain.

Question 3

What are the key hardware features of Nexus 2000 Switches?

Accepted Answer

Key hardware features include 24–48 fixed 1/10 GbE downlink ports, up to 4× 10/40 GbE uplinks, a compact 1RU form factor, front-to-back airflow, and redundant power supply options for high availability.

Question 4

Which uplink and downlink port options are supported?

Accepted Answer

Nexus 2000 models support 24 or 48 fixed 1/10 GbE downlinks and four 10 GbE or 40 GbE QSFP+ uplinks, enabling flexible host connectivity and aggregation to the parent switch.

Question 5

How can I scale my Nexus 2000 deployment?

Accepted Answer

Scale by stacking up to 64 fabric extenders per parent switch, aggregating up to 3,072 10 GbE host ports or 6,144 1 GbE ports under a single management plane.

Question 6

What software and licensing do Nexus 2000 switches require?

Accepted Answer

Nexus 2000 units inherit NX-OS software and licensing from their parent switch; no separate licenses are needed, though the parent must run a supported NX-OS release and have Fabric Extender licenses.

Question 7

How do I manage and configure Nexus 2000 devices?

Accepted Answer

Management is centralized via the parent Nexus switch CLI or NX-OS GUI, using the ‘feature fex’ command to discover, allocate FEX IDs and configure ports as though they’re local interfaces.

Question 8

How are VLANs configured on Nexus 2000 Fabric Extenders?

Accepted Answer

VLANs are created and applied on the parent switch; the Nexus 2000 inherits VLAN assignments and trunk configurations automatically over the fabric links without local VLAN database.

Question 9

What redundancy and high-availability options are available?

Accepted Answer

Nexus 2000 supports dual active parent connections, redundant power supplies, front-to-back and back-to-front airflow choices, and FabricPath for loop-free multipathing and fast convergence.

Question 10

How is power delivered to Nexus 2000 switches?

Accepted Answer

Power is supplied via internal or optional redundant AC/DC power supplies; hot-swappable modules ensure uninterrupted uptime and maintenance without service impact.

Question 11

What environmental specifications apply to Nexus 2000 devices?

Accepted Answer

Operating temperature: 0–40 °C; storage temperature: –40–70 °C; relative humidity: 5–85% non-condensing; compliance with NEBS Level 3 and ETSI standards for data center deployments.

Question 12

How do I upgrade firmware on a Nexus 2000 Fabric Extender?

Accepted Answer

Firmware upgrades are performed centrally on the parent Nexus switch using the ‘install all’ or ‘install fex’ NX-OS commands, which propagate images to all attached fabric extenders automatically.

Question 13

How can I troubleshoot link and connectivity issues?

Accepted Answer

Use parent switch show commands (e.g., ‘show fex’, ‘show interface fex-port’) to verify fabric link status, port errors, and VLAN mappings; check LEDs on both the parent and FEX units for hardware faults.

Question 14

What are the typical use cases for Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders?

Accepted Answer

Use cases include high-density server connectivity in rack environments, remote I/O consolidation in blade chassis, and centralized management in distributed data center topologies.

Question 15

How does the Nexus 2000 improve data center architecture?

Accepted Answer

By offloading port management to a parent switch, Nexus 2000 reduces configuration complexity, lowers CapEx/OpEx, streamlines cabling, and scales port density without sacrificing performance.

Question 16

What is the difference between Nexus 2000 and Nexus 5000 Series switches?

Accepted Answer

Nexus 2000 are fabric extenders without independent control planes, relying on parent switches. Nexus 5000 are standalone modular switches with full NX-OS features, dedicated CPU, and local management.

Question 17

How do I secure a Nexus 2000 deployment?

Accepted Answer

Enable AAA authentication on the parent switch, use role-based access control, apply port security and storm control policies on downlinks, and enforce Link Integrity Checks on fabric links.

Switches Nexus 2000 Series

N2K-C2232TM-E (N2K-C2232TM-E-10GE (32x1/10GT+8x10GE), airflow/power option)

N2K-C2248TP-E (N2K-C2248TP-E-1GE (48x100/1000-T+4x10GE), airflow/PS option)

N2K-C2348TQ-E (Nexus 2000, 10GT FEX; 48x1/10T; 6x40G QSFP)

N2K-C2248TF-E (Nexus 2248TP-E with 8 FET, choice of airflow/power)

N2K-C2232PP (N2K-C2232PP-10GE (32x1/10GE+8x10GE), airflow/power option)

N2K-C2232TF-E (Nexus 2232TM-E with 16 FET, choice of airflow/power)

N2K-C2348TQ (Nexus 2348TQ with 4 Bidi or 2FET-40G and 8FET-10G)

N2K-C2348UPQ (Nexus 2000, 10GE UP FEX; 48x1/10GE SFP+ ; 6x40G QSFP)

Questions & Answers

What is the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender?

How does a Nexus 2000 integrate with parent Nexus switches?

What are the key hardware features of Nexus 2000 Switches?

Which uplink and downlink port options are supported?