The Cisco Nexus 93180LC-EX Switch is a data plane switch that provides 24 40 Gbps QSFP ports and six 40/100 Gbps QSFP or QSFP28 uplink ports.

This switch can be used for the ToR network and for extra switch pairs to support Isilon connectivity.

The Cisco Nexus 93180LC-EX Switch is for solutions that include:

• Up to five Cisco UCS domains with standard uplink bandwidth requirements (160 Gbps per fabric)
• Isilon nodes requiring 40 Gbps connectivity
• Requirements for 40 Gbps uplinks from the Cisco UCS FIs to the ToR switch

Odd-numbered ports 1, 3, 5, through 23 can be configured as 4x10 Gbps breakouts to facilitate 10 Gbps connections to SFP+ based devices. When one of these ports is configured as a breakout, the even-numbered port below it is disabled. Ports 25 and 27 are dedicated as 100 Gbps vPC peer links, and ports 26 and 28 are disabled. Uplink ports 29 through 32 can be configured as 40 Gbps, 100 Gbps, or 4x10 Gbps breakouts to facilitate connections to external networks.

Cisco UCS uplinks

Uplinks from the Cisco UCS 6332-16UP Fabric Interconnects to the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-FX Switch use:

• Cisco 40 Gbps QSFP Active Optical cables for the first two Cisco UCS domains
• QSFP optical bi-directional (Bi-Di) transceivers for Cisco UCS domains three through five

Each pair of Cisco UCS FIs consumes four QSFP ports on each Cisco Nexus 93180LC-EX Switch for a standard uplink topology. Six QSFP ports on each Cisco Nexus 93180LC-EX Switch provide enhanced bandwidth uplink technology.

Storage array NAS connections

A Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 transceiver provides connectivity from the 10 Gbps NAS ports on a VxBlock System 1000 storage array to the Cisco Nexus 93180LC-EX Switch.

A combination of MPO-to-LC hydra cables, MPO trunks, and MPO-to-LC cassettes are used to provide fiber connectivity to the endpoint.

The NAS device is populated with 10 Gbps optical SFP+ modules. A direct-attach QSFP cable that is provided with the node connects to a 40 Gbps Isilon node. NAS devices are cross-connected to both switches.

AMP-VX/AMP-3S connections

One connection from each AMP node is made to each ToR Cisco Nexus 93180LC-EX Switch using Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 transceiver.

A combination of MPO-to-LC hydra cables, MPO trunks, and MPO-to-LC cassettes are used to provide fiber connectivity to the endpoint. Fiber connectivity provides four 10 Gbps LC fiber connections from each QSFP module. These connections are used for data-plane traffic, such as connections to the VMware vSphere ESXi Management network from workloads residing on the AMP.

vPC peer link

Two 100 Gbps copper direct-attach connections form the vPC peer link between the Cisco Nexus 93180LC-EX Switches.

External uplinks

The following connections to the external network are supported:

Integrated Data Protection connections

Most Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection solutions include a pair of dedicated Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switches, which are uplinked to the Cisco Nexus 93180LC-EX Switches using 40 Gbps QSFP direct-attach cables.

For small deployments, the Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 transceiver uses the same connection method as NAS to provide direct connectivity from the data protection components to the switches. This method provides four 10 Gbps LC fiber connections from each QSFP module. In-band management connections from the Integrated Data Protection components use 1 Gbps GLC-T SFP+ to Cat6 connections.

Isilon connections

For small Isilon deployments, the Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 Switches can connect:

• Isilon nodes at 40 Gbps using the QSFP-40G-SR4 transceiver and MPO cabling
• Isilon nodes at 10 Gbps using the connection method described for NAS connections
• Larger Isilon deployments require more Cisco Nexus 93180LC-EX Switch pairs