Cisco Nexus 5548P Datasheet page 12

Figure 12 shows an active-active pair of Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches cross-connected to redundant
Ethernet NICs in servers. Instead of using multiple 1 Gigabit Ethernet connections to servers for LAN, virtual
machine mobility applications, and Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) SAN support, customers can
combine their traffic over a consolidated, lossless, low-latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric.
The Cisco Nexus 5500 platform can be deployed as a top-of-tack, access-layer switch in parallel with existing
Fibre Channel SANs.
Figure 12. Active-Active Pair of Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches Connected to Redundant Servers
Unified Access Architecture
One deployment scenario involves equipping each data center rack with two Cisco Nexus 2248 GE Fabric
Extenders or with two Cisco Nexus 2232 10GE Fabric Extenders, connected to two upstream Cisco Nexus 5500
platform switches (Figure 13). Up to 48 servers can connect to each 1 Gigabit Ethernet fabric extender, and up to
32 servers can connect to each 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric extender. Assuming that these servers are dual-homed,
a pair of Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches can connect up to 1152 1 Gigabit Ethernet servers (24 Cisco Nexus
2248 fabric extenders) or up to 768 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers (24 Cisco Nexus 2232 fabric extenders).
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