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Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Hardware Installation Guide
OL-15902-01
Chapter1 Overview
Cisco Nexus 5500 Platform Switches
Expansion Modules
Expansion modules allow the Cisco Nexus 5596T switch to be configured as cost-effective 10-Gigabit
Ethernet switches and as I/O consolidation platforms with native Fibre Channel connectivity.
The Cisco Nexus 5596T switch has three slots that can be used for the following optional expansion
modules:
•Ethernet module that provides sixteen 1- or 10-Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports using the SFP+
interface
•Fibre Channel plus Ethernet module that provides eight 1- or 10-Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports
using the SFP+ interface, and eight ports of 8/4/2/1-Gbps native Fibre Channel connectivity using
the SFP+/SFP interface
•Unified port module that provides up to sixteen 1- or 10-Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports using the
SFP+ interface or up to sixteen ports of 8/4/2/1-Gbps native Fibre Channel connectivity using the
SFP+ and SFP interfaces. The use of 1- or 10-Gigabit Ethernet or 8/4/2/1-Gbps Fibre Channel on a
port is mutually exclusive but can be selected for any of the 16 physical ports per module
•Ethernet module that provides twelve 10GBASE-T ports (N55-M12T). The hardware is FCoE
capable
You can hot swap the expansion modules during operations.
Ports
Each port on the Cisco Nexus 5596T is numbered, and groups of ports are numbered based on their
function. The ports are numbered top to bottom and left to right.
Figure 1-15 shows how ports are numbered and grouped by function.
Figure1-15 Port Numbering
1Expansion modules 3System status LED
2Identifier LED 432 fixed ports of 10GBASE-T and 16 fixed
ports of SFP+