Cisco Nexus 9000

The Nexus 9300 generations, compared

The Cisco Nexus 9000 Series covers several generations of fixed leaf and spine switches, and the label on the front of the box is the least useful thing about it. What separates one generation from the next is the access media it presents to the rack, the uplink tier it offers to the spine, and how much vendor support horizon is left on it. Those three move independently, and the switch that suits a copper access layer is not the switch that suits a 400 Gigabit spine. The table below sets these platforms against the figures Cisco publishes for each.

Two cautions about reading that table. The 9348GC-FXP row is a 1 Gigabit copper access switch sitting in the same columns as leaf and spine platforms, and Cisco publishes its forwarding rate in millions of packets per second rather than billions, so that cell is not comparable with the ones around it. And every cell reading "not in our verified set" states what we have confirmed from Cisco's own documents, not what Cisco has published. We do not claim a platform has no lifecycle notice; we tell you when we have not verified one.

How the generations differ

The first thing that changes between generations is the access media. Within a single generation Cisco ships both an SFP28 fibre leaf and a BASE-T copper leaf, and that choice matters more than the generation number does, because it is the choice that reaches the cable plant. A building wired for twisted pair keeps its cabling with a BASE-T switch and replaces a great deal more than a switch if it moves to fibre. Both members of the 9300-EX generation, the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX and its copper sibling, sit on one notice with one set of dates, so the media decision inside that generation carries no lifecycle consequence at all.

The second thing that changes is the uplink tier. A 25 Gigabit leaf with 40 or 100 Gigabit uplinks joins a conventional spine. The GX platforms move the whole design up a tier, with 100 Gigabit access and 400 Gigabit uplinks, for fabrics where the spine itself has been rebuilt. The uplink tier is decided by the spine, and the spine is decided by the fabric. Where that fabric carries a GPU training cluster rather than general server traffic, the 400 and 800 Gigabit NVIDIA and Dell hardware is gathered on our AI and GPU cluster switch lineup. If the copper access layer predates this range, the reference point is the Cisco Nexus 9372TX, and for 1 Gigabit copper access the Cisco Nexus 9348GC-FXP.

The third thing that changes is the support horizon, and it is the column most often left out of a comparison because it is not a hardware property. It is also the column that decides how long a design stays viable.

What does not reliably change between generations is headline throughput. Cisco's published forwarding rate does not rise with generation across the Nexus 9300 line: the 25 Gigabit SFP28 leaf reads 2.6 billion packets per second in the EX generation and 1.2 billion in both the FX and FX3 generations, at an identical 3.6 Tbps of switching capacity throughout. What changes between generations is access media, uplink speed and the support horizon. Anyone selling a later suffix as a throughput improvement on this line is selling something Cisco does not publish.

What Cisco still supports and what it does not

Two platforms in this range have published milestones we have verified against Cisco's own notices. The 9300-EX pair, both the SFP28 and the BASE-T model, closed for ordering on 9 August 2022 and are supported to 31 August 2027 under notice EOL14472, which names both part numbers in one milestone table on one set of dates. The 93180YC-FX closed for ordering on 31 July 2024 and is supported to 31 July 2029 under notice EOL15110.

That pattern is why refurbished hardware makes sense on this line rather than being a compromise. Cisco shuts the order book years before it withdraws support, and the interval between the two dates is a window in which the hardware is unavailable new and fully supported in service. Buying into that window deliberately, with the notice number on the purchase order, is a different act from buying used hardware and hoping.

For the remaining platforms we have not verified a lifecycle notice, and we say so in exactly those terms. If a purchase depends on a vendor support horizon, ask us and we will confirm what we can evidence rather than what we can infer.

Buying refurbished: condition, testing and warranty

Every switch is the part number Cisco shipped, and every unit goes through the same process: inbound test on receipt, disassembly, cleaning, inventory, pick, assembly, configuration and an outbound test before it leaves. Whole systems carry a 2-year Enterasource warranty and ship free by FedEx Ground to the lower 48 states. We do not claim that any Cisco warranty transfers to a second owner, because it does not, and we do not publish a burn-in duration or a certification name we cannot evidence.

Power supplies and fan modules are platform-specific and their airflow direction has to match, so we confirm that pair on every quote. Optics, rails and uplink modules are separate line items unless a listing says otherwise. The wider catalogue sits under Cisco Switches and Cisco networking.

Common questions

Which Nexus 9300 generation should I choose for a 25 Gigabit leaf?

All three 25 Gigabit SFP28 leaf platforms present 48 downlinks and six uplinks and are rated by Cisco at 3.6 Tbps, so the decision is not a throughput one. Choose on the support horizon if the design has to stay vendor-supported for a defined period, and on catalogue position if procurement requires hardware Cisco still ships. Those two considerations point at different members of the range, which is why the comparison table above carries a support column at all.

What happens after a Cisco last day of support?

The hardware keeps running. What ends is Cisco's support for the platform, so from that date the switch is no longer a vendor-supported device and any fault becomes an internal or third-party matter. For the platforms here with verified milestones, those dates are 31 August 2027 under notice EOL14472 and 31 July 2029 under notice EOL15110. Most buyers plan a replacement against the support date rather than the order date, because the order date has already passed.

Should the access layer be BASE-T copper or SFP28 fibre?

Decide on the cabling that already exists in the building, because that is the expensive part to change. A BASE-T switch runs on installed twisted pair and negotiates at 100 Megabit, 1 or 10 Gigabit per port, which also lets older management hardware share the access switch. An SFP28 switch needs an optic per port and reaches 25 Gigabit. Inside the 9300-EX generation both options share one notice and one set of dates, so the choice carries no lifecycle penalty.

When do 400 Gigabit uplinks actually matter?

They matter when the spine has already moved, not before. The GX platforms pair 100 Gigabit access with 400 Gigabit uplinks and are rated at 12 Tbps and above, which is a different class of fabric from a 25 Gigabit leaf with 40 or 100 Gigabit uplinks. Buying 400 Gigabit uplinks into a spine that cannot terminate them buys nothing, so the honest sequence is to size the spine first and let it decide the leaf.

What does refurbished mean on a Nexus switch here?

It means the same Cisco part number and the same hardware, tested on receipt, then disassembled, cleaned, inventoried, picked, assembled, configured and tested again before it ships. Whole systems come with an Enterasource warranty stated in full on the listing, and delivery is free by FedEx Ground to the lower 48 states. No Cisco warranty follows hardware to a second owner and we never suggest otherwise.

How do quoting and lead times work when nothing here is priced?

Tell us the platform, the airflow direction, the power supply type and any optics or uplink modules you need, and we will come back with availability and a price against that exact specification. We source these units rather than holding every variant on a shelf, so a meaningful answer on timing arrives with the quote rather than before it. If what we can source differs from what was asked for, you hear that at quote time.