Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches Data Sheet

 

Introduction

Empowering Core Layer and Edge Services with Higher Speeds and Scales

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches are purpose-built for resiliency at scale with the industry’s most comprehensive security and allows your business to grow at the lowest total operational cost. Built upon the foundation of the Catalyst 9000, the Catalyst 9600 Series offers scale and security when always-on is a must.

As a foundational building block for the Cisco Digital Network Architecture, the Catalyst 9600 Series switch help customers simplify complexity, optimize IT, and reduce operational costs by leveraging intelligence, automation, and human expertise that no other vendor can deliver regardless of where you are in the intent-based networking journey.

Catalyst 9600 Series Switches provide security features that protects the integrity of the hardware as well as the software and all data that flows through the switch. It provides resiliency that keeps your business up and running seamlessly. Combine that with open APIs of Cisco IOS XE and programmability of the UADP and Silicon1 ASIC technologies, Catalyst 9600 Series switches give you what you need now with investment protection on future innovations.

As the industry’s first purpose-built 40,100, 200 and 400 Gigabit Ethernet line of modular switches targeted for the enterprise campus, Catalyst 9600 Series switches deliver unmatched table scale (MAC, route, and Access Control List [ACL]) and buffering for enterprise applications. The Cisco Catalyst 9606R chassis is hardware ready to support a wired switching capacity of up to 25.6 Tbps, with up to 6.4 Tbps of bandwidth per slot.

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches support granular port densities that fit diverse campus needs, including nonblocking 40, 100, 200 and 400 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) Quad Small Form Factor Double Density (QSFP-DD), 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable (QSFP+, QSFP28); 1, 10, 25, and 50 GE Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus (SFP, SFP+, SFP28, SFP56); 10G Multigigabit Ethernet (GE) (10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M/10M) RJ45 copper ports.

The switches also support advanced routing and infrastructure services (such as, industry-standard BGP EVPN VXLAN, Multiprotocol Label Switching [MPLS] Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs, Multicast VPN [MVPN], and Network Address Translation [NAT]); Cisco Software- Defined Access capabilities (such as a host tracking database, cross-domain connectivity, and VPN Routing and Forwarding [VRF]-aware Locator/ID Separation Protocol [LISP]); and network system virtualization with Cisco StackWise virtual technology that are critical for their placement in the campus core. The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series also supports foundational high-availability capabilities such as patching, Cisco Nonstop Forwarding with Stateful Switchover (NSF/SSO), redundant platinum-rated (2KW) or titanium-rated (3KW) power supplies, and fans, while supporting a wide array of optics.

The foundation of Software-Defined Access

The enterprise network lies at the heart of digital transformation. A network that is open, programmable, integrated, and secure maximizes business agility, allowing new business opportunities to be pursued and captured. The Cisco Networking Cloud with Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) is the network fabric that powers business.

Cisco SD-Access is an open and extensible, software-driven architecture that accelerates and simplifies your enterprise network operations. SD-Access enables policy-based automation from edge to cloud with foundational capabilities.

Product overview

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Chassis

●      Hardware ready to support up to 25.6 Tbps in wired switching capacity, with up to 6.4 Tbps bandwidth per slot.

●      25.6 Tbps wired switching capacity unleashed with Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 2. Up to 9.6 Tbps in wired switching capacity, with 3 Bpps of forwarding performance with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 1.

●      System capable of supporting (future) up to 32 ports of 400G Gigabit Ethernet QSFP-DD ports. The system supports up to 8 non-blocking 400 Gigabit Ethernet QSFP-DD ports supported with current generation Line Cards with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 2.

●      Up to 48 nonblocking 100 Gigabit Ethernet QSPF28 ports with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 1, and up to 128 nonblocking 100 Gigabit Ethernet QSPF28 ports with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 2.

●      Up to 128 nonblocking 40 Gigabit Ethernet QSPF28 ports with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 2 and up to 96 nonblocking 40 Gigabit Ethernet QSFP+ ports with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 1.

●      Up to 256 nonblocking 50G/25G/10G Gigabit Ethernet QSPF56 ports with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 2 and up to 192 nonblocking 25 Gigabit Ethernet /10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP28/SFP+ ports with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 1.

●      Up to 192 non-blocking 10G multigigabit (10 Gigabit Ethernet / 5 Gigabit Ethernet / 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet / 1 Gigabit Ethernet / 100 Megabit / 10 Megabit) RJ45 copper ports with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 1. Supervisor Engine 2 only supports speeds at and above 10 Gbps¹.

●      Platinum-rated (2KW) or Titanium-rated (3KW) AC power supplies.

●      Platinum-rated (2KW) DC power supplies.

Cisco Catalyst 9606R Chassis

Cisco IOS XE

Cisco IOS XE Software opens a completely new paradigm in network configuration, operation, and monitoring through network automation. Cisco’s automation solution is open, standards-based, and extensible across the entire lifecycle of a network device. The various automation mechanisms are outlined below.

●      Simplified Campus Automation is designed to optimize the discovery and configuration of devices in your network with a more streamlined simple and easy-to-use automation tool. With features such as simplified discovery, IT can discover devices within the network within just a few steps. Also available is a more streamlined GUI that provides a better simplified view of switch configurations and software details on a port-by-port basis.

●      Automated Device Provisioning is the ability to automate the process of upgrading software images and installing configuration files on Cisco Catalyst switches when they are being deployed in the network for the first time. Cisco provides turnkey solutions such as Plug and Play and Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) that enable an effortless and automated deployment.

●      API-driven configuration is available with modern network switches such as Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches. It supports a wide range of automation features and provides robust open APIs over NETCONF and RESTCONF using YANG data models for external tools, both off the shelf and custom built, to automatically provision network resources.

●      Granular visibility enables model-driven telemetry to stream data from a switch to a destination. The data to be streamed is identified through subscription to a data set in a YANG model. The subscribed data set is streamed to the destination at specified intervals. Additionally, Cisco IOS XE enables the push model. It provides near-real-time monitoring of the network, leading to quick detection and rectification of failures.

●      Seamless software upgrades and patching supports OS resilience. On Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches Cisco IOS XE supports hot patching without reboot, which provides fixes for critical bugs and security vulnerabilities between regular maintenance releases. This support lets you add patches without having to wait for the next maintenance release.

●      Trustworthy solutions built with Cisco Trust Anchor Technologies provide a highly secure foundation for Cisco products. With Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches, these technologies enable hardware and software authenticity assurance for supply chain trust and strong mitigation against man-in-the-middle attacks that compromise software and firmware. Trust Anchor capabilities include image signing, Secure Boot, and Cisco Trust Anchor module.

Platform benefits

Table 1.        Platform Benefits of the Cisco Catalyst 9600 and 9600X

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Chassis

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches offers one chassis option, two supervisor options, and multiple line-card options. It provides a common architecture that can scale up to 192 10 Gigabit or 25 Gigabit Ethernet ports. The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series redundant chassis offer High Availability (HA) by supporting 1 + 1 redundant supervisor engines with full-image In-Service Software Upgrades (ISSU). NSF/SSO and ISSU help ensure continuous packet forwarding during supervisor engine switchover to enable HA for business-critical applications.

The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series chassis is enterprise optimized, with efficient side-to-side airflow and full front accessibility for all removable components, including supervisors, line cards, power supplies, and fan tray. The chassis also supports optional rear accessibility for the fan tray to enable efficient cable management. The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series chassis, supervisor, line cards, power supply, and fan tray have embedded RFID tags that facilitate easy asset and inventory management using commercial RFID readers.

Table 2.        Chassis Features

Supervisor configuration

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches offers an industry-leading supervisor engine built for secure networks, IoT applications, next-generation mobility, and cloud adoption. Supervisor Engine 1 is built with the latest UADP ASIC, with its programmable pipeline and template-based, configurable allocation of Layer 2, Layer 3, forwarding, ACLs and QoS entries, making it ready for next-generation technologies.

The following table lists the maximum bandwidth per slot.

Table 3.        Supervisor Engine 1 maximum bandwidth per slot

The following table lists the minimum software requirements for the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor Engine 1.

Table 4.        Supervisor Engine 1 minimum software requirements

Line Card Options

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches offers the ability to mix and match a range of line cards to support numerous cores and aggregation deployments. Supported line cards are listed in the following tables by part number.

Table 5.        Line Cards compatible with Catalyst 9600 Supervisor Engine 1

Table 6.        Line Cards compatible with Catalyst 9600 Supervisor Engine 2

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches has flexible interface types and port densities that allow you to mix and match network configurations to meet the specific needs of campus networks in the following table.

Table 7.        Maximum Chassis Port Densities

Introduction to Smart Licensing

Cisco Smart Licensing is a flexible licensing model that provides you with an easier, faster, and more consistent way to purchase and manage software across the Cisco portfolio and across your organization. And it’s secure – you control what users can access. With Smart Licensing you get:

●      Easy Activation: Smart Licensing establishes a pool of software licenses that can be used across the entire organization—no more PAKs (Product Activation Keys).

●      Unified Management: My Cisco Entitlements (MCE) provides a complete view into all your Cisco products and services in an easy-to-use portal, so you always know what you have and what you are using.

●      License Flexibility: Your software is not node-locked to your hardware, so you can easily use and transfer licenses as needed.

●      To use Smart Licensing, you must first set up a Smart Account on Cisco Software Central (software.cisco.com).

For a more detailed overview on Cisco Licensing, go to cisco.com/go/licensingguide.

There are two choices for software subscription: Cisco DNA or Cisco Catalyst. They provide:

●      Flexible licensing models to smoothly distribute customers’ software spending over time

●      Investment protection for software purchases through software services–enabled license portability

●      Access to updates, upgrades, and new technology from Cisco through Cisco Software Support Services (SWSS)

●      Base product-level support for hardware, software, and Cisco IOS-XE (included with Cisco Catalyst Software Subscription)

●      Cisco ISE licenses included in the Advantage tier to facilitate zero-trust network security* (as part of Cisco Catalyst Software Subscription)

●      Access to end-to-end network visibility with Cisco Spaces and service assurance through Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics (included with the Advantage license)

Manage your entire switching structure as a single, converged component. With one management system and one policy for wired and wireless networks, it offers an efficient way to provide more secure access.

ISE license quantities in Cisco Catalyst Software subscription for Switching

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor 1 based switches run on Cisco IOS XE Release 16.11.1 or later. Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor 2 based switches run on Cisco IOS XE Release 17.7.1 or later. This software release includes all the features listed earlier in the Platform Software Benefits section.

Network Licensing

Network advantage package features

Cisco Catalyst Licensing

Cisco Catalyst Advantage package features

For a full list of features, please see the Cisco Catalyst Software for Switching feature matrix: https://www.cisco.com/c/m/en_us/products/software/dna-subscription-switching/en-sw-sub-matrix-switching.html?OID=otren019471.

Managing Licenses with Smart Accounts: Creating Smart Accounts by using the Cisco Smart Software Manager (Cisco SSM) enables you to order devices and licensing packages and manage your software licenses from a centralized website. You can set up Cisco SSM to receive daily email alerts and to be notified of expiring add-on licenses that you want to renew.

You must order an add-on license in order to purchase a switch. When the license term expires, you can either renew the add-on license to continue using it or deactivate the add-on license and then reload the switch to continue operating with the base license capabilities.

Both the base and add-on licenses are also available for a 90-day evaluation period. An evaluation license is activated temporarily, without purchase. An expired evaluation license cannot be reactivated after reloading.

Note:      It is not required to deploy Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly Cisco DNA Center), just to use one of the above packages.

Cisco IOS XE

●      This modern operating system for the enterprise provides support for model-driven programmability, on- box Python scripting, streaming telemetry, container-based application hosting, and patching for critical bug fixes. Cisco IOS XE also has built-in defenses to protect against runtime attacks.

●      Plug and Play enabled: A simple, secure, unified, and integrated offering eases new branch or campus device rollouts and can also be used to provide updates to an existing network.

Advanced Security

●      Advanced Encryption Standard 256 (AES-256) support with the powerful MACsec-256 encryption algorithm is available in hardware.

●      Trustworthy solutions: Secure Unique Device Identification (SUDI) support for Plug and Play (PnP) tamper-proof device identity capability secures zero-touch provisioning by allowing your device to show a certificate to the server to be able to get on your network.

SD-Access

●      SD-Access is Cisco’s leading enterprise architecture. It includes:

◦    Policy-based automation from edge to cloud.

◦    Macro-segmentation and micro-segmentation made easy, with predictable performance and scalability.

◦    Automation through the Cisco Catalyst Center Appliance.

◦    Policy through the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE).

◦    Network assurance through the Network Data Platform.

Physical specifications

Catalyst 9600 chassis

The following table lists physical specifications of the Cisco Catalyst 9606 chassis.

Table 8.        Physical Specifications of Cisco Catalyst 9606 Chassis

Power supply

The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series power supplies support two modes of operation.

Combined Mode

In combined mode, the power available for the entire chassis is equal to the sum of the output power of all of the power supplies multiplied by the share ratio. Additional power supply units operate at ~90% capacity. In combined mode, the power supplies need to be of equal wattage. The power supplies can be AC and DC mixed provided AC input voltage is 220V.

P = Power output of one PSU

Total combined mode power = P + (N-1) * P * (share ratio)

N = 1, 2, 3, or 4

Redundant N+1 Mode

The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series chassis also supports N+1 redundancy, with N independent input circuits and safeguards against the failure of one (+1) of the circuits during a PSU failure. Additional PSUs operate at ~90% capacity. In redundant mode, the power supplies need to be of equal wattage. The power supplies can be AC and DC mixed provided AC input voltage is 220V.

Power supply specifications

The following table gives the power supply specifications for Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches.

Table 9.        Power Supply Specifications

BTU output

The following table shows the BTU (British Thermal Unit) output.

Table 10.     BTU details for 9606R chassis with Fan tray

Table 11.     Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Power Cord Options

More specifications can be found in the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches Hardware Installation Guide.

Fan tray

Each Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switch uses a single serviceable fan tray for cooling. The switches can optionally be accessed from the rear for flexible cable management. The chassis is optimized for enterprise closets, with side-to-side airflow. All fan trays are composed of multiple independently controlled fans. If any single fan fails, the system will continue to operate without a significant degradation in cooling. Fan speeds change dynamically to compensate for fan failure. Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series fans have a barometric sensor, which allows slower fan speed curves at lower altitudes. The fans also have individual Pulse-Wide Modulation (PWM) fine-tuning to reduce variability in fan revolutions per minute (rpm) under throttled conditions. The measured acoustic noise in a formal NEBS test environment is 77.7 LWAd (dB). The chassis are designed to accommodate fanless operation of up to 90 seconds to enable serviceability.

Cisco Catalyst 9606R Chassis with Fan Tray

Regulatory standards compliance

The following table lists the regulatory standards compliance for Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches.

Table 12.     Safety and Compliance Information

Ordering information

The following table lists the ordering information for chassis, power supplies, supervisor engines, and memory that are commonly used with the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series, as well as the Cisco DNA and Cisco Catalyst term licenses.

Table 13.     Ordering information

Warranty

Cisco Enhanced Limited Lifetime Hardware Warranty

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches come with an Enhanced Limited Lifetime Warranty (E-LLW) that includes Next-Business-Day (NBD) delivery of replacement hardware where available and 90 days of 8x5 Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) support. Your formal warranty statement, including the warranty applicable to Cisco software, appears in the information packet that accompanies your Cisco product. We encourage you to carefully review the warranty statement shipped with your specific product before use. Cisco reserves the right to refund the purchase price as its exclusive warranty remedy. For further information about warranty terms, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/warranty.

The following table provides information about the E-LLW.

Table 14.     Enhanced Limited Lifetime Warranty (E-LLW) Details

Cisco environmental sustainability

Information about Cisco Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives, performance, and policies for our products, solutions, operations, and extended operations or supply chain is provided in the Cisco ESG Reporting Hub website, including the Cisco Purpose Report.

Referenced links to information about key environmental sustainability topics are provided in the following table:

Table 15.     Product Sustainability

Cisco makes the packaging data available for informational purposes only. It may not reflect the most current legal developments, and Cisco does not represent, warrant, or guarantee that it is complete, accurate, or up to date. This information is subject to change without notice.

Cisco Services

Successfully deploy, manage, and support Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches with a full life cycle of Cisco Services including implementation, optimization, technical, managed and training services. Our team of experts can help you speed deployment, reduce costs and minimize risk as you introduce new hardware, software and protocols into the network. As your trusted advisor, we help you achieve extraordinary business outcomes, minimize risk and disruption so you can anticipate change and pivot quickly, securely, and confidently.

Table 16.     Technical Services

Learn more about available services.

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