In August of 2021, it was announced that the Cisco Nexus 2000 line of Fabric Extenders (FEX) would no longer be produced. A FEX is essentially a remote line card and therefore has no intelligence on its own. It depends on sending all packets to other Nexus switches, including the Nexus 5000, 6000, 7000 or 9000 for processing. The FEX was an appealing idea when it first became available in 2012 due to the low cost and the need for top-of-rack connectivity. The last day to order the Cisco Nexus 2248TP GE, Cisco Nexus 2348UPQ 10GE and Cisco Nexus 2348TQ 10GE Fabric Extenders is August 24, 2022.
What you need to know about Cisco Nexus 2000 FEX EOL
The move away from the Cisco Nexus 2000 is largely due to the popularity of another low-cost switch line, the Cisco Nexus 9300 Cloud Scale series. The 9300 series is a comprehensive line of switches with options including 1/10/25/50/100/400G multispeed ports. Unlike the Nexus 2000, the 9300 is a full-service switch and can be utilized as a leaf or a spine switch, run NX-OS or Cisco ACI, Cisco's Software Defined Networking (SDN) solution. DCNM can be used with the Nexus Switches running in NX-OS mode, providing simplified provisioning and management of complex BGP-EVPN architectures. Nexus 9300 switches provide the deep visibility, streaming telemetry and analytics required for today's mission-critical data center networks.
Nexus Dashboard with Nexus Insights can take full advantage of all the analytics and visibility the 9300 switches offer. Nexus Insights improves Day 2 Operation through predictive analysis to keep your data center network up and running. It ensures your data center network is meeting the needs of the business by offering reliability and intelligent troubleshooting. Integrating App Dynamics with Nexus Dashboard provides complete visibility into the application performance in addition to the network performance eliminating the question: Why is the application running slow? Is it the network? Virtual Nexus Dashboard can run on existing customer-provided server infrastructure and is included with Nexus 9K licensing.
We've replaced thousands of Nexus 2000s with Nexus 9000s, implemented in both NX-OS mode and ACI mode. Try out our no-cost, self-service on-demand labs and trainings to see for yourself all the advantages the Nexus 9300 offers.
