Cisco N9K-C9364C-GX
Nexus 9K ACI & NX-OS Leaf/Spine, 64p 40/100G QSFP28
Product Highlights
What's Included
(2) NXA-PAC-2KW-PE (Port Side Exhaust) or NXA-PAC-2KW-PI (Port Side Intake)
(2) AC Power Cords
(3) NXA-FAN-160CFM2PE (Port Side Exhaust) or NXA-FAN-160CFM2PI (Port Side Intake)
(1) Rackmount/Rail Kit (NXK-ACC-KIT-2RU)
As data center fabrics scale to support cloud workloads, AI/ML clusters, and multi-tenant environments, network architects need switches that deliver massive port density, wire-rate performance, and operational flexibility — without forcing a choice between spine and leaf roles at purchase time.
The Cisco N9K-C9364C-GX (Nexus 9364C-GX) is a 2RU fixed-port switch purpose-built for modern data center spine-leaf architectures. It provides 64 QSFP28 ports running at 40 or 100 Gigabit Ethernet, delivering 12.8 Tbps of aggregate switching bandwidth and over 4.3 billion packets per second of throughput. Built on Cisco's Cloud Scale ASIC technology, the 9364C-GX supports both Cisco ACI (as spine or leaf) and NX-OS operating modes, giving teams the freedom to choose their operational model without swapping hardware.
The switch features an 80 MB shared system buffer with intelligent flow-aware queue management, VXLAN EVPN fabric support with multisite capabilities, and comprehensive breakout options down to 10G — making it ideal for greenfield 100G fabrics or brownfield migrations. With redundant hot-swappable 2 kW power supplies, field-replaceable fans, and selectable port-side exhaust or intake airflow, the N9K-C9364C-GX is engineered for continuous operation in enterprise and service provider data centers alike.
Features & Benefits
High-Density 100G Connectivity
With 64 QSFP28 ports in a compact 2RU form factor, the N9K-C9364C-GX delivers one of the highest 100G port densities available in a fixed-form switch. Each port supports 40G or 100G speeds, and breakout cables enable 2x50G, 2x25G, 4x25G, or 4x10G configurations on supported ports — allowing you to connect a mix of server speeds without wasting ports or adding media converters.
Dual-Mode ACI & NX-OS Operation
The 9364C-GX supports both Cisco ACI mode (as spine or leaf) and traditional NX-OS mode, eliminating the need to stock separate SKUs for different roles. In ACI mode, it integrates with APIC for intent-based automation and policy-driven management. In NX-OS mode, it operates as a full-featured Layer 3 switch with support for BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, VXLAN EVPN, and segment routing.
Intelligent Buffering & Congestion Management
An 80 MB shared system buffer with flow-aware queue management distinguishes between short (mice) and long (elephant) flows, applying optimized scheduling to each. Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) and Priority Flow Control (PFC) work together to prevent frame drops in lossless Ethernet environments — critical for RoCE and storage-class traffic.
Advanced Programmability & Automation
Power On Auto Provisioning (POAP) enables zero-touch day-zero deployment. Ongoing operations benefit from Ansible integrations, YANG model support via RESTCONF, NETCONF, and gNMI, and comprehensive streaming telemetry. These capabilities reduce manual configuration effort and accelerate time-to-production for new fabric buildouts.
Resilient & Serviceable Design
Redundant hot-swappable 2 kW AC power supplies and three field-replaceable fan modules ensure continuous operation. Selectable port-side exhaust (blue) or port-side intake (burgundy) airflow configurations let you align cooling with your hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center layout without ordering a different switch model.
Deployment Scenarios
Data Center Spine Layer
Deploy the N9K-C9364C-GX as a spine switch in a leaf-spine fabric, aggregating uplinks from dozens of leaf switches at 100G. The 12.8 Tbps non-blocking fabric and 64-way ECMP support ensure consistent east-west performance across the data center.
ACI Leaf for High-Density Server Access
In Cisco ACI deployments, the 9364C-GX serves as a high-density leaf node connecting servers, storage arrays, and appliances. Breakout support lets you mix 10G, 25G, 40G, 50G, and 100G connections on a single switch, simplifying heterogeneous environments.
VXLAN EVPN Multi-Tenant Fabric
Build scalable multi-tenant overlay networks using VXLAN EVPN with hierarchical multisite capabilities. The 9364C-GX's large forwarding tables — up to 896,000 IPv4 LPM entries — support dense tenant environments without compromising route scale.
Service Provider & 5G Edge Aggregation
The Nexus 9300-GX platform is designed for service provider environments including 5G, NFV, and network edge deployments. High port density and low latency make it suitable for aggregating traffic from distributed edge sites back to the core.
General
Interfaces
Performance
System Resources
Routing Protocols
Power
Physical
Environmental
Software
Compliance
Compatibility Notes
Operating System Compatibility:
- NX-OS mode: Minimum NX-OS version 9.3(3) required
- ACI mode: Minimum ACI software version 14.2(3) required
Optics & Transceivers: Supports QSFP28 (100G/40G) transceivers. Consult the Cisco Transceiver Modules Compatibility Matrix for validated optic part numbers.
Power Supplies: Ships with NXA-PAC-2KW-PE (port-side exhaust) or NXA-PAC-2KW-PI (port-side intake). Do not mix exhaust and intake components in the same chassis.
Fan Modules: Ships with NXA-FAN-160CFM2PE (port-side exhaust) or NXA-FAN-160CFM2PI (port-side intake).
Rack Kit: Includes NXK-ACC-KIT-2RU for standard 19" rack mounting.
Note: This switch does not support FEX (Fabric Extender) aggregation in NX-OS mode.
Downloads & Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
| Part Number | Product | Key Difference |
|---|---|---|
| N9K-C9364C | Cisco Nexus 9364C | Previous-generation 64-port 40/100G spine switch (non-GX ASIC); now End-of-Sale. The GX variant offers enhanced Cloud Scale ASIC capabilities and continued support. |
| N9K-C9336C-FX2 | Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 | 36-port 40/100G switch in 1RU. Choose the 9336C-FX2 when fewer ports and a smaller footprint are acceptable; choose the 9364C-GX for higher port density. |
| N9K-C93600CD-GX | Cisco Nexus 93600CD-GX | 1RU GX-series switch with 28 x 100G QSFP28 + 8 x 400G QSFP-DD ports. Ideal when 400G uplinks are required alongside 100G access ports. |
| N9K-C9316D-GX | Cisco Nexus 9316D-GX | 1RU GX-series switch supporting 400G QSFP-DD ports. Best for 400G spine deployments or future-proofing to 400G without a 2RU footprint. |