- Forty fixed 10-Gigabit Ethernet server connection ports on the back of the switch
- Two slots for 10-Gigabit expansion modules or Fiber Channel interfaces on the back of the switch
- Two slots on the front of the switch for hot swap-capable power supplies
- Five slots on the front of the switch for hot swap-capable fan modules
The Cisco Nexus 5020 switch is a 2 RU, top-of-rack switch that provides Ethernet and Fiber Channel consolidation in a single physical cable. The Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol is used to consolidate Ethernet and Fiber Channel traffic onto the same physical connection between the server and the switch. As a top-of-rack switch, all the servers in the rack connect to the Cisco Nexus 5020 switch, and it connects to the LAN or SAN.
The Cisco Nexus 5020 switch is a part of a family of switches that provide 10-Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports and both 10-Gigabit Ethernet and native 1-, 2-, and 4-Gbps Fiber Channel ports. The switches provide consolidated I/O connectivity to both production Ethernet LANs and Fiber Channel SANs in a cost-effective, high-performance, low-latency Ethernet switch.