DS-C9396T-48EK9 – 48 of 96 32G FC Ports Active – Base, No Optics – Port-Side Exhaust SAN Switch
Why Layer23-Switch
Stocked, Shipped and Supported by One Team
Ships in 1 Business Day
In-stock orders leave our Hong Kong or U.S. warehouse within 1 business day after payment, with tracking by email.
LSCare Warranty
3years on enterprise equipment
Free CCIE Support
Certified engineers help before and after you buy. Reply within 1 business day by email or live chat.
Verify Before You Pay
100%factory-sealed
Get label and serial photos before shipment, and check every serial number with Cisco.
DS-C9396T-48EK9 Description
The DS-C9396T-48EK9 is a Cisco MDS 9396T 32G Fibre Channel switch for SAN racks that exhaust air on the port side. Forty-eight of the 96 SFP+ ports are active at delivery, each running at 4/8/16/32 Gbps with 32 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth, in a 2RU chassis rated for 3 Tbps of aggregate bandwidth and fed by two 1200W bidirectional power supplies. The base configuration includes no Fibre Channel optics, and its two fan modules move air from the back of the chassis toward the ports.
Quick Specs
|
Parameter |
Specification |
|---|---|
|
Product ID |
DS-C9396T-48EK9 |
|
Product type |
32G Fibre Channel SAN switch, base configuration |
|
Fibre Channel ports |
96 SFP+ |
|
Active ports at order |
48 |
|
Port activation |
16-port licenses to 64, 80 and 96 ports |
|
Port speed |
4/8/16/32 Gbps autosensing |
|
Aggregate bandwidth |
3 Tbps end-to-end full duplex |
|
Included FC optics |
Not included |
|
Airflow |
Port-side exhaust (back to front, toward the ports) |
|
Fan modules |
2 hot-swappable |
|
Power supplies |
2 x 1200W AC/HVAC/HVDC bidirectional, 1+1 redundant |
|
Minimum NX-OS release |
Cisco MDS NX-OS 8.3(1) or later |
|
Form factor |
2RU |
Product Performance
Key Features
The two fan modules pull air through the chassis and push it out on the port side, so the switch belongs in rows where the ports face the hot aisle. The 1200W supplies are bidirectional, which leaves the fan modules to set the direction.
The chassis holds 96 SFP+ cages, but only 48 are active at delivery. Activation licenses open 16 more at a time, giving four sizes: 48, 64, 80 and 96 ports.
Each port accepts 32G, 16G or 8G Fibre Channel optics in shortwave or longwave versions. Existing 16G or 8G transceivers can run in the 32G ports until hosts and arrays move up to 32G.
Ports sit in six groups of 16, and each group draws on a pool of up to 8,300 buffer credits. A single port can take up to 8,270 credits, enough for native 32G Fibre Channel links of up to 612 km.
The port ASIC and its on-board network processor inspect Fibre Channel and SCSI headers for SAN analytics and streaming telemetry. Turning these functions on requires the three-year Cisco MDS 9300 SAN Insights Package license.
Two hot-swappable 1200W supplies run 1+1 and accept AC from 90V to 305V or DC from 192V to 400V, so each one can sit on a separate power grid. Typical draw with 96 32G optics installed is 555W.
Application Scenarios
In a dense server farm, top-of-rack Fibre Channel switches running in NPV mode uplink to the switch as their NPIV core, which keeps host growth at the rack level.
A departmental SAN can place the switch at the end or middle of a row, where it links servers and flash arrays at 32G and connects back to MDS directors in the SAN core over port channels.
Storage teams replicating arrays to a remote site run native Fibre Channel from ports set up with extended buffer credits, keeping the replication path inside the SAN.
Product Comparison
|
Parameter |
DS-C9396T-48EK9 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fibre Channel ports |
96 SFP+ |
96 SFP+ |
96 SFP+ |
96 SFP+ |
|
Active ports at order |
48 |
48 |
48 |
96 |
|
Port speed |
4/8/16/32 Gbps autosensing |
4/8/16/32 Gbps autosensing |
4/8/16/32 Gbps autosensing |
4/8/16/32 Gbps autosensing |
|
Aggregate bandwidth |
3 Tbps end-to-end full duplex |
3 Tbps end-to-end full duplex |
3 Tbps end-to-end full duplex |
3 Tbps end-to-end full duplex |
|
Buffer credits |
Up to 8300 per 16-port group |
Up to 8300 per 16-port group |
Up to 8300 per 16-port group |
Up to 8300 per 16-port group |
|
Airflow |
Port-side exhaust |
Port-side intake |
Port-side exhaust |
Port-side exhaust |
|
Included FC optics |
Not included |
Not included |
48 x 32G SW |
96 x 32G SW |
|
Port activation license |
M9396T-PL16 in 16-port steps to 96 |
M9396T-PL16 in 16-port steps to 96 |
M9396T-PL16 in 16-port steps to 96 |
Not applicable |
DS-C9396T-48EK9 and DS-C9396T-48IK9 share the same 48-port base hardware without optics and differ only in airflow: port-side exhaust here, port-side intake on DS-C9396T-48IK9 for rows where the ports face the cold aisle. DS-C9396T-48ETK9 keeps the exhaust airflow and adds 48 32G SW optics, which suits a build where every active port runs shortwave 32G; the base PID fits orders that need longwave optics or reuse 16G and 8G transceivers. A SAN that needs 96 ports on day one moves to DS-C9396T-96ETK9, the only 96-port exhaust configuration, which ships with 96 SW optics. Fabrics that start smaller stay on the base model and add M9396T-PL16 licenses as they grow.
Ordering Checklist
- Port activation licenses: Add one M9396T-PL16 for each 16-port step to 64, 80 or 96 active ports, or M9396T-PL16T when 16 32G SW optics should come with the license. Ports above 48 stay inactive without them.
- Fibre Channel optics: Order DS-SFP-FC32G-SW, DS-SFP-FC32G-LW=, DS-SFP-FC16G-SW or an 8G optic for every port that will carry a link. The base configuration ships with empty SFP+ cages.
- Spare fan module: Order DS-C96S-FAN-E= as the spare to keep port-side exhaust airflow; DS-C96S-FAN-I= is the intake part. The DS-CAC-1200W= spare supply is bidirectional and fits either direction.
- Power cords: Select two cords per switch, either the standard CAB-HVAC-C14-2M or a regional cord such as CAB-9K10A-EU, CAB-9K10A-UK or CAB-9K12A-NA, so each 1200W supply matches the site outlet.
- Feature licenses: Add L-D-M93S-AXK9= for on-board analytics and SAN Insights, and M9300ENT1K9= or L-M9300ENT1K9= when IVR, FC-SP, port security or traffic encryption is required. Neither license comes with the base switch.
Optional Add-ons
|
Model |
Description |
|---|---|
|
M9396T-PL16 |
MDS 9396T 16-port on-demand activation license |
|
M9396T-PL16T |
MDS 9396T 16-port activation license with 16 x 32G SW optics |
|
32G Fibre Channel shortwave SFP+ optic | |
|
32G Fibre Channel longwave SFP+ optic | |
|
16G Fibre Channel shortwave SFP+ optic | |
|
DS-C96S-FAN-E= |
MDS 9396T fan module spare, port-side exhaust |
|
DS-CAC-1200W= |
1200W AC/HVAC/HVDC bidirectional airflow power supply spare |
|
L-D-M93S-AXK9= |
Cisco MDS 9300 SAN Insights Package, three-year switch license |
|
M9300ENT1K9= |
Cisco MDS 9000 Family Enterprise Package, per switch |
|
DS-9396T-KIT-CSCO= |
MDS 9396T accessory kit for Cisco, spare |
Front View
|
1 |
LEM slot 1 |
3 |
LEM slot 3 |
|
2 |
LEM slot 2 |
|
1 |
Serial console port |
5 |
USB port |
|
2 |
System status LED |
6 |
Ethernet management ports (2) |
|
3 |
Power supply status LED |
7 |
Base Fibre Channel ports |
|
4 |
Fan status LED |
8 |
Airflow Grill |
Rear View
|
1 |
Power supply unit fan |
5 |
Power supply units (2) |
|
2 |
Power supply unit handle |
6 |
Chassis fan modules (2) |
|
3 |
Power receptacle |
7 |
Fan module locking screw |
|
4 |
Power supply unit locking latch |
|
1 |
Power supply unit slot 1 |
3 |
Chassis fan module slot 2 |
|
2 |
Chassis fan module slot 1 |
4 |
Power supply unit slot 2 |
Specifications
| Parameter | Specification | Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product ID | DS-C9396T-48EK9 | Configuration | 48 active Fibre Channel ports, 2 fan modules, 2 power supplies, port-side exhaust airflow, no optics |
| Fibre Channel ports | 96 SFP+ ports, 48 active at order | Port activation | 16-port licenses to 64, 80 and 96 ports |
| Port speed | 4/8/16/32 Gbps autosensing, 32 Gbps dedicated bandwidth per port | Switching capacity | 3 Tbps end-to-end full duplex |
| Buffer credits | Up to 8300 per 16-port group; 500 per port by default; up to 8270 on a single port | Port groups | 6 groups of 16 ports |
| Port channel | Up to 16 load-balanced physical links per port channel | Included FC optics | Not included |
| Transceivers | DS-SFP-FC32G-SW, DS-SFP-FC32G-LW=, DS-SFP-FC16G-SW, DS-SFP-FC16G-LW=, DS-SFP-FC8G-SW=, DS-SFP-FC8G-LW= | Optic speed support | 8G, 16G and 32G Fibre Channel optics; 32G optics do not run at 2G; 8G optics run at 4G and 8G |
| Fibre Channel standard port types | E, F and B | Fibre Channel enhanced port types | SD, ST, NP and TE |
| Fibre Channel classes of service | Class 2, Class 3 and Class F | FC-NVMe | Supported |
| Advanced functions | VSAN, NPV, IVR, port channel with multipath load balancing, flow-based and zone-based QoS | Fabric services | Name server, RSCN, login services, Fabric Configuration Server, broadcast, in-order delivery |
| Security | VSAN isolation, hardware zoning by ACLs, FC-SP switch and host authentication, RBAC with RADIUS, TACACS+ or LDAP, SFTP, SSHv2, SNMPv3 with AES, Cisco TrustSec payload encryption, secure boot and anti-counterfeit technology | Network management | mgmt0 10/100/1000BASE-T port; mgmt1 1/10G SFP+ port (hardware capable, enabled through an NX-OS upgrade) |
| Console port | RS-232 serial console | USB port | USB power-on auto-provision port |
| Programming interfaces | Scriptable CLI, Cisco DCNM web services API, NX-API REST, on-board Python interpreter, Cisco Embedded Event Manager, NX-OS scheduler | Reliability | ISSU, hot-swappable power supplies, fan modules and SFP+ optics, stateful process restart |
| Designed availability | 99.999% | Minimum software | Cisco MDS NX-OS 8.3(1) or later |
| Cisco DCNM | Cisco DCNM 11(0) or later | NX-OS 8.x support | 8.3(x), 8.4(x) and 8.5(x); not 8.1(x) or 8.2(x) |
| Default power supply | 2 x 1200W AC/HVAC/HVDC bidirectional airflow, 80 Plus Platinum | Power redundancy | 1+1 power grid redundancy |
| AC input | 90V to 305V | DC input | 192V to 400V |
| Frequency | 50 to 60 Hz (nominal) | Power cords | Two; standard CAB-HVAC-C14-2M (IEC C14 to Saf-d-grid) or regional cords |
| Typical power consumption | 246W idle with 1+1 supplies and no optics; 330W with 48 32G optics; 555W with 96 32G optics | Maximum power consumption | 610W at 110V and 595W at 220V at 25°C; 673W at 110V and 655W at 220V at 40°C (96 32G SW optics, 100% traffic) |
| Fan modules | 2 hot-swappable, port-side exhaust | Airflow | Back to front (toward the ports); 255 CFM maximum, 110 CFM nominal at 25°C |
| Operating temperature | 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F) | Storage temperature | -40°C to 70°C (-40°F to 158°F) |
| Operating humidity | 10 to 90% noncondensing | Nonoperating humidity | 10 to 95% noncondensing |
| Operating altitude | -197 to 6500 ft (-60 to 2000 m) | Noise level | 60 dB |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 3.39 x 17.42 x 22.28 in (8.61 x 44.25 x 56.59 cm) | Rack units | 2RU, standard 19-inch EIA rack |
| Weight | 18.88 kg (41.62 lb), fully configured chassis | Installation clearance | 2.5 in from walls to air vents; 6 in between two chassis |
| Safety certifications | CE Marking, UL 60950, CAN/CSA-C22.2 No. 60950, EN 60950, IEC 60950, AS/NZS 3260, IEC 60825, EN 60825, 21 CFR 1040 | EMC certifications | FCC Part 15 Class A, ICES-003 Class A, EN 55022 Class A, CISPR 22 Class A, VCCI Class A, EN 55024, EN 61000-3-2, EN 61000-3-3 |
Quality Certifications
Customer Reviews
Questions & Answers
-
How many ports are active on DS-C9396T-48EK9 by default?
-
Which Fibre Channel speeds does DS-C9396T-48EK9 support?
-
Which license PIDs add ports to DS-C9396T-48EK9 beyond its 48 base ports?
-
Does DS-C9396T-48EK9 have a cabinet jumper cord option?
-
Can DS-C9396T-48EK9 use 64G Fibre Channel optics or run 2G links?
-
Which Cisco DCNM SAN licenses manage DS-C9396T-48EK9?
-
Which accessory kits are listed for DS-C9396T-48EK9 for Dell/EMC and HDS racks?
-
Can DS-C9396T-48EK9 be ordered with all 96 ports active and no optics?
Warranty
Layer23-Switch.com offers genuine, high-quality ICT products at competitive wholesale prices—ensuring exceptional value without compromising quality.
All items are brand new, original, and factory-sealed.
Upon request, each unit can be fully tested and verified by a Cisco CCIE-certified engineer to ensure perfect working condition before shipment.
Our Cisco CCIE-certified experts provide free professional support via phone, email, online chat, or remote login—helping you deploy and troubleshoot with confidence.
If you are not satisfied with your purchase, you may request an exchange or full refund. Our customer service team will guide you through the return process quickly and smoothly. Visit Return Policy page for more information.
We support multiple secure payment and logistics options, backed by industry-leading verification:
Visit How to Pay page for more information
Extended, Worry-Free Warranty Coverage Factory New Sealed Enterprise Hardware:
· 3 Years Factory New Sealed
Visit Warranty Policy page for more information
Verify, plan, and comparewith confidence
Use practical tools to check device details, review lifecyclemilestones, and compare hardware before you buy.
Genuine product, properly handled. We feel confident standing behind this in our network.
Great experience from order to delivery.
Wasn’t sure which model fit our requirements. Their team helped us pick the right one.
Twice the pride, double the fall… but not with this switch. Stability is absolute.
A fine addition to my collection… of networking gear.