Cisco Nexus 9508 W 2X 9736C-FX Line Cards

[cmeyer3151]

I have a customer with 2X Nexus 9508 chassis each with 2X 9736C-FX line cards. It is my understanding that each of these line cards acts as its own switch. Thus, these 2 9508 chassis operating together would support 36 leaf switches total.

I have been digging through scalability guides and data pages and cannot find anything that confirms or denies this behavior. 

I am I correct in my understanding? Or would this spine configuration actually support up to 72 leaf switches in ACI?

[balaji.bandi]

Look at the below guide : ( depends on the Line rate the capacity will decrease)

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/white-paper-c11-737199.html

[cmeyer3151]

I have poured over that guide extensively. I cannot seem to find how the chassis operates when multiple of the same line card are installed. Does it act as one large switch (ie, 2 9736C-FX line cards) with 72 ports? Or does each line card act as its own switch?

[balaji.bandi]

 Nexus 9508 - is chasis, FX cards are just like line cards.

Chasis has a supervisor who controls the line cards.

depends on deployment, some deployment has VDC ( virtual  - that means you can slice the switch in to different use) - like multi tenant system

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/nexus-9508-switch/index.html

[cmeyer3151]

My apologies, that still does not answer my question.

Also, that is incorrect. The 9500 Nexus chassis do not support VDCs. The supervisor cards on the 9500s chassis just apply the configuration to the switch. The do not allow the configuration of Virtual Device Contexts like the N7K and N7700 chassis switches.

Unless something has changed, and Cisco has added VDC support to the 9500 chassis. 

[balaji.bandi]

I'm sorry, that still doesn't answer my question. - what did not answer ?

As I mentioned some deployment has VDC, you rightly said (maybe i should be specific about the models here)

The supervisor cards on the 9500s chassis just apply the configuration to the switch  - this what your answer, Sup card managed all the Line cards in the chassis, it is the control and management for the Line cards, (if the supervisor not there, chassis is use less)

see the chassis architecture : ( I am sure you are more technical to understand by now)

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/white-paper-c11-737199.html