Nexus 5000 switches - what is a universal port?

[martin.codex]

Please forgive the noob question, but I would really appreciate any advice on a network I'm trying to put together. I need the switches for a network with both FC and 10Gb-E (around 30 and 15 of each respectively - to start) and was thought the 5000 series looked like it was just what we needed.

I'm trying to understand what the Universal Ports are. The documentation says they can support ethernet or FC, but what kind of connector do they use? Looking at the images they seem to be fibre connectors, but can they take an RJ45 plug for ethernet as well?

[Walter Dey · Accepted solution]

See https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/11912046/configure-nexus-5548-native-fc

Cisco Nexus 5548UP and Nexus 5596UP are Unified Fabric switches that have 32 and 48 Fixed SFP+ ports, respectively. This fixed or built-in ports are unified ports which means that each of the ports can be used for conventional Ethernet, FCoE or FC. Out of the box, all of the 32 or 48 ports are "Ethernet" port type. As the name implies, with this port type, the port are ready for us to be used as conventional Ethernet port or for FCoE. Remember that FCoE is basically transporting FC traffic over Ethernet, so we need "Ethernet" port type for FCoE.

First you configure e.g. a port as FC; then of course you have to insert the proper SPF; same is true for Ethernet: 1 or 10G SFP.

[martin.codex]

Excellent, thanks for the confirmation.