Cisco Catalyst C9500-24Y4C-E

Cisco Catalyst C9500-24Y4C-E

The Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series is a cutting-edge line of switches designed for the core and aggregation layers of enterprise networks. These switches are highly programmable and easy to maintain, running on an x86 processor. They’re Cisco’s flagship fixed switching solution, specifically built to support modern needs like cybersecurity, Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud integration. Notably, they’re the first switches in the industry to offer dedicated 40 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities for enterprise campus environments.

Key Features and Benefits

• 24 downlink ports multi-gigabit (25GE / 10GE / 1GE) SFP28
• 4 uplink ports 40 / 100 gigabit(QSFP28)
• Up to 1.6 Tbps switching capacity with up to 1 Bpps of forwarding performance.
• Up to 36 MB of unified buffer per ASIC
• Intel 2.4-GHz x86 CPU with up to 120 GB of USB 3.0 or up to 960 GB of SATA SSD storage for container-based application hosting.
• Scalable Layer 3 routing (IPv4, IPv6, and multicast) tables and Layer 2 switching tables.
• Hardware support for Application Hosting (e.g. with Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent).
• IEEE 802.1ba AV Bridging (AVB) built in to provide a better AV experience through improved time synchronization and QoS.

Why Choose Cisco C9500-24Y4C-E Catalyst 

• Enterprise-grade Performance: Ensures your network is always running at peak efficiency.
• Advanced Security Features: Helps Kenyan businesses comply with cybersecurity regulations.
• Cost-Effective Operations: Optimizes power usage and simplifies network management.
• Future-Proof Design: Scalable for the evolving needs of growing businesses.

Power Supplies (PSUs)

The Cisco Catalyst C9500-24Y4C-E switch supports a few specific power supply units (PSUs) designed to meet its high-performance demand. The switch chassis has two PSU slots, allowing for redundancy or mixed AC/DC configurations. If any slot is left empty, a blank cover (e.g., C9K-PWR-C4-BLANK) must be installed to maintain proper airflow.

Environmental Specs

• Input Voltage Range: 90–264 VAC
• Operating Temperature: 0°C to 40°C
• MTBF: 336,780 hours (for C9K-PWR-650WAC-R)

Fans & Cooling Configuration

• Hot-swappable fan trays: The switch includes modular fan trays that can be replaced without powering down the system.
• Redundant fan support: It typically comes with multiple fans to ensure redundancy. If one fan fails, others maintain airflow to prevent overheating.
• Front-to-back airflow: This model supports front-to-back airflow, which aligns with data center cooling best practices.

Cooling Design

• Smart thermal sensors: The switch uses internal sensors to monitor temperature and adjust fan speed dynamically.
• Airflow direction: Make sure the airflow direction matches your rack setup. Cisco offers fan modules with different airflow directions (front-to-back or back-to-front), so choose accordingly.

Installation & Maintenance

• Tool-less fan module replacement: Fan modules can be removed and installed without tools, making maintenance quick and easy.
• LED indicators: Each fan module includes LEDs to show operational status and alert for failures.

Security Features

The Cisco Catalyst C9500-24Y4C-E switch is built with enterprise-grade security in mind, making it a strong choice for core and aggregation layers in modern networks. The C9500-24Y4C-E supports a robust set of security capabilities:

• Cisco TrustSec: Implements role-based access control using Security Group Tags (SGTs), simplifying policy enforcement across the network.
• MACsec Encryption: Supports IEEE 802.1AE MACsec for line-rate Layer 2 encryption, securing data in transit between trusted devices.
• Secure Boot and Image Signing: Ensures that only trusted software is loaded during boot-up, protecting against tampering.
• Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA): Uses machine learning to detect threats in encrypted traffic without decryption, preserving privacy while enhancing security.
• IPsec VPN Support: Enables secure site-to-site or remote access VPNs directly from the switch.

Advanced Threat Protection

• Cisco DNA with Software-Defined Access (SD-Access): Automates segmentation and policy enforcement, reducing attack surfaces and improving containment.
• Network Address Translation (NAT): Adds an extra layer of abstraction and security for internal IP addresses.
• Multicast VPN (MVPN): Secures multicast traffic across VPNs, useful for video and voice applications.

Resiliency and high availability

The Cisco Catalyst C9500-24Y4C-E Graceful Insertion and Removal (GIR) that allows maintenance without disrupting network operations. While stateful Switchover (SSO) with Nonstop Forwarding (NSF) maintains session continuity during failover events.

Resiliency Features

• Redundant Power Supplies: Supports dual redundant power supplies (AC or DC), ensuring uninterrupted operation during power failures.
• High MTBF: Designed with a high Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), contributing to long-term reliability even in demanding environments.
• Fail-Safe Mechanisms: Includes hardware and software failover capabilities to maintain uptime during component failures

High Availability Capabilities

• Cisco StackWise Virtual: Enables two switches to operate as a single logical unit, providing active-active redundancy and seamless failover. This boosts Layer 2 and Layer 3 availability and simplifies management.
• Hot Swappable Components: Power supplies and fan trays can be replaced without shutting down the system, minimizing downtime.
• Advanced Routing & Redundancy Protocols: Supports protocols like VRRP, HSRP, and MPLS for robust network failover and traffic rerouting.
• SD-Access Integration: Offers secure segmentation and policy-based automation, enhancing fault isolation and recovery speed.

Performance Under Pressure

• Switching Capacity: Up to 480 Gbps with a forwarding rate of 360 Mpps, ensuring high throughput even during failover scenarios.
• Rich QoS and ACL Scaling: Supports up to 27,000 QoS and security ACLs, allowing granular traffic control and prioritization during congestion or recovery

Software requirements

The C9500-24Y4C-E requires Cisco IOS XE version 16.5.1a or newer, enabling programmability, patching, and advanced security features.

Default Software Inclusion & Licensing

It ships with:

• Cisco IOS XE software
• Smart Licensing: establishes a pool of software licenses that can be used across the entire organization—no more PAKs (Product Activation Keys) thus easy for activation.
• Network Essentials license (sometimes referred as NW Ess.)

• The Network Essentials license provides core Layer 2 and basic Layer 3 functionality, along with essential performance, security, and reliability features

The C9500-24Y4C-E supports advanced enterprise features, so your software should enable:

• Advanced Routing & Infrastructure Services: MPLS Layer 2/3 VPNs, Network Address Translation NAT, Multicast VPN (MVPN)
• Software-Defined Access (SD-Access): Host tracking, VRF-aware Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP)- for scalable routing, cross-domain connectivity
• High Availability: Graceful Insertion and Removal (GIR), Nonstop Forwarding (NSF) with Stateful Switchover (SSO)
• Virtualization: Cisco StackWise® Virtual for system-level redundancy

Warranty and Support

The C9500-24Y4C-E comes with an Enhanced Limited Lifetime Warranty (E-LLW) that includes next business day delivery of replacement hardware. It also includes 90 days of 8×5 Cisco TAC support.