The second-generation Cisco Nexus® 7000 Series Supervisor Modules scale the control-plane and data-plane services for the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches in scalable data center networks. The second-generation Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Supervisor Modules come in two versions: Supervisor2 (Sup2) and Supervisor2 Enhanced (Sup2E).

The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches comprise a modular data center-class product line designed for highly scalable 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks with a fabric architecture that scales beyond 15 terabits per second (Tbps). Designed to meet the requirements of the most mission-critical data centers, it delivers continuous system operation and virtualized, pervasive services. The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series is based on a proven operating system, with enhanced features to deliver real-time system upgrades with exceptional manageability and serviceability. Its innovative unified fabric design is specifically built to support consolidation of IP and storage networks on a single lossless Ethernet fabric.

The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Supervisor Modules are designed to deliver scalable control-plane and management functions for the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series chassis. The supervisor controls the Layer 2 and 3 services, redundancy capabilities, configuration management, status monitoring, power and environmental management, and more. It provides centralized arbitration to the system fabric for all line cards. The fully distributed forwarding architecture allows the supervisor to support transparent upgrades to I/O and fabric modules with greater forwarding capacity. Two supervisors are required for a fully redundant system, with one supervisor module running as the active device and the other in hot-standby mode, providing exceptional high-availability features in data center-class products.