Supported Switches For Broadcast Zones; Broadcast Zones And Admin Domains - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

To restrict broadcast frames reaching broadcast-incapable devices, create a broadcast zone and populate
it with the devices that are capable of handling broadcast packets. Devices that cannot handle broadcast
frames must be kept out of the broadcast zone so that they do not receive any broadcast frames.
You create a broadcast zone the same way you create any other zone except that a broadcast zone must
have the name "broadcast" (case-sensitive). You can set up and manage broadcast zones using the
standard zoning commands, which are described in

Supported switches for broadcast zones

Broadcast zoning is enforced only for Fabric OS 5.3.x or later switches. If the fabric contains switches
running Fabric OS versions earlier than 5.3.x, then all devices connected to those switches receive
broadcast packets, even if they are not members of a broadcast zone.

Broadcast zones and Admin Domains

Each Admin Domain can have only one broadcast zone. However, all of the broadcast zones from all of
the Admin Domains are considered as a single consolidated broadcast zone.
Broadcast packets are forwarded to all the ports that are part of the broadcast zone for any Admin
Domain, have membership in that Admin Domain, and are zoned together (in a regular zone) with the
sender of the broadcast frame.
Figure 36 illustrates how broadcast zones work with Admin Domains.
devices and two Admin Domains, AD1 and AD2. Each Admin Domain has two devices and a broadcast
zone.
AD1
broadcast
"1,1; 3,1; 5,1"
"5,1"
Figure 36

Broadcast zones and Admin Domains

The dotted box represents the consolidated broadcast zone, which contains all of the devices that can
receive broadcast packets. The actual delivery of broadcast packets is also controlled by the Admin
Domain and zone enforcement logic. The consolidated broadcast zone is not an actual zone, but is just an
abstraction used for explaining the behavior.
• The broadcast zone for AD1 includes member devices "1,1", "3,1" and "5,1"; however, "3,1" and
"5,1" are not members of AD1. Consequently, from the AD1 broadcast zone, only "1,1" is added to the
consolidated broadcast zone.
• The broadcast zone for AD2 includes member devices "2,1", "3,1", and "4,1". Even though "2,1" is a
member of AD1, it is not a member of AD2 and so is not added to the consolidated broadcast zone.
• Device "3,1" is added to the consolidated broadcast zone because of its membership in the AD2
broadcast zone.
When a switch receives a broadcast packet it forwards the packet only to those devices which are zoned
with the sender and are also part of the consolidated broadcast zone.
392 Administering Advanced Zoning
"1,1"
"2,1"
"1,1"
broadcast
"1,1; 3,1; 4,1"
"Creating and maintaining
Figure 36
"3,1"
AD2
broadcast
"2,1; 3,1; 4,1"
"3,1; 4,1"
zones" on page 396.
shows a fabric with five
"4,1"