Administering Advanced Zoning; Zoning Overview; Zoning Example - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

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Administering advanced zoning

Zoning overview

Zoning enables you to partition your storage area network (SAN) into logical groups of devices that can
access each other. A device can communicate only with other devices connected to the fabric within its
specified zone. For example, you can partition your SAN into two zones, winzone and unixzone, so that
your Windows servers and storage do not interact with your UNIX servers and storage. When zoning is
enabled, devices that are not included in a zone configuration are inaccessible to other devices in the
fabric.
Zones can be configured dynamically. They can vary in size, depending on the number of fabric-connected
devices, and devices can belong to more than one zone. Because zone members can access only other
members of the same zone, a device not included in a zone is not available to members of that zone.
When using a mixed fabric—that is, a fabric containing two or more switches running different release
levels of fabric operating systems—you should use the switch with the highest Fabric OS level to perform
zoning tasks.
For switches running Fabric OS 6.0.x or earlier, zoning is a licensed feature. Switches running Fabric OS
6.1.0 or later do not require a license. Before you configure zones, you must install Brocade Advanced
Zoning licenses on all Fabric OS 6.0.x or earlier switches in the fabric. If a Zoning license is removed, you
must make sure it is re-installed properly on the affected switch before enabling the zoning configuration.
Failure to follow these steps can cause inconsistency of the zoning configuration on the affected switches
should a zoning operation be attempted from a remote switch in the fabric. On the affected switches, an
error message indicates that the Zoning license is missing.
You can use zones to logically consolidate equipment for efficiency or to facilitate time-sensitive functions;
for example, use zoning to create a temporary zone to back up nonmember devices.
Any zone object connected to the fabric can be included in one or more zones. Zone objects can
communicate only with objects within the same zone. For example, consider
configured zones, Red, Green, and Blue.
• Server 1 can communicate only with the Loop 1 devices.
• Server 2 can communicate only with the RAID and Blue zone devices.
• Server 3 can communicate with the RAID device and the Loop1 device.
• The Loop 2 JBODs are not assigned to a zone; no other zoned fabric device can access them.
JBOD
Server1
Red zone
Figure 26

Zoning example

Loop 2
Server2
Fib b re C C hanne e e e l l l l F F abric
Hub
Loop 1
Figure 26, which shows
Blue zone
RAID
Server3
Green zone
Fabric OS 6.2 administrator guide 233