User-Defined Admin Domains; System-Defined Admin Domains - Brocade Communications Systems 8 Administrator's Manual

5
Administrative Domain overview

User-defined Admin Domains

AD1 through AD254 are user-defined Admin Domains. These user-defined Admin Domains can be
created only by a physical fabric administrator in AD255.

System-defined Admin Domains

AD0 and AD255 are special Admin Domains and are present in every AD-capable fabric.
AD0
AD0 is a system-defined Admin Domain that, in addition to containing members you explicitly
added (similar to user-defined Admin Domains), it contains all online devices, switches, and switch
ports that were not assigned to any user-defined Admin Domain.
AD0 also implicitly contains all devices from switches running Fabric OS versions earlier than 5.2.0,
as they can never be part of an Admin Domain unless they are upgraded to v5.2.0 or later.
Unlike user-defined Admin Domains, AD0 has both an automatic membership list and a fixed
membership list. User-defined Admin Domains have only a fixed membership list.
•
•
The Admin Domain window displays the fixed members and not the automatic members, you can
use the View menu to display a list of the automatic members.
AD0 can be managed like any user-defined Admin Domain. The only difference between AD0 and
user-defined Admin Domains is the automatic membership list.
In filtered views, the automatic members of AD0 are considered direct members.
The automatic members of AD0 change dynamically as the membership of other Admin Domains
changes. The fixed members of AD0 are not deleted unless you explicitly remove them.
For example, if you explicitly add DeviceA to AD0 and it is not a member of any other Admin
Domain, then DeviceA is both an automatic and a fixed member of AD0. If you add DeviceA to AD2,
then DeviceA is deleted from the AD0 automatic membership list, but is not deleted from the AD0
fixed membership list. If you then remove DeviceA from AD2, DeviceA is added back to the AD0
automatic membership list (assuming DeviceA is not in any other Admin Domains).
AD0 is useful if you want to share its zone database (called "root zone database") with a legacy
fabric.
AD255 or physical fabric
AD255 is a virtual domain that contains all devices, switches, and switch ports in the fabric. AD255
presents an unfiltered view of the fabric and is also referred to as the physical fabric.
70
DRAFT: BROCADE CONFIDENTIAL
Automatic membership list—Contains all devices and switches that were not assigned to any
other Admin Domain.
Fixed membership list—Contains all devices and switches that you explicitly add to AD0 and
can be used to force device and switch sharing between AD0 and other Admin Domains.
Web Tools Administrator's Guide
53-1001772-01