Zone Objects - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

Table 54 Approaches to fabric-based zoning (continued)
Zoning
approach
Alternative approaches
Application
Operating
system
Port allocation
Not recommended
No fabric
zoning

Zone objects

A zone object is any device in a zone, such as:
• Physical port number or port index on the switch
• Node World Wide Name (N-WWN)
• Port World Wide Name (P-WWN)
Zone objects identified by port number or index number are specified as a pair of decimal numbers in the
form d, index (d is the Domain ID of the switch and index is the index number on that switch in relation to
the port you want to specify).
For example, in enterprise-class platforms, 4,30 specifies port 14 in slot number 2 (domain ID 4, port index
30). On fixed-port models, 3,13 specifies port 13 in switch domain ID 3.
Note the following effects on zone membership based on the type of zone object:
• When a zone object is the physical port number, all devices connected to that port are in the zone.
• World Wide Names are specified as 8-byte (16-digit) hexadecimal numbers, separated by colons (:)
for example, 10:00:00:90:69:00:00:8a.
Description
Zoning by application typically requires zoning multiple, perhaps
incompatible, operating systems into the same zones. This method of zoning
creates the possibility that a minor server in the application suite could
disrupt a major server (such as a Web server disrupting a data warehouse
server). Zoning by application can also result in a zone with a large number
of members, meaning that more notifications, such as registered state
change notifications (RSCNs), or errors, go out to a larger group than
necessary.
Zoning by operating system has issues similar to zoning by application. In a
large site, this type of zone can become very large and complex. When
zone changes are made, they typically involve applications rather than a
particular server type. If members of different operating system clusters can
see storage assigned to another cluster, they might attempt to own the other
cluster's storage and compromise the stability of the clusters.
Avoid zoning by port allocation unless the administration team has very
rigidly enforced processes for port and device allocation in the fabric. It
does, however, provide some positive features. For instance, when a storage
port, server HBA, or tape drive is replaced, the change of WWN for the
new device is of no consequence. As long as the new device is connected to
the original port, it continues to have the same access rights. The ports on
the edge switches can be pre-associated to storage ports, and control of the
fan-in ratio (the ratio of the input port to output port) can be established.
With this pre-assigning technique, the administrative team cannot overload
any one storage port by associating too many servers with it.
Using no fabric zoning is the least desirable zoning option because it allows
devices to have unrestricted access on the fabric. Additionally, any device
attached to the fabric, intentionally or maliciously, likewise has unrestricted
access to the fabric. This form of zoning should be utilized only in a small
and tightly controlled environment, such as when host-based zoning or LUN
masking is deployed.
Fabric OS 6.1.1 administrator guide 197