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

An enterprise-class platform has more resources to handle zoning changes and implementations.

Broadcast zones

Fibre Channel allows sending broadcast frames to all Nx_Ports if the frame is sent to a broadcast
well-known address (FFFFFF); however, many target devices and HBAs cannot handle broadcast frames. To
control which devices receive broadcast frames, you can create a special zone, called a broadcast zone,
which restricts broadcast packets to only those devices that are members of the broadcast zone.
If there are no broadcast zones or if a broadcast zone is defined but not enabled, broadcast frames are
not forwarded to any F_Ports. If a broadcast zone is enabled, broadcast frames are delivered only to those
logged-in Nx_Ports that are members of the broadcast zone and are also in the same zone (regular zone)
as the sender of the broadcast packet.
Devices that are not members of the broadcast zone can send broadcast packets, even though they cannot
receive them.
A broadcast zone can have domain,port, WWN, and alias members.
Broadcast zones do not function in the same way as other zones. A broadcast zone does not allow access
within its members in any way. If you want to allow or restrict access between any devices, you must create
regular zones for that purpose. If two devices are not part of a regular zone, they cannot exchange
broadcast or unicast packets.
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, all devices connected to those switches receive broadcast
packets, even if they are not members of a broadcast zone.
See "Broadcast
broadcast frames to switches running older versions of firmware.

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 16 illustrates how broadcast zones work with Admin Domains, showing a fabric with five devices
and two Admin Domains, AD1 and AD2. Each Admin Domain has two devices and a broadcast zone.
204 Administering Advanced Zoning
zones" on page 204 for information about how to prevent inter-fabric forwarding of
"Creating and maintaining zones" on page 209.