Managing Administrative Domains - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

6

Managing administrative domains

This chapter provides procedures for using administrative domains (Admin Domain or AD). An Admin
Domain is a logical grouping of fabric elements that defines what switches, ports, and devices you can
view and modify. An Admin Domain is a filtered administrative view of the fabric.
NOTE: If you do not implement Admin Domains, the feature has no impact on users and you can skip this
chapter.
Admin Domains permit access to a configured set of users. Using Admin Domains, you can partition the
fabric into logical groups and allocate administration of these groups to different user accounts so that
these accounts manage only the Admin Domains assigned to them and do not make changes to the rest of
the fabric.
For example, you can put all the devices in a particular department in the same Admin Domain for ease of
managing those devices. If you have remote sites, you could put the resources in the remote site in an
Admin Domain and assign the remote site administrator to manage those resources.
You set up zones to define which devices and hosts can communicate with each other; you set up Admin
Domains to define which users can manage which devices, hosts, and switches.
Do not confuse Admin Domains with zones.
• Zones define which devices and hosts can communicate with each other.
• Admin Domains define which users can manage which devices, hosts, and switches.
You can have up to 256 Admin Domains in a fabric (254 user-defined and 2 system-defined), numbered
from 0 through 255. Admin Domains are designated by a name and a number. This document refers to
specific Admin Domains using the format "ADn" where n is a number between 0 and 255.
NOTE: Do not confuse an Admin Domain number with the Domain ID of a switch. They are two different
identifiers. The Admin Domain number identifies the Admin Domain and has a range of 0–255. The
Domain ID identifies a switch in the fabric and has a range of 1–239.
Before using the procedures described in this chapter, you should become familiar with the Admin Domain
concepts described in the following sections.
An "AD-capable switch" is a switch that meets the following requirements:
• Runs Fabric OS 5.2.0 or later (on both CPs, if a dual CP switch)
• Has a valid Advanced Zoning license, for switches running Fabric OS 5.2.x through 6.0.x.
NOTE: Switches running Fabric OS 6.1.x or later do not need an Advanced Zoning license because
zoning is bundled with the Fabric OS.
A "non-AD-capable switch" is a switch that is running one of the following:
• Fabric OS 5.1.x or earlier.
• Fabric OS 5.2.x through Fabric OS 6.0.x, but does not have an Advanced Zoning license.
Fabric OS 5.2.0 or later on one CP but Fabric OS 5.1.x or earlier on the other (for dual-CP switches) and
HA state is "synchronized".Figure 4 shows a fabric with two Admin Domains: AD1 and AD2.
Fabric OS 6.1.x administrator guide 151