Zone Types; Types Of Zoning; Approaches To Fabric-Based Zoning - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

Zone types

Table 53 summarizes the types of zoning available.
Table 53

Types of zoning

Zone type
Storage-based
Host-based
Fabric-based
NOTE: Fabric OS has several types of zones that do not behave like the "regular" zones described here.
These special zones include broadcast zones, Traffic Isolation zones, and QoS zones. See
zones" on page 202,
page 339 for information about these special zones.
Table 54 lists the various approaches you can take when implementing zoning in a fabric.
Table 54

Approaches to fabric-based zoning

Zoning
approach
Recommended approach
Single HBA
194 Administering Advanced Zoning
Description
Storage units typically implement LUN-based zoning, also called LUN
masking. LUN-based zoning limits access to the LUNs on the storage port to
the specific WWN of the server HBA. It is needed in most SANs. It functions
during the probe portion of SCSI initialization. The server probes the storage
port for a list of available LUNs and their properties. The storage system
compares the WWN of the requesting HBA to the defined zone list, and
returns the LUNs assigned to the WWN. Other LUNs on the storage port are
not made available to the server.
Host-based zoning can implement WWN or LUN masking.
Fabric switches implement fabric-based zoning, in which the zone members
are identified by WWN or port location in the fabric. Fabric-based zoning is
also called name server-based or soft zoning.
When a device queries the fabric name server, the name server determines
the zones in which the device belongs. The server returns information on all
members of the zones in the fabric to the device. Devices in the zone are
identified by node WWN, port WWN, or domain,port of the switch to which
the device is connected.
The primary approaches to fabric-based zoning are summarized in
"Traffic Isolation" on page 331, and
Description
Zoning by single HBA most closely re-creates the original SCSI bus. Each
zone created has only one HBA (initiator) in the zone; each of the target
devices is added to the zone. Typically, a zone is created for the HBA and
the disk storage ports are added. If the HBA also accesses tape devices, a
second zone is created with the HBA and associated tape devices in it. In
the case of clustered systems, it could be appropriate to have an HBA from
each of the cluster members included in the zone; this is equivalent to having
a shared SCSI bus between the cluster members and assumes that the
clustering software can manage access to the shared devices.
In a large fabric, zoning by single HBA requires the creation of possibly
hundreds of zones; however, each zone contains only a few members. Zone
changes affect the smallest possible number of devices, minimizing the
impact of an incorrect zone change. This zoning philosophy is the preferred
method.
"QoS: SID/DID traffic prioritization" on
Table 54.
"Broadcast