Use Cases For Offline Zoning; Requirements For Offline Zoning - Brocade Communications Systems A7990A - StorageWorks SAN Director 4/16 Blade Switch Administrator's Manual

The Zone Administration module displays the location of each zone database: either fabric (for the
active zone database) or offline repository.
For offline zone database only, the Zone Administration module also displays the following:
•
timestamp when the zone database was created
•
timestamp when the zone database was last saved to the repository
•
timestamp when the zone database was last saved to the fabric
•
list of users who loaded a zone database for editing using the zone editor or the compare/merge tool
These values are not applicable to the active zone database.
From the Zone Administration module, you can launch the Zone Editor Tool, from which you can edit
the zone databases offline, without affecting the zone database on the fabric.

Use Cases for Offline Zoning

Following are some reasons you might want to create, edit, and modify zone databases offline:
•
You want to make changes to the zone database now, but apply them later, for example:
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•
You want to keep multiple copies of the zone database and switch between them.
For example, if you want to allow specific servers access to tape drives for backup during specific
time windows, you can have multiple zone databases (one or more for backup and one for normal
operation) and switch between them easily.
•
You want to analyze the impact of changes to storage access before applying the changes.
For example, if you deploy a new server and want to ensure that the zoning changes result in only
the new server gaining access to specific storage devices and nothing else. See
Zone Databases" on page
•
You want to create a mirror fabric for redundancy
For example, if you want to mimic the fabric used in Production for redundancy purposes, you can
take a copy of the zone database from Production and apply it to a different mirror fabric. See
"Copying a Zone Database from One Fabric to Another" on page

Requirements for Offline Zoning

Offline zone management is supported only on fabrics where the seed switch is running Fabric OS v5.x
or higher. Offline zone management is not supported on the SilkWorm AP7420.
Access Control
Only users with the following roles can update the zone databases:
•
Admin
Fabric Manager Administrator's Guide
Publication Number: 53-1000196-01-HP
If you make incremental changes to zoning on an ongoing basis, but want to apply the changes
to the fabric during scheduled downtime.
If you are expecting new servers to be delivered later in the week, but want to make changes to
zoning now and apply the changes after the servers are delivered and ready to go online.
15-7.
Managing Zoning Offline
"Comparing Two
15-7.
15
15-3