Zone Member Configuration Guidelines; Active And Full Zone Set Considerations - Cisco AP776A - Nexus Converged Network Switch 5020 Configuration Manual

About Zoning
S e n d d o c u m e n t a t i o n c o m m e n t s t o m d s f e e d b a c k - d o c @ c i s c o . c o m
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If required, you can additionally configure the following zone features:
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Zone Member Configuration Guidelines

All members of a zone can communicate with each other. For a zone with N members, N*(N-1) access
permissions need to be enabled. The best practice is to avoid configuring large number of targets and or
or large numbers of initiators in a single zone. Such configuration wastes switch resources by
provisioning and managing many communicating pairs (initiator-to-initiator or target-to-target) which
will never actually communicate with each other. For this reason, single initiator with a single target is
the most efficient approach to zoning.
The following guidelines must be considered when creating zone members:
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Active and Full Zone Set Considerations

Before configuring a zone set, consider the following guidelines:
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Cisco MDS 9000 Family CLI Configuration Guide
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Each VSAN has a full database and an active database.
Active zone sets cannot be changed, without activating a full zone database.
Active zone sets are preserved across switch reboots.
Changes to the full database must be explicitly saved.
Zone reactivation (a zone set is active and you activate another zone set) does not disrupt existing
traffic.
Propagate full zone sets to all switches on a per VSAN basis.
Change the default policy for unzoned members.
Interoperate with other vendors by configuring a VSAN in the interop mode. You can also configure
one VSAN in the interop mode and another VSAN in the basic mode in the same switch without
disrupting each other.
Bring E ports out of isolation.
Configuring only one initiator and one target for a zone provides most efficient use of the switch
resources.
Configuring the same initiator to multiple targets is accepted.
Configuring multiple initiators to multiple targets is not recommended.
Each VSAN can have multiple zone sets but only one zone set can be active at any given time.
When you create a zone set, that zone set becomes a part of the full zone set.
When you activate a zone set, a copy of the zone set from the full zone set is used to enforce zoning,
and is called the active zone set. An active zone set cannot be modified. A zone that is part of an
active zone set is called an active zone.
The administrator can modify the full zone set even if a zone set with the same name is active.
However, the modification will be enforced only upon reactivation.
When the activation is done, the active zone set is automatically stored in persistent configuration.
This enables the switch to preserve the active zone set information across switch resets.
All other switches in the fabric receive the active zone set so they can enforce zoning in their
respective switches.
Chapter 24 Configuring and Managing Zones
OL-18084-01, Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.x