Merging Zoned Fabrics; Rules For Merging Zoned Fabrics - HP Surestore 64 - Director Switch User Manual

Merging Zoned Fabrics

Managed products are linked through ISLs to form multiswitch fabrics. In a multiswitch
fabric, the active zoning configuration applies to the entire fabric. Any change to the
configuration applies to all switches in the fabric.
When fabrics join through an ISL, adjacent managed products exchange active zone
configurations and determine if the configurations are compatible and can merge. If the
configurations can merge, the fabrics join. The resulting configuration will be a single zone
set containing zone definitions from each fabric.
If configurations cannot merge, the expansion ports (E_Ports) on each product become
segmented. Segmented E_Ports cannot carry traffic from attached devices (class 2 or 3
traffic), but can carry management and control traffic (class F traffic) between managed
products.
Zoning configurations are compatible if the active zone names in each fabric are unique. If
there are identical zone names in each fabric, then the zones must have identical members
for the fabrics to join.

Rules for Merging Zoned Fabrics

Certain rules are enforced to ensure that zoning is consistent across the fabric. Table 2 on
page 65 summarizes rules for joining two fabrics through an ISL. The the following terms
are used in the table:
•
Not zoned
No zone set is active in the fabric and the default zone is enabled. In other words, all
devices in the fabric are visible to all other devices in the fabric.
•
Zoned
A zone set is active in the fabric and/or the default zone is disabled. In this case,
devices can discover other devices that are members of the same zone.
64 Merging Zoned Fabrics