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What Is Zone? How To Setup Zone? What...
iEMC APJ 195 posts since Jul 15, 2013

What Is Zone? How To Setup Zone? What Is The Best Practice? Jan 30, 2015 1:42 AM
What Is Zone? How To Setup Zone? What Is The Best Practice?
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Introduction
What is zone or zoning? How to setup a zone on Brocade or Cisco MDS SAN switches?
What's the best practice of zoning? In this article we'll try to answer these questions.
Detailed Information
What is Zone?
Zone is a logical configuration on FC-SAN switches. By adding the specific devices to a

zone, the administrator can allow the devices to communicate with each other. Once a zone
is configured, only the devices in this zone can talk with each other. If the device does not
belong to this zone, it could not communicate with the devices in this zone.
The switch vendors used to define two kinds of zones, the hard zone and soft zone. The
difference is, the hard zone is implemented by the chip, while the soft zone is implemented
by the software. Now they call Domain ID or port based zone as hard zone, and the WWN
based zone as soft zone. Both of them are all controlled by chips now.
Generated by Jive on 2015-04-06-07:00

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Zone Types:
1.
Domain ID/port (D,P) zone
This zone allows the devices connected to the ports to communicate with each other. The
change of the device will not affect the zoning configuration. So you do not need to make
any change to the zone configuration after replacing the host HBA card.
2.
WWPN/WWNN zone
This zone allows the devices who have the specified WWN to communicate with each other.
It does not care the devices connect to which ports. Once the device moves to another port,
there is no need to change the zone configuration. If the switch is connected NPIV devices,
WWN zone is required.
3.
Mixed zone (session based hard zoning)
When a device uses D, P and WWN zones in two or more zones, the device will
get into the mixed zone mode. In a mixed zone mode, the commutation relies on
switch CPUs software validation.
4.
LSAN zone
LSAN zone is only used when enabled FCR (Fibre Channel Routing). It allows the devices
in different fabrics to communicate via the FC router. You must install Integrated Routing
license to enable this feature.
5.
TI zone (Traffic Isolation Zone)
TI zone can specify one or more ISL (Inter Switch Link) dedicated for a zone, without any
license.
6.
QoS (Quality of Service) zone

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QoS zone indicates the priority of the traffic flow between a given host/target pair. You must
install Adaptive Networking license to enable this feature.
Zoneset is a collection of zones. You can only enable one zoneset on a switch. All the active
zonesets in one fabric must be consistent, or it would lead to a fabric segment problem.
Alias is to simplify the zoning configuration. For each device, you can setup the alias in
advance, then use these alias to replace the D, P and WWN during the setup.
Both Cisco and Brocade switches have the default zones. It allows all the connected device
to communicate with each other if there is no zone configured.
How to Setup Zone?
1.
Brocade CLI:
First create the alias for each zone, then create the zone and add the alias, create cfg
(zoneset) and add the zones, finally enable the cfg.
Help manual:
zonehelp
Displays the current configuration:
cfgshow
Create/add, remove members/delete alias:
alicreate "aliName","member[; member...]"
aliadd "aliName","member[; member...]"
aliremove "aliName","member[; member...]"
alidelete "aliName"
Create/add, remove members/delete zone:

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zonecreate "zonename", "member[;member...]"

zoneadd "zoneName", "member[;member...]"
zoneremove "zoneName", "member[;member...]"
zonedelete "zoneName"
Note: According to Zoning best practices, EMC recommends that each zone only has one
initiator (host, VPLEX BE port, etc). Multiple initiators in one zone can lead to a few issues.
Create/add, remove members/delete cfg:
cfgcreate "cfgName", "member[;member...]"
cfgadd "cfgName", "member[;member...]"
cfgremove "cfgName", "member[;member...]"
cfgdelete "cfgName", "member[;member...]"
Save/enable cfg:
cfgsave
cfgenable "cfgName"
Note: Enable one cfg will disable other activated zone. There is only one activated cfg in a
fabric.
Change the default zone configuration:
defzone [--noaccess | --allaccess | --show]
2.
Brocade GUI:
Open WebTools and click Zone Admin, then go to the Zone Admin page.
For V6.x.x version:

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For V7.x.x version:
Once get into the Zone Admin page:

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Create alias:

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Click New or New Alias, enter the alias name:
Then add members:

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Create cfg and add members:
Finally save and activate the cfg:
Click the Save Config button,to changed save the cfg.

Click the Enable Config button, to activate the selected cfg.
Change the default zone configuration:

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3.
Cisco CLI:
The biggest difference between Cisco and Brocade switches is VSAN. Each VSAN can
have its own zone and zoneset. Another one is enhanced zone and basic zone.
The enhanced zone will create a session once the user tries to change the zone
configuration, to prevent other users from changing the same configuration. Once enabled
enhanced zone, you must commit the changes and close the session before the new
configuration takes effect.
The enhanced zone will automatically turn on the broadcasting zone. For MDS 9500
series, you must disable the broadcasting zone before enable the fourth-generation network
interface module.
show commands:
# show fcalias vsan x
# show zoneset vsan x
# show active zoneset vsan x
# show zone status vsan x
Enable enhanced zone:
# configure terminal

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(config)# zone mode enhanced vsan x

Change the alias:
(config)# fcalias name A123 vsan x
(config-fcalias)# member pwwn 10:00:00:00:00:00:00:00
(config-fcalias)# exit
(config)# zone commit vsan x
Change the zone:
(config)# zone name zone123 vsan x
(config-zone)# member interface fc1/1
(config-zone)# member pwwn 20:00:00:00:00:00:00:00
(config-zone)# member fcalias A123
(config-zone)# exit
Change the zoneSet:
(config)# zoneset name zoneset123 vsan x
(config-zoneset)# member zone123
(config-zoneset)# exit
Activate zoneset (valid only in basic zone mode):
(config)# zoneset activate name zoneset123 vsan 1
Disable zones broadcast:
(config)# no zone broadcast enable vsan x

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4.
Cisco GUI (similar both in DCNM and DCFM):
Open GUI then click Edit Local Full Zone Database in the zone menu.
The zone admin page is like below:

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Edit the fc-alias:

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Edit zone:

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Look for the corresponding WWN or device alias, click Add to Zone to add them to the zone

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Edit the zoneset:

Drap the configured zone to the zoneset. Confirm the changes/Activate the zoneset:

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The Best Practice of Zoning?
It is easy to setup a zone, but it not easy to do it well. So we would recommend:

1.
Using WWN zone (except for the customers who have special requirements or in a
FICON environment). Here are the reasons:

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1)
Port zone ensures the security by physical isolation, but WWN zone can allow the
specify device to access the zone.
2)
Only WWN zone can be used in NPIV and AG environment
3)
Only WWN zone can be used in IVR/FCR and tape acceleration products.
2.
Using zoning and LUN masking together
Zoning takes effect in SAN switches while LUN masking does the job in storage.
3.
Alias name should be clear and understandable
4.
Do not use mixed zone mode in Brocade switches
There is a bug in v6.4.3 version which could make the host automatically logged out from
the storage.
5.
Use enhanced zone for Cisco switches
This can prevent losing the zone configuration when multiple users change it.
6.
Turn off the default zone
This can avoid the unauthenticated access to the fabric.
For MDS switches running in NX-OS post 5.2(6), we recommend to use smart zoning. Smart
Zoning combines the benefits of both approaches above:

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Simplicity of operational management with a Single Zone for all initiators and targets of an
application or cluster.
No wasted switch resources as with two member zones.
Please refer to Cisco article http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/storage-networking/

zoning/116390-technote-smartzoning-00.html#anc3 for more details.
Translator Roger
Tags: cisco, brocade
dynamox 19,183 posts since Jan 22, 2009

Re: What Is Zone? How To Setup Zone? What Is The Best Practice? Jan 20, 2015 10:30 AM
using fcalias is not the best practices, device aliases is. Also please consider talking about
SmartZoning as that negates some of the best practices your provided above.

in response to dynamox
Hi dynamox,
Thanks for reading the blog carefully and raising your opinion.

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We are aware that device alias is a fabric wide feature and more convenient than fcalias.
However, considering multiple bugs for device alias found in NX-OS v5.x working with
DCNM, we still recommend our customer to use fcalias.
Smart zoning is a new feature introduced in 5.2(6) which saves a lot of time for SAN
administrators to configure zoning.
We encourage customer to use this feature and have added some recommend into this
article.
Thanks again for providing your valuable suggestion.

in response to iEMC APJ
can you please point me to Cisco bug reports about device-aliases. We have been using
devices aliases for at least 3 years and i have yet to find any issues.
Thanks

in response to dynamox
Hi Dynamox,
Here is a brief list of the related defects.

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CSCtu03947 - Device-alias add/delete doesn't update client cache right away.

Affecting: 5.2.1, 5.2.2
Fixed in: 5.2(2)S71, 5.2(2.72)S0, 5.2(2a)S3, 7.0(1)ZD(0.3)
CSCtt20652 - DCNM SAN: Device Alias CFS Regions column does not sort
Affecting: 5.2.1
Fixed in: 6.2(0.18)S0
CSCuc04839 - Device-alias instead of fcalias in the document under DCNM control panel
Affecting: 5.2(7.9)
Fixed in: Release Pending
CSCtn77734 - FM Cannot purge deleted device-aliases they show as decommissioned

Affecting: 5.0(4a)
Fixed in: 5.0(4c)S2, 5.0(6.54)S

in response to iEMC APJ
majority of those are bugs in really old 5.2.x branch of NX-OS. Folks should be on the latest
5.2.8 if only for the reason to address ShellShock vulnerabilities on NX-OS. These should
not be a deterrent from using device aliases. Being able to see server name when you

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create IVR zones, when you run sh flogi database and others is just too great of an feature
to be not considered.

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iEMC APJ 195 posts since Jul 15, 2013

What Is Zone? How To Setup Zone? What Is The Best Practice?

Please click here for all contents shared by us.

Zone is a logical configuration on FC-SAN switches. By adding the specific devices to a

Generated by Jive on 2015-04-06-07:00