Dell PowerVault 56F Dell PowerVault 5xF Switches Zoning Guide - Page 13

A fabric provides fast, reliable, and seamless information access within the SAN. Within that fabric, each zone can include selected storage devices and servers. When the zone is defined, only the devices in the defined zone can access information in that zone. You can configure zones dynamically, and the number of zones and zone membership are effectively unlimited. Zones vary in size and shape, depending on the number of fabric-connected devices and device locations. Devices may be members of more than one zone. You can also create temporary zones, such as an enterprise backup zone. The following actions create and maintain zones: Zone creation - You create and manipulate the zones, zone configurations, and zone aliases. Zone enforcement - The fabric automatically and transparently restricts access to only the devices that are defined as zone members. Zone management - You use zone commands to create, delete, and display zones, to add or remove zone members, and to configure zone sets. You can administer zones throughout the fabric from any switch in the fabric. A single failure will not interrupt zoning enforcement to other SAN connections. The zoning service automatically increases as the size of the fabric increases. You do not need to upgrade systems when switches are added and connectivity increases. The Fibre Channel American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards do not include zoning. However, zoning allows original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and integrators to build additional value into their offerings. Registered state change notifications (RSCNs) and broadcast frames are restricted to zones. RSCNs are delivered only to devices in the affected zones. NOTE: For broadcast frames, you can use a special zone called "broadcast" to restrict the delivery of broadcast frames. support.dell.com Introduction 1-3