HP Cisco Nexus 5000 Cisco MDS 9000 Family CLI Configuration Guide - Release 4. - Page 608

About Zoning Chapter 24 Configuring and Managing Zones Send documentation comments to [email protected] • 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. If required, you can additionally configure the following zone features: • 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. 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: • 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. Active and Full Zone Set Considerations Before configuring a zone set, consider the following guidelines: • 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. 24-4 Cisco MDS 9000 Family CLI Configuration Guide OL-18084-01, Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.x