HP StorageWorks 1606 Brocade Fabric OS Administrator's Guide v6.3.0 (53-100133 - Page 270

11 Broadcast zones TABLE 48 Considerations for zoning architecture (Continued) Item Description Testing Before implementing a new zone, you should run the Zone Analyzer from Web Tools to isolate any possible problems. This is especially useful as fabrics increase in size. Confirming operation After changing or enabling a zone configuration, you should confirm that the nodes and storage can identify and access one another. Depending on the platform, you might need to reboot one or more nodes in the fabric with the new changes. Zoning can be implemented and administered from any switch in the fabric, although it is recommended that you use a switch running the latest Fabric OS version. If the switch is running Fabric OS v6.0.x or earlier, it must have an Advanced Zoning license enabled. The zone configuration is managed on a fabric basis. When a change in the configuration is saved, enabled, or disabled according to the transactional model, it is automatically (by closing the transaction) distributed to all switches in the fabric, preventing a single point of failure for zone information. NOTE Zoning commands make changes that affect the entire fabric. When executing fabric-level configuration tasks, allow time for the changes to propagate across the fabric before executing any subsequent commands. For a large fabric, you should wait several minutes between commands. Best practices for zoning The following are recommendations for using zoning: • Always zone using the highest Fabric OS-level switch. Switches with earlier Fabric OS versions do not have the capability to view all the functionality that a newer Fabric OS provides, as functionality is backwards compatible but not forwards compatible. • Zone using the core switch versus an edge switch. • Zone using an enterprise-class platform rather than a switch. An enterprise-class platform has more resources to handle zoning changes and implementations. Broadcast zones Fibre Channel allows sending broadcast frames to all Nx_Ports if the frame is sent to a broadcast well-known address (FFFFFF); however, many target devices and HBAs cannot handle broadcast frames. To control which devices receive broadcast frames, you can create a special zone, called a broadcast zone, which restricts broadcast packets to only those devices that are members of the broadcast zone. If there are no broadcast zones or if a broadcast zone is defined but not enabled, broadcast frames are not forwarded to any F_Ports. If a broadcast zone is enabled, broadcast frames are delivered only to those logged-in Nx_Ports that are members of the broadcast zone and are also in the same zone (regular zone) as the sender of the broadcast packet. 228 Fabric OS Administrator's Guide 53-1001336-01