Technical data

13-6 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
Publication Number: 53-0000518-09
Zoning Concepts
13
The different types of zone configurations are:
• Defined Configuration. The complete set of all zone objects defined in the fabric.
• Effective Configuration. A single zone configuration that is currently in effect. The effective
configuration is built when an administrator enables a specified zone configuration.
• Saved Configuration. A copy of the defined configuration plus the name of the effective
configuration, which is saved in flash memory by the cfgSave command. (You can also use the
configUpload command to provide a backup of the zoning configuration and the configDownload
command to restore the zoning configuration.) There might be differences between the saved
configuration and the defined configuration if the system administrator has modified any of the
zone definitions and has not saved the configuration.
• Disabled Configuration. The effective configuration is removed from flash memory.
On power-up, the switch automatically reloads the saved configuration. If a configuration was active
when it was saved, the same configuration is reinstated on the local switch with an autorun of the
cfgEnable command.
You can establish a zone by identifying zone objects using one or more of the following zoning
schemes:
• Domain, port number level. All members are specified by domain ID, port number, or domain,
area number pair or aliases, described in “Zone Aliases” on page 13-5.
• World Wide Name (WWN) level. All members are specified only by World Wide Name (WWNs)
or aliases of WWNs. They can be node or port versions of the WWN.
• Mixed zoning. A zone containing members specified by a combination of domain, port number,
and/or domain, area number and WWN.
Zoning Enforcement
Software-enforced and hardware-enforced zoning are supported.
Software-Enforced Zoning
Zoning enables users to restrict access to devices in a fabric. Software-enforced zoning prevents hosts
from discovering unauthorized target devices, while hardware-enforced zoning prevents a host from
accessing a device it is not authorized to access.
Software-enforced zoning:
• Is also called soft zoning, Name Server zoning, fabric-based zoning, session-based zoning, or
hardware-assisted zoning.
• Is available on 1 Gbit/sec, 2 Gbit/sec, and 4 Gbit/sec platforms.
• Prevents hosts from discovering unauthorized target devices.
• Ensures that the name server does not return any information to an unauthorized initiator in
response to a name server query.
• Is always active whenever a zone configuration is in effect.
• Does not prohibit access to the device. If an initiator has knowledge of the network address of a
target device, it does not need to query the Name Server to access it, which could lead to undesired
access to a target device by unauthorized hosts.