Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch Fabric Manager Software Configuration Guide, NX-OS 4.0 (OL-16598-01, June 2008)

CHAPTER
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17-1
Nexus 5000 Series Switch Fabric Manager Software Configuration Guide
OL-16598-01
17
Distributing Device Alias Services
Switches in the Nexus 5000 Series support Distributed Device Alias Services (device aliases) on a
fabric-wide basis.
This chapter includes the following sections:
• Information About Device Aliases, page 17-1
• Device Alias Databases, page 17-3
• Legacy Zone Alias Conversion, page 17-7
• Database Merge Guidelines, page 17-8
• Default Settings, page 17-9
Information About Device Aliases
When the port WWN (pWWN) of a device must be specified to configure features (for example, zoning,
DPVM, or port security) in a Nexus 5000 Series switch, you must assign the correct device name each
time you configure these features. An inaccurate device name may cause unexpected results. You can
circumvent this problem if you define a user-friendly name for a pWWN and use this name in all the
configuration commands as required. These user-friendly names are referred to as device aliases in this
chapter.
This section includes the following topics:
• Device Alias Features, page 17-1
• Device Alias Requirements, page 17-2
• Zone Aliases Versus Device Aliases, page 17-2
Device Alias Features
Device aliases have the following features:
• The device alias information is independent of the VSAN configuration.
• The device alias configuration and distribution is independent of the zone server and the zone server
database.
• You can import legacy zone alias configurations without losing data.