HP StorageWorks Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide (5697-7344, March 2008)

Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide 387
20 Administering Advanced Zoning
About zoning
Zoning enables you to partition your SAN into logical groups of devices that can access each other. A
device can communicate only with other devices connected to the fabric within its specified zone. For
example, you can partition your SAN into two zones, winzone and unixzone, so that your Windows
servers and storage do not interact with your UNIX servers and storage. When zoning is enabled, devices
that are not included in a zone configuration are inaccessible to other devices in the fabric.
Zones can be configured dynamically. They can vary in size, depending on the number of fabric-connected
devices, and devices can belong to more than one zone. Because zone members can access only other
members of the same zone, a device not included in a zone is not available to members of that zone.
When using a mixed fabric—that is, a fabric containing two or more switches running different fabric
operating systems—you should use the switch with the highest Fabric OS level to perform zoning tasks.
You must install Advanced Zoning licenses on all the switches in the fabric before attempting to configure
zones. If a Zoning license is removed, you must make sure it is reinstalled properly on the affected switch
before attempting the cfgEnable zoning operation. Failure to follow these steps can cause inconsistency
of the zoning configuration on the affected switches should a zoning operation be attempted from a remote
switch in the fabric. On the affected switches, an error message indicates that the Zoning license is
missing.
You can use zones to logically consolidate equipment for efficiency or to facilitate time-sensitive functions;
for example, use zoning to create a temporary zone to back up nonmember devices.
Any zone object connected to the fabric can be included in one or more zones. Zone objects can
communicate only with objects within the same zone. For example, consider Figure 31, which shows
configured zones, Red, Green, and Blue.
• Server 1 can communicate only with the Loop 1 devices.
• Server 2 can communicate only with the RAID and Blue zone devices.
• Server 3 can communicate with the RAID device and the Loop1 device.
• The Loop 2 JBODs are not assigned to a zone; no other zoned fabric device can access them.
Figure 31 Zoning example
To list the commands associated with zoning, use the zoneHelp command. For detailed information on
the zoning commands used in the procedures, see the Fabric OS Command Reference or the online man
page for each command.
Before using the procedures, you should become familiar with the zoning concepts described in the
following sections.
JBO
Blue zone
Green zone
Red zone
Server1
Loop 1
RAID
Server3