Brocade Fabric Manager Administrator's Guide (53-10000196-01-HP, November 2006)

1-6 Fabric Manager Administrator’s Guide
Publication Number: 53-1000196-01-HP
Fabric and Switch Access
1
Administrative Domains
An Administrative Domain (Admin Domain) is a logical grouping of fabric elements that defines what
switches, ports, and devices you can view and modify. An Admin Domain is a filtered administrative
view of the fabric. The logical view presented within an Admin Domain does not hide fabrics, chassis,
switches, and slots; however, the attributes of switch ports and end devices are filtered based on Admin
Domain membership.
Admin Domains are numbered from 0 through 255. This document refers to specific Admin Domains
using the format “ADn” where n is a number between 0 and 255.
This document uses the following Admin Domain concepts:
All Fabric Manager users must have access to AD0 and the physical fabric to monitor Admin Domain-
aware fabrics. If you do not have access to these Admin Domains, then you cannot log in to the switch
via Fabric Manager. If, after you log in, you lose access to the physical fabric, you can no longer access
the port configuration, Admin Domain administration, and Fabric Watch functionality.
Fabric Manager displays each Admin Domain as a virtual fabric (see “Topology Views” on page 5-5).
Fabric Manager shows only Admin Domain members that have been discovered. For example, if the
Admin Domain membership list has a device WWN that is not yet connected to the fabric (and so was
never discovered by Fabric Manager), this device is not displayed in the user interface.
Fabric Manager collects Admin Domain membership information from the seed switch once a day and
on fabric discovery and refresh. All switches in the fabric are expected to have the same Admin Domain
membership configuration, although Fabric Manager does not validate this.
Fabric Manager displays a filtered view only in the Fabric Manager client window. All legacy (pre-
5.2.0) views, dialogs, and functionality continue to work in Admin Domain-unaware mode and display
an unfiltered view, at the physical fabric level.
Note
Do not confuse an Admin Domain with the domain ID of a switch. They are two different identifiers.
AD0 A special Admin Domain that contains all switches, ports, and
devices that have not been put into other Admin Domains.
AD255 A special Admin Domain that is an unfiltered view of the entire
physical fabric. AD255 is also referred to as the physical fabric.
Admin Domain-capable fabric A fabric that runs Fabric OS v5.2.0 or higher and has a valid
Advanced Zoning license, but has no Admin Domains other than
AD0 and AD255 (physical fabric).
Admin Domain-unaware fabric A fabric that:
• runs Fabric OS v5.1.x or lower.
• runs Fabric OS v5.2.0 or higher but does not have an
Advanced Zoning license.
Admin Domain-aware fabric A fabric with at least one user-defined Admin Domain activated.
User-defined Admin Domains include AD0, if you have explicitly
added members to it.
Physical fabric administrator A user with the Admin role and access to all Admin Domains
(AD0 through AD255).