3 – Managing Fabrics
Zoning a Fabric
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3.7.1.1.2
Access Control List Hard Zones
Access Control List (ACL) zoning divides the fabric for purposes of controlling
discovery and inbound traffic. ACL zoning is a type of hard zoning that is
hardware enforced. This type of zoning is useful for controlling access to certain
devices without totally isolating them from the fabric. Devices can communicate
with each other and transmit outside the ACL zone, but cannot receive inbound
traffic from outside the zone. The ACL zone boundary is secure against inbound
traffic. ACL zones can overlap; that is, a port can be a member of more than one
ACL zone. ACL zones that include members from multiple switches need not
include the ports of the inter-switch links. ACL zone boundaries supersede soft
zone boundaries. Membership can be defined only by domain ID and port
number. ACL zoning supports all port types. You can have domain/port member in
a configured ACL zone, but it will be converted to a soft zone when activated.
3.7.1.2
Aliases
To make it easier to add a group of ports or devices to one or more zones, you can
create an alias. An alias is a named set of ports or devices that are grouped
together for convenience. Unlike zones, aliases impose no communication
restrictions between its members. You can add an alias to one or more zones.
However, you cannot add a zone to an alias, nor can an alias be a member of
another alias.
3.7.1.3
Zone Sets
A zone set is a named group of zones. A zone can be a member of more than one
zone set. Each switch in the fabric maintains its own zoning database containing
one or more zone sets. This zoning database resides in non-volatile or permanent
memory and is therefore retained after a reset. Refer to
”Configured Zonesets
Data Window” on page 4-13
for information about displaying the zoning database.
The orphan zone set is created by the application automatically to hold the zones
which are not in any set. The orphan zone set cannot be removed and is not
saved on the switch.
To apply zoning to a fabric, choose a zone set and activate it. When you activate a
zone set, the switch distributes that zone set and its zones, excluding aliases, to
every switch in the fabric. (However, the contents of the aliases are distributed.)
This zone set is known as the active zone set. Refer to
”Active Zone Set Data
Window” on page 3-34
for information about displaying the active zone set.
