Cisco MDS 9000 Series

• If read-only zones are implemented, the switch prevents write access to user data within the zone.
• If two members belong to a read-only zone and to a read-write zone, the read-only zone takes priority
and write access is denied.
• LUN zoning can only be implemented in Cisco MDS 9000 Series switches. If LUN zoning is implemented
in a switch, you cannot configure interop mode in that switch.
• Read-only volumes are not supported by some operating system and file system combinations (for
example, Windows NT or Windows 2000 and NTFS file system). Volumes within read-only zones are
not available to such hosts. However, if these hosts are already booted when the read-only zones are
activated, then read-only volumes are available to those hosts.
The read-only zone feature behaves as designed if either the FAT16 or FAT32 file system is used with the
previously mentioned Windows operating systems.
Read-only zones are not supported from Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 5.x and later.
Note
Configuring Read-Only Zones
To configure read-only zones, follow these steps:
Step 1 switch# configure terminal
Enters configuration mode.
Step 2 switch(config)# zone name Sample2 vsan 2
Configures a zone called Sample2 for the specified VSAN (vsan 2) and enters zone configuration submode.
Step 3 switch(config-zone)# attribute read-only
Sets read-only attributes for the Sample2 zone.
The default is read-write for all zones.
Note
Step 4 (Optional) switch(config-zone)# no attribute read-only
Reverts the Sample2 zone attributes to read-write.
Configuring Read-Only Zones For a Default Zone
To configure the read-only option for a default zone, follow these steps:
Step 1 switch# configure terminal
Enters configuration mode.
Step 2 switch(config)# zone default-zone vsan 1
Cisco MDS 9000 Series Fabric Configuration Guide, Release 8.x
103
Configuring and Managing Zones
Configuring Read-Only Zones