Cisco MDS 9000 Series Configuration Guide

• LUN zoning—When combined with N port zoning, LUN zoning helps ensure that LUNs are accessible
only by specific hosts, providing a single point of control for managing heterogeneous storage-subsystem
access.
• Read-only zones—An attribute can be set to restrict I/O operations in any zone type to SCSI read-only
commands. This feature is especially useful for sharing volumes across servers for backup, data
warehousing, etc.
LUN zoning and read-only zones are not supported from Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 5.x and later.
Note
• Broadcast zones—An attribute can be set for any zone type to restrict broadcast frames to members of
the specific zone.
To provide strict network security, zoning is always enforced per frame using access control lists (ACLs) that
are applied at the ingress switch. All zoning polices are enforced in hardware, and none of them cause
performance degradation. Enhanced zoning session-management capabilities further enhance security by
allowing only one user at a time to modify zones.
Distributed Device Alias Services
All switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family support Distributed Device Alias Services (device alias) on a
per-VSAN basis and on a fabric-wide basis. Device alias distribution allows you to move host bus adapters
(HBAs) between VSANs without manually reentering alias names.
Fibre Channel Routing Services and Protocols
Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF) is the standard path selection protocol used by Fibre Channel fabrics. The
FSPF feature is enabled by default on all Fibre Channel switches. You do not need to configure any FSPF
services except in configurations that require special consideration. FSPF automatically calculates the best
path between any two switches in a fabric. Specifically, FSPF is used to perform these functions:
• Dynamically compute routes throughout a fabric by establishing the shortest and quickest path between
any two switches.
• Select an alternative path in the event of the failure of a given path. FSPF supports multiple paths and
automatically computes an alternative path around a failed link. FSPF provides a preferred route when
two equal paths are available.
Multiprotocol Support
In addition to supporting Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP), Cisco NX-OS software supports IBM Fibre Connection
(FICON), Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI), and Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) in a single
platform. Native iSCSI support in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family switches helps customers consolidate storage
for a wide range of servers into a common pool on the SAN.
Cisco MDS 9000 Series Fabric Configuration Guide, Release 8.x
5
Fabric Overview
Distributed Device Alias Services

Cisco MDS 9000 Series Specifications

General

Category	Switch
Operating System	Cisco NX-OS
Ports	Varies by model
Protocols	Fibre Channel (FC), Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP), iSCSI
Redundancy	Redundant supervisors, power supplies, and fans
Management	Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM), CLI, SNMP
Virtualization Support	VSANs (Virtual SANs)
Security Features	Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-SP)
Hot Swappable Components	power supplies, fans
Power Supply Options	AC and DC options available