Zone Implementation
All switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Series automatically support the following basic zone features (no
additional configuration is required):
• Zones are contained in a VSAN.
• Hard zoning cannot be disabled.
• Name server queries are soft-zoned.
• Only active zone sets are distributed.
• Unzoned devices cannot access each other.
• A zone or zoneset with the same name can exist in each VSAN.
• Each VSAN has a full database and an active database.
• Active zone sets cannot be changed, without activating a full zone database.
• Active zone sets are preserved across switch reboots.
• Changes to the full database must be explicitly saved.
• Zone reactivation (a zoneset is active and you activate another zoneset) does not disrupt existing traffic.
If required, you can additionally configure the following zone features:
• Propagate full zone sets to all switches on a per VSAN basis.
• Change the default policy for unzoned members.
• Interoperate with other vendors by configuring a VSAN in the interop mode. You can also configure one
VSAN in the interop mode and another VSAN in the basic mode in the same switch without disrupting
each other.
• Bring E ports out of isolation.
Zone Member Configuration Guidelines
All members of a zone can communicate with each other. For a zone with N members, N *(N -1) access
permissions need to be enabled. The best practice is to avoid configuring large numbers of targets or large
numbers of initiators in a single zone. This type of configuration wastes switch resources by provisioning and
managing many communicating pairs (initiator-to-initiator or target-to-target) that will never actually
communicate with each other. For this reason, a single initiator with a single target is the most efficient
approach to zoning.
The following guidelines must be considered when creating zone members:
• Configuring only one initiator and one target for a zone provides the most efficient use of the switch
resources.
• Configuring the same initiator to multiple targets is accepted.
• Configuring multiple initiators to multiple targets is not recommended.
• While configuring a zone member based on interface type always select a fabric switch which potentially
has the highest interface count in the fabric.
Active and Full Zoneset Considerations
Before configuring a zoneset, consider the following guidelines:
• Each VSAN can have multiple zone sets but only one zoneset can be active at any given time.
Cisco MDS 9000 Series Fabric Configuration Guide, Release 8.x
40
Configuring and Managing Zones
Zone Implementation
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