7/3/2016 Zoning in Brocade FC SAN switch for beginners ­ SAN Enthusiast

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Zoning in Brocade FC SAN switch for

beginners

Dear reader, Welcome to the ᮛ鮛ber channel world. When you are
learning Storage Area Network and Storage technology the instructor
will often talk about zoning and zones. Data access from a centralized
location to hosts in data centers is achieved using a switched network.
Zoning allows us to create a path from host to a storage array. In other
words, zoning is a process in which the fabric is logically partitioned. In
this article, we discuss what is zoning and how it is done on a Brocade
switch.

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Fiber Channel switch is a networking device which enables a large number of

hosts to connect with one or many storage arrays. A storage array can be
directly attached to a host. Due to the limited number of ports available on the
array, a switched network is necessary for it to connect to a large number of
hosts. A switched network is a high-speed network with one or many 䃎ber
channel switches. This switched network is referred as Fabric. In a fabric, the
initiator will be able to reach a target that is across many hops. Each switch will
at least connect to another switch and it is called an ISL (Inter-Switch Link).
Please keep in mind that what we discuss in this article applies only to SAN
fabrics and switches using 䃎ber channel technology. Most people will refer to a
single switch as a “fabric” this is simply wrong. The fabric is virtual and not
physical. Therefore, a switch is a fabric device. One or more switches form a
fabric.

Why Zone?

Typically most SAN switches will have at least 8 to 16 ports. At most SAN
directors will have the ports more than 250. In a traditional data center, fabric
and the storage array is given more importance and are always redundant to
avoid unexpected and unnecessary downtime. A single switch with 8 ports can
connect to 8 di삔鴀erent devices or 4 devices (two connections per device for
redundancy). What if the switch itself goes o쁽埿ine? In that case, nothing can be
done. Therefore, even a small server room with SAN fabric is designed with two
or more switches for redundancy.

Why zone? The answer is, to be able to avoid unnecessary tra䃨�c between
devices participating in fabric and to enhance security. By creating zones we are
logically partitioning the fabric so that the communication happens only with
the intended devices. Most popular vendors of storage networking are Brocade
and Cisco. Devices from both these vendors do the same thing but the
con䃎guration greatly varies. In this article, we discuss how we perform zoning
in 䃎ber channel switches manufactured by Brocade. Before jumping into the
procedure let’s spend some time to understand the basics of zoning.

Basics of Zoning
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Each device in a 䃎ber channel fabric will have a unique Word Wide Name
(WWN). WWN is a unique identi䃎er which is burned into the hardware. Each
vendor gets their own identi䃎er. It is a 64-bit address. It is similar to an MAC
address that you 䃎nd in a NIC. There are two types of WWNs,

Word Wide Node Name (WWNN)

Word Wide Port Name (WWPN)

What this means in terms of zoning is that we can identify devices in fabric
using WWNN or WWPN. The idea is to bind WWPN’s of intended devices (ports)
together. This binding is called zoning and it enables the devices to
communicate with each other. The following picture describes our environment
for which we are going to perform zoning. The steps illustrated in the article
must be performed on the switch shell access. If you are by any chance logged
in to the GUI, login to switch using SSH or Telnet.

Preparation

When you access shell of a device you carry a great responsibility. Executing
wrong commands or typos will cause adverse e삔鴀ects, In order to avoid such
mistakes, we must note down the WWN’s of the device which we are going to
zone together and must decide on naming convention for them. Most IT

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organization follows a uniform naming convention. To see the devices which

are logged into the switch the following commands can be executed,

switch:admin> switchshow

The output of this command can be seen in the following image,

The 10:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX that you see on the image is the WWPN of the
device connecting in that port. It can be a storage array, HBA port or another
switch. We will use this WWPN of the connecting device to zone with another.
As an example let’s assume the following values,

Switch Port 1 – HBA1 - 10:00:ff:05:1e:4b:d5:30

Switch Port 2 – HBA2 - 10:00:ff:05:80:00:48:a5

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Switch Port 12 - Storage Array port1 - 50:01:10:80:00:ad:33:e8

Switch Port 13 - Storage Array port2 - 50:02:10:80:00:ac:f5:54

In the next step we are going to zone HBA1 with Storage Array port 1 and HBA2
with Storage Array port2.

Brocade Switch Zoning Steps

The WWPN that we just noted down is not easy to remember and it is not easy
to type while zoning. To reduce the complexity and to avoid error we create an
“Alias” for each WWPN or a group of WWPN’s. Alias is a logical group of a
single WWPN or a number of WWPN’s.

Step 1: Let’s assign an alias for each WWPN Following is the syntax,

switch:admin> alicreate “HostPort1”, “10:00:ff:05:1e:4b:d5:30″

switch:admin> alicreate “HostPort2”, “10:00:ff:05:80:00:48:a5″

switch:admin> alicreate “StoragePort1”, “50:01:10:80:00:ad:33:e8″

switch:admin> alicreate “StoragePort2”, “50:02:10:80:00:ac:f5:54″

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To verify run command, alishow “HostPort1” and so on.

Step 2: Now we are going to create two zones with two aliases in them (1 host
port and 1 storage port)

switch:admin> zonecreate “zone1”, “HostPort1; StoragePort1”

switch:admin> zonecreate “zone2”, “HostPort2; StoragePort2”

To verify run command, zoneshow “zone1” and so on.

Step 3: Next step is to create a con䃎guration which will hold the zones that we
just created. The following command creates a con䃎guration named
“AppServer” and then adds both zones to it.

switch:admin> cfgcreate "AppServer", "zone1;zone2"

Final Step: Now that we have created a con䃎guration we must enable it for it to
act, following syntax enables AppServer con䃎guration. At any given time there
can be only one active con䃎guration. But in switch database, there can be
multiple.

switch:admin> cfgenable "AppServer"

Note: Names for Alias, Zones, Zone con䃎guration is case-sensitive, it must

begin with a letter and can be followed by any number of letters, numbers, and
underscore characters.

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And we are done, congratulations! The switch should be able to let the host and
storage talk to each other. Hope you 䃎nd this useful. Zoning in Cisco is a work
in progress. Below are some important commands that makes zoning easier. Got
question? post it in the comments section.

aliAdd Add a member to a zone alias

aliCopy Copy a zone alias

aliCreate Create a zone alias

aliDelete Delete a zone alias

aliRemove Remove a member from a zone alias

aliRename Rename a zone alias

aliShow Print zone alias information

cfgAdd Add a member to a con䃎guration

cfgCopy Copy a zone con䃎guration

cfgCreate Create a zone con䃎guration

cfgDelete Delete a zone con䃎guration

cfgRemove Remove a member from a con䃎guration

cfgRename Rename a zone con䃎guration

cfgShow Print zone con䃎guration information

zoneAdd Add a member to a zone

zoneCopy Copy a zone

zoneCreate Create a zone

zoneDelete Delete a zone

zoneRemove Remove a member from a zone

zoneRename Rename a zone

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zoneShow Print zone information

cfgClear Clear all zone con䃎gurations

cfgDisable Disable a zone con䃎guration

cfgEnable Enable a zone con䃎guration

cfgSave Save zone con䃎gurations in 쁥Ⰰash

cfgSize Print size details of zone database

cfgActvShow Print e삔鴀ective zone con䃎guration

cfgTransAbort Abort zone con䃎guration transaction

Also published on Medium.

Related:

Zoning in Cisco SAN switch for beginners

In "Cisco"

Access Gateway mode in Brocade explained for beginners

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7/3/2016 Zoning in Brocade FC SAN switch for beginners ­ SAN Enthusiast

In "Brocade"

What to do when the port goes to No_Sync state (Brocade)

Sometimes the port on Brocade SAN Switch change its state to No_Sync, It means the SFP is
seeing light but the frames are out of sync. This state change can occur on any type of port. If there is
a host connected simply reboot the host or disable and enable the…

In "Brocade"

Author: Azhagarasu A
Follow me on Twitter : https://twitter.com/Azhagarasu View all posts by Azhagarasu A

Azhagarasu A / August 11, 2013 / Brocade / alicreate, alishow, brocade switchshow,

cfgcreate, cfgenable, FC switch zoning, HBA, switchshow command, what is a wwn, what is a
wwpn, what is zoning, wwn zoning, wwpn zoning, zonecreate, zoneshow, zoning, zoning in
brocade

14 Comments SAN Enthusiast 

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Dwan Doo • 4 months ago

what is a wwn and where did that come from? what is logic of grouping test1, test2?
How is this a tutorial for beginners ­ you raise more questions than you answer!!!
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Az Author > Dwan Doo • 4 months ago

Update: The entire post is re written to include more basic information. Hope
you find it useful. Thank again for the feedback.
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Az Author > Dwan Doo • 4 months ago

Dwan,

Thank you for the feedback, I will edit the post to include more information.
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Дмитрий • 2 years ago

Thanks, it's a good starting point!

# cfgsave “cfg1″
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# cfgsave “cfg1″

In FOS 6.4 cfgSave command takes no argument!

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Alexey Miasoedov • 2 years ago

Thanks for reply,
What I wanted to say is that you use the terms hard zoning for port­based zoning and
soft for pWWN­based, which Brocade claims obsolete, since hard and soft is about
enforcement method but not the identification type. And the enforcement is done in
hardware (ASICs) in all modern Brocade switches. That's it.
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Naresh > Alexey Miasoedov • 2 years ago

Hey Alexey,

Whatever you have mentioned from Brocade Best Practices Guide makes
absolute sense. Hard and Soft is definitely about Enforcement Method but at the
same time we should also remember there is nothing wrong in using it as an
Identification Type.

Hard is not a wrong terminology which can be used as identification even though
it really means the enforcement method.

Please remember this topic is posted for Beginners in San World and i dont think
there is anything wrong in using these terms
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Alexey Miasoedov • 2 years ago

According to the official Brocade SAN Zoning Best Practices terminology used seems to
be incorrect (soft/hard zoning).
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admin > Alexey Miasoedov • 2 years ago

Alexy, there are three types ­ soft, hard and mixed. I am not sure what you mean
by "terminology used seems to be incorrect" could you please elaborate more.
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Alexey Miasoedov > admin • 2 years ago

I'll just cite:

aVoiding Zoning terMinoLogy conFUsion

Over the years, many terms have evolved to describe Zoning, some of
which confuse the true nature of the Zoning method in question and lead
to incorrect beliefs about how Zoning actually works. The most significant
error made in describing Zoning is associating the identification method
with how Zoning is enforced. With Brocade 1 Gbit/sec Fabric OS switches,
only D,P identification was hardware enforced. This led to the term “hard
zoning” being associated with D,P identification; D,P is also called “port
zoning.” pWWN identification on Brocade 1 Gbit/sec Fabric OS switches
was software enforced, so the term “soft zoning” came into the SAN
lexicon in addition to “WWN zoning.” Once Brocade released 2 Gbit/sec
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lexicon in addition to “WWN zoning.” Once Brocade released 2 Gbit/sec
FOS switches, pWWN identification became hardware enforced, so the
older association of pWWN identification with software enforcement and
D,P with hardware enforcement became technically obsolete. But the
terms “hard” and “soft” persisted with the incorrect belief that using the
D,P identification was more secure than using the pWWN identification.
Today, Zoning should be viewed as a security mechanism for SANs with
two identification options and three enforcement methods. The
relationship to identification and enforcement was outlined earlier, but
for recent switches all Zoning is hardware enforced. This is true for
switches and directors running Brocade Fabric OS and Brocade M­EOS
operating systems. The old terminology of “hard” and “soft” should be
abandoned in favor of specifying enforcement and identification. For
example, use statements such as “… the Zoning for this fabric is all frame
based and hardware enforced using pWWN identification.” or “… the
Zoning is frame based and hardware enforced using pWWN except for
some session­based, hardware­enforced overlapping zones.” BEST
PRACTICE: Describe Zoning by enforcement method and identification
type, that is, pWWN or D,P with hardware (frame­ or session­based) or
software enforcement. Abandon terms such as “hard” and “soft” or “port”
and “WWN” Zoning. Brocade performs only frame­ or session­based
hardware enforcement.
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Azhagarasu A > Alexey Miasoedov • 2 years ago

Thanks much Alexey, for providing more info on this,

I don't agree to the above stated because as you know plogi should
happen for the devices to establish a session. for plogi to happen a
zonning has to be defined (otherwise there should be defzone
enabled) plogi aka port login is nothing but exchange of ULP,
buffer credit etc.. between devices. So the nature of zoning really
does matter if you have done port based login and connected
initiators in all the ports it really not going to make any sense. For
example let us consider "single initiator zoning" ­ a single initiator
(single HBA port) and any number of target ports is always
recommended to be in one zone. why do all vendors recommend
single initiator zoning? because to avoid collision between
initiators and to segment the total available bandwidth.

Why we don't follow port based zoning very often? (hard zoning)

The answer is simple, in case the port goes bad you do not have to
modify zoning instead you can just swap the cable to a unused
port.

I have worked in support and i have seen such cases very often
even in 16 Gbps platform.
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santosh • 2 years ago

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What is the shutdown process of an Array?

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Azhagarasu A > santosh • 2 years ago

If you consider a 4 node storage array with number of disk enclosures following
is the shutdown procedure.

1. Take all the LUNs offline which are provisioned from this array
2. Gracefully shut down the nodes one by one or all at a same time (if there is an
option)
3. Power down the disk enclosures one by one ­ follow top to bottom approach.

Power up sequence will be vice­versa,

1. Power up the disk enclosures ­ follow bottom to top approach

2. Power on the nodes.

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