topic Re: Hard zoneing in HPE EVA Storage

Hard zoneing

Waugh — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:21:42 GMT

Hi,

With a hard zoneing each port is assigned to paricular zone. Meaning we are assigning the switch
port to paricular zone . How can I achive it . I know that HBA cards is having its own WWN number.
simillarly Switch ports having it WWN number or what. The switch ports will get the WWN number from HBA card when we plug the cable into switch port is it right.

Regards
Rkumar

Re: Hard zoneing

Paul Hawkins — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:45:53 GMT

No thats not right. The HBA does not give the switch port it's wwn. All FC devices have their own unique wwn.
When hard zoning the zone is contains the switch port and NOT the wwn of the hba.
Hope this helps

Re: Hard zoneing

Waugh — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:56:08 GMT

Hi ,

Means in switch every SFC is having WWN number right.while doing Hard zoning which WWN no comes int picture. eg HBA WWN ,SFC WWN and storage port WWN
--------------------------------------
But incase of soft zoning when we connect the HBA port to switch then the port will gets the HBA WWN for it.

Regards
Rkumar

Re: Hard zoneing

IBaltay — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:57:37 GMT

Hi,

both have their pros and cons:

when you use port zoning (hard zoning), then if you need to change the host HBA after the original HBA failure, port zoning stays fine (only the new PWWN should be changed on the storage host group mapping at storage side).

when you use PWWN zoning (soft zoning), then if you need to change the switch port after the original switch port failure the PWWN zoning stays fine.

Re: Hard zoneing

Waugh — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:11:04 GMT

Hi lBaltay,

1)In hard zoning switch port is using its own WWN number.
2) In soft zoning switch port taking number from HBA

the above statements are right or not ?

Regards
Rkumar

Re: Hard zoneing

IBaltay — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:25:22 GMT

http://www.brocadekorea.com/download/resource/53_0000213_01.pdf

Re: Hard zoneing

Rob Leadbeater — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:10:27 GMT

Hi,

> the above statements are right or not ?

No, although there may be some language difficulties here.

Hard zoning is based on the port on the switch into which the HBA is plugged.

Soft zoning is based on the WWN of the HBA.

Cheers,

Rob

Re: Hard zoneing

Bill Rothanburg — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:40:52 GMT

The newer Brocade switches enforce HARD zoning if ALL of the zones referencing a specific port are either WWN based or Domain/Port based.

The portzoneshow command will tell you which enforcement is effect.

Re: Hard zoneing

Sheldon Smith — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:54:14 GMT

If you're talking about Brocade switches, Brocade does not do "hard" and "soft" or "port" and "WWN" Zoning. Brocade performs only FRAME or SESSION-based hardware enforcement.

Brocade has a very interesting document regarding zoning: "Secure SAN Zoning Best Practices" (2007)
http://www.brocade.com/forms/getFile?p=documents/white_papers/Zoning_Best_Practices_WP-00.pdf

It clarifies a number of points on zoning:
* 1G products only supported Domain/Port Zones. -- 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."
* 2G and all later products support Domain/Port and WWN zones.
* For recent switches all Zoning is hardware enforced.

FRAME-BASED hardware enforcement occurs in the following cases on a per-zone basis:
* All zone members in a configuration use pWWN identification
* All zone members in a configuration use D,P identification
* Zones use either pWWN or D,P per zone with no mixed or overlapping zones

SESSION-BASED hardware enforcement occurs in the following cases on a per-zone basis:
A mixed zone with both pWWN and D,P members
* Any overlapping zones -- A configuration where a device is zoned via its pWWN identification in one zone, and zoned via its D,P identification in another zone.

Brocade Best Practices summary:
* Always implement Zoning, even if you use LUN masking.
* Use pWWN identification for Zoning for both security and operational consistency.
* Use pWWN identification for all Zoning configuration unless special circumstances require D,P identification (for example, FICON).
* Make Zoning aliases and names only as long as they need to be -- which enables maximum scaling (for very large fabrics, such as a FOS 5.2.0 and later fabric with 5000+ ports).
* All zones should use frame-based hardware enforcement; the best way to do this is to use pWWN identification exclusively for all Zoning configurations.
* Describe Zoning by enforcement method and identification type, that is, pWWN or D,P with hardware (frame- or session-based) or software enforcement. Abandon terms such as "hard" and "soft" or "port" and "WWN" Zoning. Brocade performs only frame or session-based hardware enforcement.
* Use Single Initiator Zoning with separate zones for tape and disk traffic when an HBA is carrying both types of traffic.
* Implement default zone -noaccess in Fabric OS fabrics.

Re: Hard zoneing

Sivakumar MJ._1 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:34:20 GMT

Chapter 11 explains you about Hard Zoning..

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg246116.pdf

Page 378...

If you have got the answeres, pls. close this thread...

Re: Hard zoneing

Sivakumar MJ._1 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:37:12 GMT

Brocade Zoning Best Practices..