Zoning with ISL between HP 4/8 and 8/8 SAN switches?

[sam bell]

Hi!

I've got two HP StorageWorks SAN switches connected to one fabric:

- sansw22 (HP 8/8 with OS 6.4.0b), principal
- sansw41 (HP 4/8 with OS 6.2.2d), subordinate

The zone configuration is available on both switches. However, I'm wondering how to create zones including ports from both switches.

When running Zone Administration on sansw22 for example I can only choose ports from sansw22 - I don't see sansw41 as attached device in the list (see attached picture). When running Zone Administration on sansw41 instead, I only see sansw41 as device.

What theoretically seems to work is to create aliases. When creating an alias for port1 on sansw41 it is also available on sansw21 and can be added to a zone.

This however would mean that one had to create aliases on all switches in order to be able to perform the zone config on only one switch. I don't think this is how it is intended to be! From what I have read, I should be able to just add the ports to the zones - even without the need to add ISL ports to the zones.

Any ideas what I am missing here and how can I make Zoning work correctly here?

Best Regards
Sam

--

Here's the output of switchshow for both switches:

sansw22:admin> switchshow
switchName: sansw22
switchType: 71.2
switchState: Online
switchMode: Native
switchRole: Principal
switchDomain: 22
switchId: fffc16
switchWwn: 10:00:00:05:1e:a3:05:09
zoning: ON (produktiv)
switchBeacon: OFF

sansw41:admin> switchshow
switchName: sansw41
switchType: 34.0
switchState: Online
switchMode: Native
switchRole: Subordinate
switchDomain: 41
switchId: fffc29
switchWwn: 10:00:00:05:1e:07:b8:05
zoning: ON (produktiv)
switchBeacon: OFF

The command fabricshow reports that the fabric contains both switches so everything seems to be fine here.

[Uwe Zessin]

I think that is a limitation in recent firmware revisions where some functions have been moved from the switch into an external product -> DCFM - Datacenter Fabric Manager

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/dc_fabricmgr/index.html

(I always use aliases for WWNs - they show up in the output of the "nsAliasShow" command and give a quick hint which device is currently attached to a port)

[sam bell]

Hello Uwe,

thanks for your reply.

Hmm, this doesn't sound too good! So this means without purchasing the additional software I always need to touch the switches directly for configuring zones - at least once to create aliases to have them show up on other switches.

Anyway: Do you know whether I have to add the ISL ports to port based zones as well?

Example:

sansw21
-port1 == ISL to sansw41
-port2 == MSA 2000

sansw41
-port1 == ISL to sansw21
-port2 == Windows host

I guess in this case I would need to add all four ports to one zone if I wanted the Windows host to access the MSA. Or use WWN based zoning instead. Is this correct?

Thanks a lot

Sam

[Uwe Zessin · Accepted solution]

There is a "professional" version available for free, but it can monitor/manage only one fabric at a time. But you can define multiple fabrics and switch between them.

Or use the command-line interface.


It is NOT necessary to include ISLs in the zones - only the end-points. It does not matter if you use port-based members (domain,port) or WWN-based members.

[sam bell]

Thanks, I will just test this tomorrow! I'm curious whether at least the attached devices will appear on both switches (in Zone Administration).

Are you aware of any documentation that describes ISL between SAN switches? I have read through some HP/Brocade docs but regarding ISL most of them only cover ISL trunks and other extended configurations.

Best Regards
Sam

[Uwe Zessin]

What do you want to know about 'simple' ISLs?

You need to make sure you have unique Domain-IDs (need to disable the switch for changing!), but then they are simply plug-and-play on Brocade switches (unless somebody has altered the port configurations). At least that has been my experience since the first switch models I worked with in 1999. Even trunked ISLs (=port aggregations) work automatically if you use the correct group of ports.

This fine details (e.g. how a link is negotiated) should be in the standard documents. Unless you are doing developments or deep troubleshooting, I don't think you really 'need' them.

If you're curious - hey, that's a valid exception ;-)

[sam bell]

I just didn't have to do anything with ISL between SAN switches up until today and wasn't aware that it is just that simple! And since I didn't find anything I thought I'd miss something!

But if this is it - then fine :-)

Thanks!

[Sheldon Smith]

Or have two servers, each running an instance of Datacenter Professional Manager (the free version), each instance watching a separate fabric.

And it sounds like the ISL is already running fine.

---
Don't forget to rate the usefulness/quality of *all* responses to (all of) your question(s).

[sam bell]

Hello Sheldon,

thanks for your hint. Especially good to have a second confirmation that what I am seeing is fine, since I really expected both switches to show up in the fabric view within Zoning Administration.

I wish this feature had not been removed from Fabric OS - would have been a lot easier and more transparent!

Best Regards
Sam

[sam bell]

Just to confirm: I have tested this now and everything is working as it should - the ISL ports indeed don't have to be member of the zone.

Also, the devices attached to the switches appear on both switches. Hence, if using WWN based zoning instead of port based, zoning can be managed on one switch.

As I am using port based zoning I have created aliases which show up on both switches as well.

Thanks for all your help!