Create zones on 2/16 HP SAN Switch

[Jorge Cocomess]

Greetings,

I am not sure what would be best to create new zones for a Windows and Linux exist on the same fabric. I was leaning toward soft zoning so that I can use any given ports for a Windows server or a Linux server. My environment as follows:

5 Windows 2003 Servers
2 Linux RHAS 3.0 servers
1 MSA1000 with 4 Luns (8x146GB)

I would also like to know the commands to setup your prefer zoning method.

Please let me know.

Thank you in advance.

Jorge

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi Jorge,

Soft zoning is fine. Just be aware that should you ever have to swap out a HBA in a server that you will have to update the zoning configuration with that HBAs new WWN.

I would probably create a zone for each server, assuming you don't need them to access each others LUNs.

To do the setup, whilst you can do it at the command line I find it quicker to use the web browser interface instead.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Rob

[Richard Tengdin]

Port WWN based zoning is your best bet. It does require a zoning update if/when you change FCAs, but you don't have to worry as much about moving FC cables round.

I also recommend the GUI to do your zoning. Record the WWNs by server name then you won't have any problems creating alias names that mean something....

Using the GUI really helps because you are selecting from lists, not typing in things over and over and typos will kill you in the CLI!

Create one zone for each server and MSA port (total of 7 zones on each fabric) so you protect the Linux servers from Windows and the Windows servers from each other.

[Sheldon Smith]

For what it's worth, according to the SAN Design Guide, zones consisting of just WWNs are hard, not soft.

[Jorge Cocomess]

Would you create the zone first, then alias or the other way around?? I've been playing around via the GUI interface with zoning and alias. Not sure if I done it correctly. Therefore, I need your expertise on creating a new zone step-by-step.

Thanks for your time.

Jorge

[Uwe Zessin]

In the GUI, you first create the WWN or port alias. Then it appears in the member section for the zoning setup.

On the command line, I do it in that order as well, but it does not really matter, because a consistency check is run when you try to save or enable a configuration. In other words: you can temporarily have inconsistencies (like a non-existing alias name in a zone) while making changes.

[Richard Tengdin · Accepted solution]

Definitely in order: Alias - Zone - Configuration.

Ih the GUI if you create the Zones first you will have to use either WWN or switch ports and then your aliases will do no good.

[shIVinator.]

The definition of soft zoning is the combination of port and WWN zoning. Hard zoning can either be port or WWN. With the 2GB switches and newer the ASIC takes care of mapping an HBA WWN to a port number. Prior to 2GB switches WWN zoning was called 'soft' zoning.

I personally like using the command line for zoning (especially with the new firmware where you can use the back arrow and not VI).

Step 1, create alias;

alicreate [alisname], [WWN]

Step 2, create zones, there are two parts create then add other WWN's;

zonecreate [zonename], [aliasname]
zoneadd [zonename], [aliasname]

Step 3, add to config;

cfgadd [cfgname], [zonename]

Step 4, save and enable config;

cfgsave
cfgenable [cfgname]

In steps 2 and 3 use the add command for as many members you want to add.

Regards,
Duane

[Jorge Cocomess]

That's excellent information, Duane!!

Thank you.

Jorge

[Uwe Zessin]

> Step 2, create zones, there are two parts create then add other WWN's;
>
> zonecreate [zonename], [aliasname]
> zoneadd [zonename], [aliasname]

This is correct, but often can be 'optimized':

zonecreate "zonename","aliasname1;aliasname2"