Q-Logic 8C/16 Manuel D’Utilisation

3 – Managing Fabrics
Zoning a Fabric

3-16

59022-06 A

Q

To make it easier to add a group of ports or devices to one or more zones, you can 
create an alias. An alias is a named set of ports or devices that are grouped 
together for convenience. Unlike zones, aliases impose no communication 
restrictions between its members. You can add an alias to one or more zones. 
However, you cannot add a zone to an alias, nor can an alias be a member of 
another alias.

A zone set is a named group of zones. A zone can be a member of more than one 
zone set. All zones that are not members of a zone set belong to the orphan zone 
set. The orphan zone set is saved on the switch. Each switch in the fabric 
maintains its own zoning database containing one or more zone sets. This zoning 
database resides in non-volatile or permanent memory and is therefore retained 
after a reset. Refer to 

information about displaying the zoning database.

To apply zoning to a fabric, choose a zone set and activate it. When you activate a 
zone set, the switch distributes that zone set and its zones, excluding aliases, to 
every switch in the fabric. This zone set is known as the active zone set. Refer to 

 for information about displaying the 

active zone set.

Domain ID conflicts can result in automatic reassignment of switch 
domain IDs. These reassignments are not reflected in zones that use 
domain ID and port number pairs or Fibre Channel addresses to define 
their membership. Be sure to reconfigure zones that are affected by a 
domain ID change. To prevent zoning definitions from becoming invalid 
when the membership is defined by domain ID/port number or Fibre 
Channel address, you must lock domain IDs. Refer to 

 and 

 for more information.