Changing From Basic Zoning To Enhanced Zoning - Cisco MDS 9000 Series Configuration Manual

Configuring and Managing Zones
Table 8: Advantages of Enhanced Zoning
Basic Zoning
Administrators can make simultaneous configuration
changes. Upon activation, one administrator can
overwrite another administrator's changes.
If a zone is part of multiple zonesets, you create an
instance of this zone in each zoneset.
The default zone policy is defined per switch. To
ensure smooth fabric operation, all switches in the
fabric must have the same default zone setting.
To retrieve the results of the activation on a per
switch basis, the managing switch provides a
combined status about the activation. It does not
identify the failure switch.
To distribute the zoning database, you must
reactivate the same zoneset. The reactivation may
affect hardware changes for hard zoning on the local
switch and on remote switches.
The MDS-specific zone member types (IPv4 address,
IPv6 address, symbolic node name, and other types)
may be used by other non-Cisco switches. During a
merge, the MDS-specific types can be misunderstood
by the non-Cisco switches.
The fWWN-based zone membership is only
supported in Cisco interop mode.

Changing from Basic Zoning to Enhanced Zoning

To change to the enhanced zoning mode from the basic mode, follow these steps:
Step 1
Verify that all switches in the fabric are capable of working in the enhanced mode.
If one or more switches are not capable of working in enhanced mode, then your request to move to enhanced mode is
rejected.
Step 2 Set the operation mode to enhanced zoning mode. By doing so, you will automatically start a session, acquire a fabric
wide lock, distribute the active and full zoning database using the enhanced zoning data structures, distribute zoning
policies and then release the lock. All switches in the fabric then move to the enhanced zoning mode.
Enhanced Zoning
Performs all configurations within a
single configuration session. When you
begin a session, the switch locks the entire
fabric to implement the change.
References to the zone are used by the
zonesets as required once you define the
zone.
Enforces and exchanges the default zone
setting throughout the fabric.
Retrieves the activation results and the
nature of the problem from each remote
switch.
Implements changes to the zoning
database and distributes it without
reactivation.
Provides a vendor ID along with a
vendor-specific type value to uniquely
identify a member type.
Supports fWWN-based membership in
the standard interop mode (interop mode
1).
Cisco MDS 9000 Series Fabric Configuration Guide, Release 8.x
Changing from Basic Zoning to Enhanced Zoning
Enhanced Zoning Advantages
One configuration session for the
entire fabric to ensure consistency
within the fabric.
Reduced payload size as the zone is
referenced. The size is more
pronounced with bigger databases.
Fabric-wide policy enforcement
reduces troubleshooting time.
Enhanced error reporting eases the
troubleshooting process.
Distribution of zone sets without
activation avoids hardware changes
for hard zoning in the switches.
Unique vendor type.
The fWWN-based member type is
standardized.
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