Device Alias Requirements; Zone Aliases Versus Device Aliases - Cisco MDS 9000 Series Configuration Manual

Device Alias Requirements

• The device alias application uses the Cisco Fabric Services (CFS) infrastructure to enable efficient
• When you configure zones, IVR zones, or QoS features using device aliases, and if you display these
Device Alias Requirements
Device aliases have the following requirements:
• You can only assign device aliases to pWWNs.
• The mapping between the pWWN and the device alias to which it is mapped must have a one-to-one
• A device alias name is restricted to 64 alphanumeric characters and may include one or more of the
Note
If the device-alias name is 64 characters in length, the DPVM and other application databases do not update
properly. Restrict the number of characters in the device-alias name to 63.

Zone Aliases Versus Device Aliases

Table 14: Comparison Between Zone Aliases and Device Aliases , on page 160
differences between zone-based alias configuration and device alias configuration.
Table 14: Comparison Between Zone Aliases and Device Aliases
Zone-Based Aliases
Aliases are limited to the specified VSAN.
Zone aliases are part of the zoning configuration. The alias
mapping cannot be used to configure other features.
You can use any zone member type to specify the end devices.
Configuration is contained within the Zone Server database and
is not available to other features.
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database management and distribution. Device aliases use the coordinated distribution mode and the
fabric-wide distribution scope (refer to the Cisco MDS 9000 Family NX-OS System Management
Configuration Guide ).
configurations, you will automatically see that the device aliases are displayed along with their respective
pWWNs.
relationship. A pWWN can be mapped to only one device alias and vice versa.
following characters:
• a to z and A to Z
• 1 to 9
• - (hyphen) and _ (underscore)
• $ (dollar sign) and ^ (up caret)
Device Aliases
You can define device aliases without specifying the VSAN
number. You can also use the same definition in one or more
VSANs without any restrictions.
Device aliases can be used with any feature that uses the pWWN.
Only pWWNs are supported along with new device aliases such
as IP addresses.
Device aliases are not restricted to zoning. Device alias
configuration is available to the FCNS, zone, fcping, traceroute,
and IVR applications.
Distributing Device Alias Services
compares the configuration