About Device Aliases; About Device Alias Modes - Cisco AP776A - Nexus Converged Network Switch 5020 Configuration Manual

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Distributing Device Alias Services
All switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family support Distributed Device Alias Services (device alias) on
a per-VSAN basis and on a fabric-wide basis. Device alias distribution allows you to move host bus
adapters (HBAs) between VSANs without manually reentering alias names.
This chapter includes the following sections:
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About Device Aliases

When the port WWN of a device must be specified to configure different features (zoning, QoS, port
security) in a Cisco MDS 9000 Family switch, you must assign the correct device name each time you
configure these features. An incorrect device name may cause unexpected results. You can avoid this
problem if you define a user-friendly name for a port WWN and use this name in all of the configuration
commands as required. These user-friendly names are referred to as device aliases in this chapter.

About Device Alias Modes

Device alias supports two modes: basic and enhanced mode.
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OL-18084-01, Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.x
About Device Aliases, page 25-1
About Device Alias Modes, page 25-1
Device Alias Databases, page 25-4
About Legacy Zone Alias Configuration You can import legacy zone alias configurations to use this
feature without loosing data, if they satisfy the following restrictions:, page 25-8
Device Alias Statistics Cleanup, page 25-9
Device Alias Configuration Verification, page 25-9
Default Settings, page 25-11
When device alias runs in the basic mode, all applications function like the applications on the 3.0
switches. When you configure the basic mode using device aliases, the application immediately
expands to pWWNs. This behavior continues until the mode is changed to enhanced.
When device alias runs in the enhanced mode, all applications accept the device-alias configuration
in the native format. The applications store the device alias name in the configuration and distribute
it in the device alias format instead of expanding to pWWN. The applications track the device alias
database changes and take actions to enforce it.
C H A P T E R
Cisco MDS 9000 Family CLI Configuration Guide
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