How to do zoning for a Brocade SAN switch

Terminology
HBA - Host Bus Adapter, which in this case, refers to the Fibre Channel Card. In LAN
networking, its analogous to an Ethernet card.
WWN - World Wide Name, a unique 8-byte number identifying the HBA. In Ethernet
networking, its analogous to the MAC address.
FC Zone - Fibre Channel Zone, a partitioned subset of the fabric. Members of a zone are
allowed to communicate with each other, but devices are not allowed to communicate across
zones. An FC Zone is loosely analogous to a VLAN.
Steps to Zone Brocade Switch
1) Plug in the FC Connector into an open port on the switch.
2) Login to the server and verify the HBA connection. It should see the switch but not the
storage device.
3) Login to the Brocade Switch GUI interface. Youll need Java enabled on your browser.
4) Check the Brocade Switch Port.
1. On the visual depiction of the switch, click on the port where you plugged in the FC
connector.
2. The Port Administration Services screen should pop up. Youll need to enable the pop-up.
3. Verify that the Port Status is Online. Note the port number.
4. Close the Port Administration Services screen.
5) Find the WWN of your new device
1. Navigate back to the original GUI page.
2. Select Zone Admin, an icon on the bottom left of the screen. It looks like two squares and
a rectangle.
3. Expand the Ports & Attaching Devices under the Member Selection List.
4. Expand the appropriate port number. Note the attached WWN.
6) Create a new alias for this device
1. Click New Alias button
2. Follow menu instructions

7) Add the appropriate WWN to the alias

1. Select your new device name from the Name drop down menu
2. Expand the WWNs under Member Selection List
3. Highlight the appropriate WWN
4. Select Add Member
8) Add the alias to the appropriate zone
1. Select the Zone tab
2. Select the appropriate zone from the Name drop down menu
3. Select the appropriate alias from the Member Selection List
4. Click Add Member
9) Ensure that the zone is in Zone Config in the Zone Config tab
10) Save your changes by selecting ZoningActions -> Enable Config
11) Login back in to the server to verify. It should now see the storage devices.
Besides that, here has a demo video keep you all for more understanding on how exactly the
steps does.

Zoning steps in brocade SAN Switch

abc login: admin
Password:
abc:admin> switchshow
switchName:
abc
switchType:
34.0
switchState: Online
switchMode:
Native
switchRole:
Principal
switchDomain: 1
switchId:
fffc03
switchWwn:
10:00:00:05:1e:09:ab:c7
zoning:
ON (cfg)
switchBeacon: OFF

Area Port Media Speed State

Proto
=====================================
0 0 id N4 No_Light
1 1 id N4 No_Light
2 2 id N4 No_Light
3 3 id N4 No_Light
4 4 id N4 Online
F-Port 50:06:01:60:41:e0:eb:4d
5 5 id N2 Online
F-Port 10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0
6 6 id N4 Online
F-Port 50:06:01:69:41:e0:eb:4d
7 7 id N2 Online
F-Port 10:00:00:00:c9:50:6a:24
8 8 -- N4 No_Module
(No POD License) Disabled
9 9 -- N4 No_Module
(No POD License) Disabled
10 10 -- N4 No_Module
(No POD License) Disabled
11 11 -- N4 No_Module
(No POD License) Disabled
12 12 -- N4 No_Module
(No POD License) Disabled
13 13 -- N4 No_Module
(No POD License) Disabled
14 14 -- N4 No_Module
(No POD License) Disabled
15 15 -- N4 No_Module
(No POD License) Disabled
abc:admin> cfgactvshow
Effective configuration:
cfg: cfg
zone: zone_PORT_5_PORT_0
10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0
50:06:01:60:41:e0:ed:8e
zone: zone_PORT_7_PORT_0
10:00:00:00:c9:50:6a:24
50:06:01:60:41:e0:ed:8e
abc:admin> zonecreate
"zone_clariion_A","10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0;50:06:01:60:41:e0:eb:4d"
abc:admin> zonecreate
"zone_clariion_B","10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0;50:06:01:69:41:e0:eb:4d"
abc:admin> cfgadd "cfg","zone_clariion_A;zone_clariion_B"
abc:admin> cfgsave
You are about to save the Defined zoning configuration. This
action will only save the changes on Defined configuration.
Any changes made on the Effective configuration will not
take effect until it is re-enabled.
Do you want to save Defined zoning configuration only? (yes, y, no, n): [no] y
Updating flash ...

abc:admin> cfgenable "cfg"

You are about to enable a new zoning configuration.
This action will replace the old zoning configuration with the
current configuration selected.
Do you want to enable 'cfg' configuration (yes, y, no, n): [no] y
zone config "cfg" is in effect
Updating flash ...
abc:admin> cfgactvshow
Effective configuration:
cfg: cfg
zone: zone_PORT_5_PORT_0
10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0
50:06:01:60:41:e0:ed:8e
zone: zone_PORT_7_PORT_0
10:00:00:00:c9:50:6a:24
50:06:01:60:41:e0:ed:8e
zone: zone_clariion_A
10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0
50:06:01:60:41:e0:eb:4d
zone: zone_clariion_B
10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0
50:06:01:69:41:e0:eb:4d

abc:admin> cfgactvshow
Effective configuration:
cfg: cfg
zone: zone_PORT_5_PORT_4
10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0
50:06:01:60:41:e0:eb:4d
zone: zone_PORT_5_PORT_6
10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0
50:06:01:69:41:e0:eb:4d
zone: zone_PORT_7_PORT_4
10:00:00:00:c9:50:6a:24
50:06:01:60:41:e0:eb:4d
zone: zone_PORT_7_PORT_6
10:00:00:00:c9:50:6a:24
50:06:01:69:41:e0:eb:4d
abc:admin> cfgactvshow
Effective configuration:
cfg: cfg

zone: zone_PORT_5_PORT_4
10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0
50:06:01:60:41:e0:eb:4d
zone: zone_PORT_5_PORT_6
10:00:00:00:c9:70:83:f0
50:06:01:69:41:e0:eb:4d
zone: zone_PORT_7_PORT_4
10:00:00:00:c9:50:6a:24
50:06:01:60:41:e0:eb:4d
zone: zone_PORT_7_PORT_6
10:00:00:00:c9:50:6a:24
50:06:01:69:41:e0:eb:4d

==================================================
===============
Zoning in Brocade FC SAN switch for beginners
I am a SAN Engineer for a leading storage vendor. The purpose of this article is to provide you a
brief understanding on the basic, the content is very basic and can be used as a reference.
What is a FC Switch?
Fiber channel switch is an important component in storage area network (SAN) which sits in
between a multiple host and a target or multiple hosts and targets. There are various network
topology used in SAN most preferred is Core Edge model. Click here to learn more on topology.
Most common way of naming a switch is by its port speed and number of ports for example in
8/20 SAN switch , 8 denotes port speed in Gbps and 20 denotes the number of ports. This
applies for both Brocade and Cisco switches, Switches comes in different speed variants 2
Gbps, 4 Gbps and 8 Gbps. These are the most commonly seen switch models. Switch with
large number of ports as called as Director class switches. DC Switch will come with multiple
blade switch and controlled by a control processor in the same enclosure.
128 is the minimum number of ports on a director.
Most of the folks call a single switch as a fabric, but that is incorrect a fabric is a collection of
switch. But in a single switch fabric host HBA, switch and target is part of the fabric. In a fabric
there can be maximum of 256 switch and maximum of 7 hops. Number of switches and hops
varies with specific switch models and FOS. While designing a SAN multiple parameters has to
be considered.
Zoning
A switch with out an active configuration is of no use, Zoning is a process in which a channel
between host and a target is established. There are two types, hard and soft zoning. Nowadays
softzoning is implemented widely.

In simple terms soft zoning will be done using wwn of the host and target, if we use switch ports
then its called as hard zoning.
WWN - Word Wide Name
Steps:
Host and target will login to the switch as F-port, we can check the port type and wwn's by
executing the below command in CLI.
#switchshow - overall information like speed SFP info (id = SFP; cu = embedded port), type of
port (N, F, U port etc)
Zoning Steps:
Each wwn will be given a alias (for our understanding), then we group two alias and call it as a
zone, likewise multiple zone with different combination can be created and then we add the
zones to a config, config is a collection of zones. There can be multiple config's but only one can
be active at any given time. Lets see the important CLI syntaxes,

1. alicreate - to create a alias for a wwn

Syntax :

alicreate "test1", "21:00:00:e0:8b:1d:f9:03

alicreate "test2", "21:00:00:e0:8b:1d:f9:02
To verify - alishow "test1"

2. zonecreate - to create a zone which consists of two aliases

Syntax :

zonecreate "zone1", "test1; test2"

To verify - zoneshow "zone1"

(test1 and test2 is the alias that we created in the previous step)

3. cfgcreate - to create a config which may have multiple zones

Syntax :

cfgcreate "cfg1", "zone1"

To add another zone cfgcreate "cfg1", "zone2"

Now that we have created a config with two zones, it has to be saved before enabling it, below
is the syntax
# cfgsave "cfg1"
Then enable the config,
# cfgenable "cfg1"
Enabling a cfg will cause the switch to reboot. Below are some important commands that makes
zoning easier.

aliAdd

Add a member to a zone alias

aliCopy

Copy a zone alias

aliCreate

Create a zone alias

aliDelete

Delete a zone alias

aliRemove

Remove a member from a zone alias

aliRename

Rename a zone alias

aliShow

Print zone alias information

cfgAdd

Add a member to a configuration

cfgCopy

Copy a zone configuration

cfgCreate

Create a zone configuration

cfgDelete

Delete a zone configuration

cfgRemove

Remove a member from a configuration

cfgRename

Rename a zone configuration

cfgShow

Print zone configuration information

zoneAdd

Add a member to a zone

zoneCopy

Copy a zone

zoneCreate

Create a zone

zoneDelete

Delete a zone

zoneRemove

Remove a member from a zone

zoneRename

Rename a zone

zoneShow

Print zone information

cfgClear

Clear all zone configurations

cfgDisable

Disable a zone configuration

cfgEnable

Enable a zone configuration

cfgSave

Save zone configurations in flash

cfgSize

Print size details of zone database

cfgActvShow

Print effective zone configuration

cfgTransAbort

Abort zone configuration transaction

How to zone a Brocade SAN switch in command line base?

How to zone a Brocade SAN switch in command line base?
Here are the basics to add a new device to a Brocade SAN fabric. working with a
Brocade DCX switch. In this scenario, there is a new server come with 2 HBA card
that going to attach to the SAN switches.
Terminology
HBA - Host Bus Adapter, HBA card is the device that connects the servers to a
Storage Area Networks (SAN) via Fibre Channel.
WWN - World Wide Name, a unique 8-byte number identifying the HBA. Each WWN
is an 8-byte number derived from an IEEE OUI (for the first 3 bytes) and vendorsupplied information.
FC Zone - Fibre Channel Zone, a partitioned subset of the fabric. Members of a zone
are allowed to communicate with each other, but devices are not allowed to
communicate across zones.
Steps to Zone Brocade Switch
1.Plug in the FC Connector into an open port on the switch.

2.Login to the server and verify the HBA connection. It should see the switch but not
the storage device.
3.Check the Brocade Switch Port. To do so, telnet to the brocade switches and login
as user admin.
switch 1 - fabric A (SWITCH_1)
switch 2 - fabric B (SWITCH_2)
Create aliases for the hosts HBA's on each switch
Example:
switch_1> alicreate " HOSTNAME01_HBA_0","10:00:00:c9:69:3d:53"
switch_2> alicreate " HOSTNAME01_HBA_1","10:00:00:c9:69:ae:4e"
Tips: Do a switchshow to capture the WWN before start the aliases creation.
4.Create the storage zones using the aliases on each switch
switch_1> zonecreate "Z_HOSTNAME01_A", "HOSTNAME01_HBA_0"
switch_2> zonecreate "Z_HOSTNAME01_B", "HOSTNAME01_HBA_1"
Check the configuration
switch_1> zoneshow Z_HOSTNAME01_A
switch_2> zoneshow Z_HOST01_B
5.Add the zones to the fabrics on each switch
switch_1> cfgshow SWITCH_A
switch_1> cfgadd "SWITCH_A","Z_ HOSTNAME01_A"
switch_1> cfgsave
switch_1> cfgenable SWITCH_A
Check the configuration
switch_1> zoneshow
switch_2> cfgshow SWITCH_B
switch_2> cfgadd " SWITCH_B","Z_ HOSTNAME01_B"
switch_2> cfgsave
switch_2> cfgenable SWITCH_A
Check the configuration
switch_2> zoneshow
6.Login back in to the server to verify. It should now see the storage devices