Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 239
53-1001763-02
Zoning overview 11
FIGURE 32 Zoning example
To list the commands associated with zoning, use the zoneHelp command. For detailed information
on the zoning commands used in the procedures, see the Fabric OS Command Reference or the
online man page for each command.

Zone types

Table 48 summarizes the types of zoning available.
Table 49 on page 240 lists the various approaches you can take when implementing zoning in a
fabric.
TABLE 48 Types of zoning
Zone type Description
Storage-based Storage units typically implement LUN-based zoning, also called LUN masking. LUN-based
zoning limits access to the LUNs on the storage port to the specific WWN of the server HBA. It
is needed in most SANs. It functions during the probe portion of SCSI initialization. The server
probes the storage port for a list of available LUNs and their properties. The storage system
compares the WWN of the requesting HBA to the defined zone list, and returns the LUNs
assigned to the WWN. Other LUNs on the storage port are not made available to the server.
Host-based Host-based zoning can implement WWN or LUN masking.
Fabric-based Fabric switches implement fabric-based zoning, in which the zone members are identified by
WWN or port location in the fabric. Fabric-based zoning is also called name server-based or
soft zoning.
When a device queries the fabric name server, the name server determines the zones in
which the device belongs. The server returns information on all members of the zones in the
fabric to the device. Devices in the zone are identified by node WWN, port WWN, or
domain,port of the switch to which the device is connected.
The primary approaches to fabric-based zoning are summarized in Table 49.
JBOD
Loop 2
Blue zone
Green zone
Red zone
Server1
Hub
Loop 1
RAID
Fibre Channel Fabric
Server3
Server2