244 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
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Broadcast zones
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Best practices for zoning

The following are recommendations for using zoning:
•Always zone using the highest Fabric OS-level switch.
Switches with earlier Fabric OS versions do not have the capability to view all the functionality
that a newer Fabric OS provides, as functionality is backwards compatible but not forwards
compatible.
•Zone using the core switch versus an edge switch.
•Zone using an enterprise-class platform rather than a switch.
An enterprise-class platform has more resources to handle zoning changes and
implementations.

Broadcast zones

Fibre Channel allows sending broadcast frames to all Nx_Ports if the frame is sent to a broadcast
well-known address (FFFFFF); however, many target devices and HBAs cannot handle broadcast
frames. To control which devices receive broadcast frames, you can create a special zone, called a
broadcast zone, that restricts broadcast packets to only those devices that are members of the
broadcast zone.
If there are no broadcast zones or if a broadcast zone is defined but not enabled, broadcast frames
are not forwarded to any F_Ports. If a broadcast zone is enabled, broadcast frames are delivered
only to those logged-in Nx_Ports that are members of the broadcast zone and are also in the same
zone (regular zone) as the sender of the broadcast packet.
Devices that are not members of the broadcast zone can send broadcast packets, even though
they cannot receive them.
A broadcast zone can have domain,port, WWN, and alias members.
Broadcast zones do not function in the same way as other zones. A broadcast zone does not allow
access within its members in any way. If you want to allow or restrict access between any devices,
you must create regular zones for that purpose. If two devices are not part of a regular zone, they
cannot exchange broadcast or unicast packets.
To restrict broadcast frames reaching broadcast-incapable devices, create a broadcast zone and
populate it with the devices that are capable of handling broadcast packets. Devices that cannot
handle broadcast frames must be kept out of the broadcast zone so that they do not receive any
broadcast frames.
You create a broadcast zone the same way you create any other zone except that a broadcast zone
must have the name “broadcast” (case-sensitive). You set up and manage broadcast zones using
the standard zoning commands, described in “Zone creation and maintenance” on page 249.

Broadcast zones and Admin Domains

Each Admin Domain can have only one broadcast zone. However, all of the broadcast zones from
all of the Admin Domains are considered as a single consolidated broadcast zone.
Broadcast packets are forwarded to all the ports that are part of the broadcast zone for any Admin
Domain, have membership in that Admin Domain, and are zoned together (in a regular zone) with
the sender of the broadcast frame.