252 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
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Default zoning mode
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The mode flag -m can be used to specify the zone database location. Supported mode flag
values are:
•0 - zone database from the current transaction buffer
•1 - zone database stored from the persistent storage
•2 - currently effective zone database.
If no mode options are given, the validated output of all three buffers is shown.
If the -f option is specified, all the zone members that are not enforceable would be expunged
in the transaction buffer. This pruning operation always happens on the transaction and
defined buffers. You cannot specify a mode option or specify a zone object as an argument
with the -f option. This mode flag should be used after the zone has been validated.

Default zoning mode

The default zoning mode controls device access if zoning is not implemented or if there is no
effective zone configuration. The default zoning mode has two options:
•All Access—All devices within the fabric can communicate with all other devices.
•No Access—Devices in the fabric cannot access any other device in the fabric.
The default zone mode applies to the entire fabric, regardless of switch model.
The default setting is All Access.
Typically, when you disable the zoning configuration in a large fabric with thousands of devices, the
name server indicates to all hosts that they can communicate with each other. In fact, each host
can receive an enormous list of PIDs, and ultimately cause other hosts to run out of memory or
crash. To ensure that all devices in a fabric do not see each other during a configuration disable
operation, set the default zoning mode to No Access.
ATTENTION
For switches in large fabrics connected to thousands of devices, the default zone mode should be
set to No Access. If the default zone mode is All Access and the effective configuration is disabled,
the large number of requests to the switches might result in a queue full scenario.
Admin Domain considerations: If you want to use Admin Domains, you must set the default zoning
mode to No Access prior to setting up the Admin Domains. You cannot change the default zoning
mode to All Access if user-specified Admin Domains are present in the fabric.

Setting the default zoning mode

1. Connect to the switch and log in as admin.
2. Enter the cfgActvShow command to view the current zone configuration.
3. Enter the defZone command with one of the following options:
defzone --noaccess
defzone --allaccess
This command initiates a transaction (if one is not already in progress).