3 – Managing Fabrics
Zoning a Fabric
59226-00 B 3-39
A
3.6.7
Merging Fabrics and Zoning
If you join two fabrics with an inter-switch link, the active zone sets from the two
fabrics attempt to merge automatically. The fabrics may consist of a single switch
or many switches already connected together. The switches in the two fabrics
attempt to create a new active zone set containing the union of each fabric's
active zone set. The propagation of zoning information only affects the active zone
set, not the configured zone sets, unless Interop Auto Save is turned on.
3.6.7.1
Zone Merge Failure
If a zone merge is unsuccessful, the inter-switch links between the fabrics will
isolate due to a zone merge failure, which will generate an alarm. The reason for
the E_Port isolation can also be determined by viewing the port information. Refer
to “Port Information Data Window” on page 5-7 and the “Show Command” on
page A-62 (Port keyword).
A zone merge will fail if the two active zone sets have member zones with
identical names that differ in membership or type. For example, consider Fabric A
and Fabric B each with a soft zone named “ZN1” in its active zone set. Fabric A
"ZN1" contains a member specified by Domain ID 1 and Port 1; Fabric B “ZN1”
contains a member specified by Domain ID 1 and Port 2. In this case, the merge
will fail because the two zones have the same name, but different membership.