HP StorageWorks Fabric OS 6.2 administrator guide (5697-0016, May 2009)

Fabric OS 6.2 administrator guide 243
Figure 31 Broadcast zones and Admin Domains
The dotted box represents the consolidated broadcast zone, which contains all of the devices that can
receive broadcast packets. The actual delivery of broadcast packets is also controlled by the Admin
Domain and zone enforcement logic. The consolidated broadcast zone is not an actual zone, but is just an
abstraction used for explaining the behavior.
• The broadcast zone for AD1 includes member devices 1,1, 3,1 and 5,1; however, 3,1 and 5,1 are
not members of AD1. Consequently, from the AD1 broadcast zone, only 1,1 is added to the
consolidated broadcast zone.
• The broadcast zone for AD2 includes member devices 2,1, 3,1, and 4,1. Even though 2,1 is a
member of AD1, it is not a member of AD2 and so is not added to the consolidated broadcast zone.
• Device 3,1 is added to the consolidated broadcast zone because of its membership in the AD2
broadcast zone.
When a switch receives a broadcast packet it forwards the packet only to those devices which are zoned
with the sender and are also part of the consolidated broadcast zone.
You can check whether a broadcast zone has any invalid members that cannot be enforced in the current
AD context. See ”Validating a zone” on page 249 for complete instructions.
Broadcast zones and FC-FC routing
If you create broadcast zones in a metaSAN consisting of multiple fabrics connected through an FC router,
the broadcast zone must include the IP device that exists in the edge or backbone fabric as well as the
proxy device in the remote fabric. See Chapter 16, ”Optimizing fabric behavior” on page 339 for
information about proxy devices and the FC router.
Upgrade and downgrade considerations for broadcast zones
If you upgrade from a Fabric OS version earlier than 5.3.0 to Fabric OS 5.3.0 or later, you must rename
any existing zones named broadcast before you upgrade. The firmware download fails if a pre-5.3.x
switch has a zone with the name of broadcast in the effective configuration.
When downgrading to a firmware version earlier than Fabric OS 5.3.0, you must remove or disable the
broadcast zone. The firmware downgrade fails if a zone with the name broadcast is part of the effective
configuration.
High availability considerations with broadcast zones
If a switch has broadcast zone-capable firmware on the active CP (Fabric OS 5.3.x or later) and broadcast
zone-incapable firmware on the standby CP (Fabric OS version earlier than 5.3.0), you cannot create a
broadcast zone because the zoning behavior would not be the same across an HA failover. If the switch
failed over, the broadcast zone would lose its special significance and would be treated as a regular zone.
broadcast
"1,1; 3,1; 5,1"
"1,1"
"2,1"
broadcast
"2,1; 3,1; 4,1"
"3,1"
"4,1"
"5,1"
broadcast
"1,1; 3,1; 4,1"
"1,1"
"3,1; 4,1"
AD1 AD2