HP 8.20q Fibre Channel Switch - Manual (Page 46)

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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 affects only the active zone set, not the configured
zone sets, unless Merge Auto Save is turned on.
Zone merge failure
If a zone merge is unsuccessful, the inter-switch links between the fabrics will be isolated due to the zone
merge failure, which will generate an alarm. The reason for the E_Port isolation can also be determined by
viewing the port information. See Table 18 for more information.
A zone merge will fail if the two active zone sets have member zones with identical names but differ in
membership or type. For example, consider Fabric A and Fabric B each with a 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.
A zone merge may also fail if the merged zones/members exceed the maximum zoning limits. See
” Viewing zoning limits and properties ” (page 36) for more information on zoning limits.
Zone merge failure recovery
When a zone merge failure occurs, the conflict that caused the failure must be resolved. You can correct a
failure due to a zone conflict by deactivating one of the active zone sets or by editing the conflicting zones
so that their membership is the same. You can deactivate the active zone set on one fabric if the active
zone set on the other fabric accurately defines your zoning needs. If not, you must edit the zone
memberships, and reactivate the zone sets. After correcting the zone membership, reset the isolated ports
to allow the fabrics to join.
NOTE: If you deactivate the active zone set in one fabric and the Merge Auto Save parameter is enabled,
the active zone set from the second fabric will propagate to the first fabric and replace all zones with
matching names in the configured zone sets.
For more information about adding and removing zone members, see ” Managing zones ” (page 42). For
more information about resetting a port, see ” Resetting a port ” (page 102).