Configuring Cisco MDS 9124 fiber switch for SAN

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Note that the process and information listed here is very basic and learned from an external installation engineer. This has not been verified from official Cisco documentation or book.

Basic process

Basic process for configuring a SAN switch is to list the WWN numbers of devices that should be connected with each other. Then create a zone containing the devices. Then assign or add the zone to a active zoneset. At any time only one zoneset is active in a SAN switch.

Listing WWN numbers of devices connected on switch ports

To list WWN numbers of devices connected on switch ports use:

show flogi database

In the output displayed, the WWN numbers listed in port name column should be used for configuration at various other places.

Creating alias for a WWN number

To refer to an WWN number an alias can be created. To create alias use:

config t
fcalias name <alias> vsan 1
pwwn <WWN number>
end

Saving switch configuration

To save switch configuration as start-up configuration use:

copy run start

Listing configured aliases

To list configured aliases use:

show fcalias

Creating a zone with fcalias

To create a zone with fcalias numbers use:

config t
zone name <zone-name> vsan 1
  member fcalias <alias-member-1>
  member fcalias <alias-member-2>
end

Each zone can have many targets from the same storage server as required. But each zone should have only one initiator. Even if a server has dual-port HBA or two HBAs, both initiator fcalias should not be part of same zone. For each initiator even when they belong to same server, a separate zone should be created.

Listing configured zones

To list configured zones use:

show zone

Creating zoneset

To create a zoneset use:

config t
  zoneset name <zoneset-name> vsan 1
  member <zone-name1>
  ...
  member <zone-namen>
  end

Note that a zoneset can contain large number of zones

Listing zoneset

To list created zonesets use:

show zoneset

Activating zoneset

To activate a zoneset use:

config t
zoneset activate name <zoneset-name> vsan 1

Listing active zoneset

To list active zoneset use:

show zoneset active

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