Domain aliases renaming

[lpphiggp]

Sooo..  what's the point of device aliases again?

After creating a few zones, I noticed in my VNX that it doesn't enumerate the ports the way I thought it would.   Port 0 of slot 2 in SPA shows as "A-4", whereas I had made a domain alias called "A2P0"  So, I appended "A4" to the end of the device alias (after enabling that capability in the web Server settings).

Okay, it warns of a disruption to the VSAN, I didn't expect that to be a big deal, as I only did one switch, but it turned out that everything in that switch remained logged out of the fabric,  and I found that I had to reconfigure the zones to use the new device aliases.  I thought the whole point of enhanced device aliases was that they could propagate out everywhere and would automatically update. They weren't even updated in the zones.
In my Brocade 5100s, I could change fc aliases all day long (if I were so inclined), it never broke the zones, the zones just automatically updated with the new aliases.  But these can't? 

[dynamoxxx]

no idea what you did but enabling devices aliases nor configuring should have no impact to your fabrics.  I had some "pre-device aliases" zones that were configured using PWWN,  so i went it and created device aliases for those devices (VMAX FAs) and my zones were showing nice names instead of cryptic PWWNs.   When you say  "there weren't even updated in the zones", what do you mean, what kind of zoning are you using today ?

[lpphiggp]

All I did was create device aliases for my pWWNs, in DCNM SAN client.

I then zoned by device alias.   Later, I thought better of the alias I'd given my storage ports, so I changed them a little.  Afterward, the zones, however, were still using the original device aliases, and nothing was connecting. (Fortunately I am only just now starting to use this switch) . I had to remove the old aliases from the zone, and add the new aliases in.  So it didn't really "rename" them, it created new ones.

Maybe I should've zoned by pWWN and just used the device aliases for my own cross reference?

[Walter Dey · Accepted solution]

pwwn based zoning is best practise by all storage vendors !

What you see is standard; changing the name of a device alias implies changing the zoning !

Only if you change the attribute of a given device alias, e.g. modification of pwwn, will automatically update the zones !

[Walter Dey]

Very confusing ?

What do you mean by

- domain alias .... (are you talking about domain-id ??)

- VNX doesn't enumerate the ports.... (which has nothing to do with device alias)

- can you please post the error message about ...disruption of the VSAN.....

- did you ever do a device-alias commit ?

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2010/12/08/using-device-aliases-on-a-cisco-mds/

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/storage/san_switches/mds9000/sw/rel_2_x/san-os/configuration/guide/ddas.html

[lpphiggp]

Sorry!  I meant "Device alias".  Guess I had domain on my mind.

I think it created an issue because I had zoned it by device alias, not pwwn, so in retrospect, it makes sense that renaming the device alias caused the zone to break.
I got it all squared away though, and when I create new zones, I make sure to zone by pwwn, and only use device aliases for my own convenience of knowing which host it is.

BTW, I always do the commits. Not CLI though, I'm in DNCM, where it saves the config.