Nexus 5K zone distribution

[jonathanreddington]

I am having trouble with distributing my zone config between 5Ks.

my zone status is as follows:

VSAN: 20 default-zone: deny distribute: full Interop: default

    mode: basic merge-control: allow

    session: none

    hard-zoning: enabled broadcast: disabled

Default zone:

    qos: none broadcast: disabled ronly: unsupported

Full Zoning Database :

    DB size: 984 bytes

    Zonesets:1  Zones:7 Aliases: 0

Active Zoning Database :

    DB size: 500 bytes

    Name: nexus-a-switches  Zonesets:1  Zones:7

Status: Activation completed at 16:57:25 GMT Sep 25 2013

I wanted to enable the zone distribution feature as listed here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/configuration/guide/cli/zone.html#wp1872670

like this:

Enabling Full Zone Set Distribution

All switches in the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series distribute active zone sets when new E port links come up or when a new zone set is activated in a VSAN. The zone set distribution takes effect while sending merge requests to the adjacent switch or while activating a zone set.

To enable full zone set and active zone set distribution to all switches on a per VSAN basis, perform this task:

	Command	Purpose
Step 1	switch# configuration terminal	Enters configuration mode.
Step 2	switch(config)# zoneset distribute full vsan vsan-id	Enables sending a full zone set along with an active zone set.

however when I entered this command nothing happened.

I was expecting the zone status to show the allow distribute but it didnt.

Please can someone explain what I am missing?

[richbarb]

Hello Jonathan,

Change your zone mode to enhanced and you zone config will be distributed through the fabric.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/configuration/guide/cli/zone.html#wp1871374

[jonathanreddington]

Thanks Richard,

I did see this and thought it may be the answer.

My question is around the impact of this. The hosts and SAN are in production use and I need to know if I need to plan any downtime to make the change?

Also I read there was no easy rollback from enhanced zoning, is this true?

[richbarb]

The changing to enhanced mode is disruptive, you need a window maintenace to do this.

About the the roolback to the basic mode, it's easy if you want the same full zone and active in all fabric. Taking into consideration you are not using specific enhanced mode features, only the zone distribution.