Zoning on Nexus 5548

[sandevsingh]

Hi,

I need to plan SAN zoning on the nexus 5ks. Wanted to know should i use fcalias or device-alias to start with? I am aware of their pros and cons but still would like to know what are the best practices that Cisco suggests? In my environment, i just have a bunch oh hosts sitting as hypervisors on the UCS (initiators) talking to Netapp (Targets).

[Jeremy Waldrop · Accepted solution]

best practice is to use device-alias. fcalias don't do much for you and aren't distributed across all switches in the fabric.

show outputs like show flogi database and show zoneset active will also show you device-alias whereas they will not show if you use fcalias

i would also set the device-alais mode to enhanced and commit it

[sandevsingh]

Thanks Jeremy...

I am putting each hba from each host talking to each cna on the Netapp in their respective zones. Example zones:

zone name hp1_hba0-Netapp_cna1a vsan 100

device-alias hp1_hba0

device-alias Netapp_cna1a

zone name hp1_hba1-Netapp_cna1a vsan 100

device-alias hp1_hba1

device-alias Netapp_cna1a

What is this actually buying me instead of changing the default-zone from deny to permit? By creating zones I am just elloborating on what host-hba can talk to the storage-cna, BUT i am not denying anything?