Brocade FC Zoning with CLI: Aliases, Zones and Configs

Zoning is the access-control mechanism of a Fibre Channel SAN: it decides which initiators (servers/HBAs) can talk to which targets (storage ports) inside the fabric. Brocade Fabric OS implements zoning through three levels — aliases, zones, and configurations — and while the Web Tools GUI is convenient, the CLI is what you use in scripts, audits and emergency changes. This guide covers the complete alias-zone-config workflow with the commands from the Fabric OS reference.

Why Three Levels?

• Alias: a friendly name for one or more WWNs or ports, e.g. array1 for a storage port. Aliases make zones readable and reduce typing.
• Zone: a set of members that may communicate. Best practice is single-initiator zoning: one host alias plus the storage aliases it needs.
• Configuration: a named set of zones. Only one configuration is enabled (effective) at a time; cfgEnable makes it active.

Create Aliases

Members can be given by domain,port (D,I) pairs or by WWN:

switch:admin> alicreate "array1", "2,32; 2,33; 2,34"
switch:admin> alicreate "host1", "21:00:00:20:37:0c:66:23"

Zoning is enforced per device port, and WWN-based members survive cable moves; alias names are case-sensitive.

Create Zones

switch:admin> zonecreate "zone_host1_array1", "host1;array1"
switch:admin> zonecreate "zone_host2_array1", "host2;array1"

Each zone pairs one initiator with its storage — if a host needs two arrays, list both aliases in the same zone or create two zones.

Build and Enable the Configuration

switch:admin> cfgcreate "prod_fabric", "zone_host1_array1;zone_host2_array1"
switch:admin> cfgenable "prod_fabric"
switch:admin> cfgsave

cfgEnable replaces the effective zoning and can briefly disrupt traffic in the affected zones, so run it in a maintenance window. cfgSave commits the defined configuration to flash so it survives a reboot; without it the changes are lost when the switch reloads. Fabric-wide, zoning changes propagate automatically to all switches in the fabric.

Verification and Management Commands

switch:admin> cfgshow
switch:admin> cfgactvshow
switch:admin> zoneshow "zone_host1_array1"
switch:admin> alishow
switch:admin> nszonemember "host1"

cfgactvshow displays the effective configuration currently enforced, which is what you compare against cfgshow when troubleshooting an unexpected denial of access. If a new host cannot see the storage, check that its WWN is in the zone, the zone is in the enabled configuration, and the HBA logged in (switchshow). For the broader SAN context see our FC vs iSCSI comparison and the Brocade SAN switch CLI commands cheatsheet.

原文链接：https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/fibre-channel-networking/fabric-os/fabric-os-commands/9-2-x/Fabric-OS-Commands/aliCreate.html