Fabric & Zoning Guidance

Linux
Audience
Public
Product
FlashBlade
FlashArray
Technology Integrations
Linux
Source Type
Documentation

Single-Initiator Zoning (Required)

Each host WWPN must be in its own zone paired with the FlashArray target ports. Never put multiple host initiators in the same zone.

Correct zoning pattern:

Zone: host1-hba0-to-array
  Members: host1-wwpn-hba0, array-ct0-port0, array-ct0-port1, array-ct1-port0, array-ct1-port1

Zone: host1-hba1-to-array
  Members: host1-wwpn-hba1, array-ct0-port2, array-ct0-port3, array-ct1-port2, array-ct1-port3

Why single-initiator zoning:

  • Prevents unauthorized host-to-host communication over the fabric

  • Reduces the blast radius of fabric events - a LIP on one initiator does not affect others

  • Matches best practice guidance from Everpure, Broadcom, and Marvell/QLogic

Fabric Redundancy

  • Two independent fabrics (separate physical switches) - Fabric A and Fabric B

  • Each host HBA port connects to only one fabric; never dual-home an HBA port

  • FlashArray controller ports are distributed across both fabrics

  • All zoning is configured independently on each fabric

Discovering WWPNs for Zoning

# Collect WWPNs from host - provide to SAN admin for zoning
cat /sys/class/fc_host/host*/port_name

Format for FC switch CLI input varies by vendor:

  • Brocade: portname without colons

  • Cisco MDS: port_name with colons - e.g., 21:00:00:1b:32:a1:bc:de