# Creating an Alias

An alias is a named set of ports or devices that are grouped together for convenience. Unlike zones, aliases impose no communication restrictions between its members. You can add an alias to one or more zones. However, you cannot add a zone to an alias, nor can an alias be a member of another alias.

To create an alias on a SANbox2 or SANbox2-64, do the following:

1. Open the Zoning menu and select Edit Zoning to open the Edit Zoning dialog.

2. Open the Edit menu, and select Create Alias to open the Create Alias dialog.

3. Enter a name for the alias, and click the OK button. The alias name is displayed in the Zone Sets dialog. An alias name must begin with a letter and be no longer than 64 characters. Valid characters are 0-9, A-Z, a-z, _, $, ^, and -.

4. Click the OK button to save the alias name to the zoning database.

5. Add members to the alias, and save the alias again when finished.