# SANbox Zoning

A zone is a named group of ports or devices that can communicate with each other. Zoning is available for all FC-SW-2 switches in the fabric. Zoning enables you to divide the ports and devices of the fabric into zones for more efficient and secure communication among functionally grouped nodes. Managing zones involves creating a zone and adding and removing member port/devices. Zone members can communicate only with members of the same zone. Zones can overlap; that is, a port or device can be a member of more than one zone. Membership in a zone can be defined by port number, device Fibre Channel address, or device world wide name (WWN).

SANbox Zoning Concepts

* Soft zone is the only zone type.

* No orphan zones or aliases are allowed.

* You can edit and deactivate an active zone set.

* The maximum number of zone sets is 4, and the maximum number of zones is 256.

* The maximum number of zone members allowed in the entire zoning system is 2000.

* The active zone set (only) is saved automatically to permanent memory.

* Zone merge is based on the FC-SW-2 specification.

Zoning Database

Each switch has its own zoning database. The zoning database is made up of all zones and zone sets that have been created on the switch or received from other switches. The switch maintains two copies of the zoning database: one copy is maintained in temporary memory for editing purposes; the second copy is maintained in permanent memory. When you modify zones and zone sets, these changes are made to the temporary zoning database. If you reset the switch or lose power to the switch before saving the permanent zoning database, the changes will be lost. The Default Visibility parameter determines the level of communication that is permitted between devices when there is no active zone set.