Determining use cases for Fiber Channel zoning

In a Fiber Channel (FC) fabric, zoning provides the access rules to define who can talk with whom: which initiator can talk with which target.

A typical full switched FC fabric is like this one:

Figure 3.13: FC switched fabric

You need to configure both switch 1 and 2 with the correct zoning, with rules based on the switch port or, better, on the World Wide Name (WWN) addresses (similar to the physical address of a NIC).

Each zone defines which HBA port can connect to which Storage Processors (SP) port or ports.

A proper zoning has the following advantages:

  • Reduces the number of targets and LUNs presented to a host
  • Controls and isolates paths in a fabric
  • Can prevent non-ESXi systems from accessing a particular storage system, and from possibly destroying VMFS data
  • Can be used to separate different environments
VMware suggests that you use single-initiator zoning or a single-initiator-single-target zoning, but, of course, the best choice depends on the storage vendor's recommendations.

Note that, at storage level, there is also the LUN masking option to show or hide specific LUNs from a specific host.

For more information, see the vSphere 6.5 Storage guide (https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-E7818A5D-6BD7-4F51-B4BA-EFBF2D3A8357.html).

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