topic Re: NetApp Zoning with 3 Hosts and 2 Nodes in ONTAP Discussions

NetApp Zoning with 3 Hosts and 2 Nodes

lissylucky — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 13:51:25 GMT

Hey all,

i have a short question to the zoning chapter.

Sometimes i read that it is recommended to do a 1:1 zoning and sometimes i hear that it is recommendet to zone each host port with all FC Luns of the SVM.

Can you tell me what is right for our situation?

I have a cluster with 2 nodes. A SVM that spans all 2 nodes. Each node has 4 FCP ports 0c, 0d, 0e, 0f. So I have a total of 8 Fiber Channel ports. My SVM has 8 Fiber Channel LIFs that are homed to each of those nodes. Those 8 ports are split between 2 fabrics. So I have 4 ports on each fabric. My three hosts have a dual port FC card attached to each fabric.

Thank you

Re: NetApp Zoning with 3 Hosts and 2 Nodes

wronald — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 12:37:58 GMT

Hi @lissylucky,

Netapp's Best Practices for SAN have always been Single Initiator zoning to eliminate HBA cross-communication and traffic.

You can find more information here: http://docs.netapp.com/ontap-9/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.netapp.doc.dot-cm-sanconf%2FGUID-374F3D38-43B3-423E-A710-2E2ABAC90D1A.html

So you can create your zones with one initiator port WWPN being one HBA port of a host for example and all the target ports on the NetApp side, being the WWPNs of the FC LIFs of your SVM.

For your particular design, it means you will have 3 zones for each Fabric.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Ron

Re: NetApp Zoning with 3 Hosts and 2 Nodes

lissylucky — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 21:50:10 GMT

Hi @wronald,

thanks for your answer.

You wrote that all netapp target ports should be in a zone with one host initiator.

For my example.

I have 2 node with each 4 FC Ports.

I have 2 switches.

And 2 ports for each host.

It means that i have 2 Zones for each Host and i have to put in all ports of the netapp, right?

For example:

Zone 1

Host Initiator (Port 1, Host A)

Target Port NA (Port 0cb, Node 1)

Target Port NA (Port 0cc, Node 1)

Target Port NA (Port 0cd, Node 1)

Target Port NA (Port 0ce, Node 1)

Target Port NA (Port 0cb, Node 2)

Target Port NA (Port 0cc, Node 2)

Target Port NA (Port 0cd, Node 2)

Target Port NA (Port 0ce, Node 2)

Zone 2

Host Initiator (Port 2, Host A)

Target Port NA (Port 0cb, Node 1)

Target Port NA (Port 0cc, Node 1)

Target Port NA (Port 0cd, Node 1)

Target Port NA (Port 0ce, Node 1)

Target Port NA (Port 0cb, Node 2)

Target Port NA (Port 0cc, Node 2)

Target Port NA (Port 0cd, Node 2)

Target Port NA (Port 0ce, Node 2)

Is that right?

Cheers

Re: NetApp Zoning with 3 Hosts and 2 Nodes

wronald — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 15:50:22 GMT

Hi,

This is correct.

But it will look more like:

Zone 1

Host Initiator (Port 1, Host A)

WWPN of LIF1 on Target Port NA (Port 0cb, Node 1)

WWPN of LIF1 on Target Port NA (Port 0cc, Node 1)

WWPN of LIF1 on Target Port NA (Port 0cd, Node 1)

WWPN of LIF1 on Target Port NA (Port 0ce, Node 1)

WWPN of LIF1 on Target Port NA (Port 0cb, Node 2)

WWPN of LIF1 on Target Port NA (Port 0cc, Node 2)

WWPN of LIF1 on Target Port NA (Port 0cd, Node 2)

WWPN of LIF1 on Target Port NA (Port 0ce, Node 2)

And the same for zone 2 with the second port of the host.

Cheers,

Ron.