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Cisco MDS – How To Remove Zones from an Active Zoneset
1. Firstly we need to know the specific names of the Zones that we intend to delete. To gather the full list of zone members within a Zoneset run show […]
1. Firstly we need to know the specific names of the Zones that we intend to delete. To gather the full list of zone members within a Zoneset run show zoneset vsan xx. The output will return all of the member names for the Zoneset, the output can be reduced if you know the naming conventions associated with the hosts; for example if the Zone names begin with V21212Oracle-1 then issuing the command show zoneset brief | include V21212Oracle-1 will return in this case all the Zones associated with Oracle-1:
2. To View the active Zones for Oracle-1 within the Zonseset: show zoneset active | include V21212Oracle-1
3. Example of Removing half the Zones (Paths) associated with host Oracle-1 from the active Zoneset name vsan10_zs:
config t
zoneset name vsan10_zs vsan 10
no member V21212Oracle-1_hba1-VMAX40K_9e0
no member V21212Oracle-1_hba1-VMAX40K_11e0
no member V21212Oracle-1_hba2-VMAX40K_7e0
no member V21212Oracle-1_hba2-VMAX40K_5e0
4. Re-activating the Zoneset vsan10_zs after the config changes of removing the specified Zoneset members:
zoneset activate name vsan10_zs vsan 10
zone commit vsan 10
5. Finally removing the Zones from the configuration:
no zone name V21212Oracle-1_hba1-VMAX40K_9e0 vsan 10
no zone name V21212Oracle-1_hba1-VMAX40K_11e0 vsan 10
no zone name V21212Oracle-1_hba2-VMAX40K_7e0 vsan 10
no zone name V21212Oracle-1_hba2-VMAX40K_5e0 vsan 10
zone commit vsan 10
end
copy run start
Confirm configuration contains the correct Active Zoning:
show zoneset brief | include V21212Oracle-1
show zoneset active | include V21212Oracle-1
DavidRing.ie 
Hi David,
Thank you for the great article. I have a question and hoping you can help in answering it. In Nexsus 5k, I have my active zonset is showing lot of zones, but I cannot find any of them when I try to run show zone name. Also, the zoneset itself isn’t shown when I run show zoneset, but it only appears when I run show zoneset active. Is this normal behavior, or the zoneset was activated and then deleted?
If I try now to add a new zone to the active zoneset, the zoneset set will have only one member zone when I run show zoneset. What will happen if I activate it? will it append the new zone to the active zoneset, or will delete all the zones and add only the new zone?
Thank you for your fast response.
Shukry
Hi Shukry
This is not normal behaviour. If this a production environment – I would suggest sharing this problem on the Cisco community forum or logging a support case with Cisco.
If you can afford downtime then maybe try backing up your config, write erase and reapply the full config again.
Thanks
David
Hi David,
This is an amazing document and gives me hope that you may be able to answer one of our queries.
We have deployed two new ESX servers which are currently in maintenance mode. On the MDS 9124 (two) fiber switches, I have –
1. Created fcalias using the pwwn
2. Created zones and assigned fcalias to them, done this exactly by replicating our existing zone nomenclature which was first put in place by a contractor five years ago.
3. Assigned zones to the two zonesets.
4. Created the device-alias and confirmed I can see the interfaces under ‘show flogi database’
Everything is in the same vsan, vsan 1
I can see the new zones under the command – show zoneset brief.
BUT when I run the command – show zone active, I do not see the new Zones here, which tells me these zones are not active?
Question:
Upon adding new zones to existing active zonesets (in production), do I have to active the zoneset using the command –
SwitchA(config)# zoneset activate name TestZoneset1 vsan 1
I am afraid this command might bring the zoneset down momentarily and may impact production.
Please help.
Glad to help!
Yes you need to activate the zoneset, your question is answered here:
https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/11236576/zoneset-activate-disruptive
Tell me guys, why we’re really using:
# zone commit vsan 10 ??
In my environment I can’t do that, it not allow me via CLI.
Other guys using DCNM.
# zone commit vsan 10
Command is disallowed in current zoning mode
What is interesting, I can remove/add zones from zonesets, create/delete zones without problems without using `zone commit`.
# sho zone status vsan 10
VSAN: 10 default-zone: deny distribute: full Interop: default
mode: basic merge-control: allow
session: none
hard-zoning: enabled broadcast: unsupported
smart-zoning: disabled
rscn-format: fabric-address
Default zone:
qos: none broadcast: unsupported ronly: unsupported
Full Zoning Database :
DB size: 363184 bytes
Zonesets:1 Zones:2931 Aliases: 0
Active Zoning Database :
DB size: 182688 bytes
Name: ZS_10 Zonesets:1 Zones:2944
Status: Activation completed at 09:24:45 CET Sep 11 2016
Could you deeply explain me what is cause of that and how to investigate this?
Thanks in advance.
Dave
Hi Dave, you will need to enable ‘enhanced zoning’
Enhanced zoning uses a session locking facility like CFS to prevent simultaneous zoning configuration changes by two users on the same or separate switches. When a user starts to make a zoning change on one switch for a VSAN, that switch will lock the fabric to prevent others from making zoning changes. The user must issue a commit to make the changes active and release the fabric wide lock.
Nice article!
Does removing the zones from a zoneset, cause any disruption to the other zone memebers in the same zoneset?