Fibre Channel part 2: zoning and LUN masking

Two separate controls, one on each layer of gear. Follows part 1.

Zoning (on the FC switches)

Zoning controls which WWPNs may communicate. Initiators talk to targets, never to each other over FC: servers have no business chatting among themselves on the storage network.

It’s configured per zone using WWPNs or their aliases.

LUN masking (on the storage system)

Zoning gets a host to the array, but once there it could still see every LUN. A host connecting to the wrong LUN will happily corrupt it.

LUN masking locks each LUN to its authorized host or hosts.

The pairing to remember: zoning on the switches plus LUN masking on the array. Either one alone still leaves hosts or LUNs exposed.