H3C Technologies H3C S10500 Series Switches - Manual (Page 89)

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For zone distribution caused by a switchover from enhanced zoning to basic zoning, the SFC request
does not carry hard zoning status.
Zone merge in basic zoning mode
When two fabrics are merged, zone data might exist in both fabrics. In this case, zone data needs to be
merged. Zone data to be merged includes the active zone set and zone database.
Zone merge in basic zoning mode is subject to merge types. The following merge types are provided:
• Complete merge—Merges both the active zone sets and zone databases.
• Incomplete merge—Merges only the active zone sets.
When initiating a merge process, the switch checks its local merge type.
• If it is configured with complete merge, it sends packets with both the active zone set and zone
database.
• If it is configured with incomplete merge, it sends packets with only the active zone set.
The merged switches merge all received data, regardless of their merge types.
NOTE:
The pWWN is a preferred choice over FC addresses to identify zone members, because FC addresses
might change at fabric merge and the merge result might not be as expected by users.
Zone merge process
When a switch discovers a new neighbor (the link layer module discovers neighbors and notifies the
zone module), it starts a merge process with the neighbor. If the data changes after merging, the switch
sends the changed data to neighbor switches until all switches in the fabric update their data.
During the merge, the switch sends Merge Request Resource Allocation (MRRA) requests to negotiate the
size of data transmitted. Then, the switch sends Merge Request (MR) packets containing data to be
merged to neighbor switches.