Serial Attached SCSI technologies and architectures, 4th edition

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Figure 13: Direct zone management using an end device (top), or using a sideband interface to connect directly
to expanders (bottom)
Zoning advantages in an HP environment
In an HP ProLiant environment, the HP Virtual SAS Manager (VSM) configures and manages device
zoning. The VSM assigns zone groups to all zoning expander PHYs, and it assigns all PHYs in a wide
port to the same zone group. The VSM stores the zoning assignment of each expander PHY along
with SAS addresses in the zoning expander’s routing table.
Inside a particular ZPSDS, the VSM assigns each zoning expander PHY attached to another zoning
expander PHY to zone group 1. PHYs in zone group 1 have access to PHYs in all zone groups. If an
expander PHY connects to an end device, the VSM designates it as ―not trusted.‖ VSM defines the
―not trusted‖ expander as a ZPSDS boundary and assigns each expander PHY on the boundary to a
zone group other than group 1.
Some HP BL switches and the HP VSM deliver zoned shared storage and zoned direct attach storage
solutions. These scalable enterprise-level HP zoning solutions offer the following advantages:
The HP 3G SAS BL Switch and HP 6G SAS BL Switch contain an advanced daughter card module
that runs the VSM software.