About Zone Enforcement
Zoning can be enforced in two ways: soft and hard. In soft zoning, zoning restrictions are applied only during interaction between the name server and the end device. If an end device somehow knows the FC ID of a device outside its zone, it can access that device.
Hard zoning is enforced by the hardware on each frame sent by an Nx port. As frames enter the switch, source-destination IDs are compared with permitted combinations to allow the frame at wirespeed. Hard zoning is applied to all forms of zoning.
Hard zoning enforces zoning restrictions on every frame and prevents unauthorized access.
Switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family support both hard and soft zoning.
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