Which condition requires using a device alias rather than a Fibre Channel alias?
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A. B. C. D.A.
In a Fibre Channel (FC) SAN, device aliases and FC aliases are used to simplify the configuration and management of zoning and device discovery.
Device aliases are user-defined names that represent a physical FC device, such as a storage array, tape library, or host bus adapter (HBA). Device aliases can be used in zoning configurations to simplify the identification of devices and minimize the risk of errors when creating the zone.
FC aliases are also user-defined names that represent an FC port or World Wide Port Name (WWPN). FC aliases are used in zoning configurations to specify which devices can communicate with each other.
Both device and FC aliases serve similar purposes, but there are some differences between them.
One condition that requires using a device alias rather than an FC alias is when the zone database must be distributed over the fabric. In a distributed zone environment, the zone database is stored in each switch in the fabric. Device aliases are propagated to all switches in the fabric, so they can be used to identify the same physical device across the entire fabric. On the other hand, FC aliases are only local to a switch, so they cannot be used to identify the same device across different switches.
Therefore, if you need to distribute the zone database over the fabric, you should use device aliases instead of FC aliases to ensure consistency across the fabric.
Option A is the correct answer. Option B is incorrect because using the same alias in zoning and DPVM (Distributed Port Virtualization Manager) is a best practice but not a requirement for using device aliases. Option C is incorrect because using aliases in the same VSAN (Virtual Storage Area Network) can be done with either device or FC aliases. Option D is incorrect because there is no requirement for aliases to be saved in a central database on the fabric.