Policy-Based SAN Zoning Automation using Terraform and Ansible for Cisco MDS and Brocade Fabrics

Authors

  • Naga Subrahmanyam Cherukupalle

Keywords:

SAN Zoning, Terraform, Ansible, Cisco MDS, Brocade Fabric OS, Zoning-as-Code, Fibre Channel, Compliance Automation

Abstract

Storage Area Network (SAN) zoning is pivotal for securing and optimizing Fibre Channel (FC) fabrics. Despite advancements in network automation, SAN zoning remained predominantly manual, leading to operational inefficiencies and compliance vulnerabilities. This paper introduces a zoning-as-code (ZaC) framework leveraging Terraform and Ansible to automate policy-based zoning across multi-vendor FC fabrics. The framework integrates declarative infrastructure-as-code (IaC) with imperative workflows to enforce version-controlled policies, compliance, and rollback mechanisms. Validation on emulated Cisco MDS and Brocade Fabric OS environments demonstrated a 92% reduction in zoning errors and 75% faster deployment times compared to manual methods. Latency overhead remained below 10ms even at scale, aligning with NIST SP 800-209 guidelines.

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Published

30.12.2020

How to Cite

Naga Subrahmanyam Cherukupalle. (2020). Policy-Based SAN Zoning Automation using Terraform and Ansible for Cisco MDS and Brocade Fabrics. International Journal of Intelligent Systems and Applications in Engineering, 8(4), 346–357. Retrieved from https://ijisae.org/index.php/IJISAE/article/view/7583

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 4 (2020)

Section

Research Article

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