> # About the Default Zone

> Each member of a fabric (in effect a device attached to an Nx port) can belong to any zone. If a member is not part of any active zone, it is considered to be part of the default zone. Therefore, if no zone set is active in the fabric, all devices are considered to be in the default zone. Even though a member can belong to multiple zones, a member that is part of the default zone cannot be part of any other zone. The switch determines whether a port is a member of the default zone when the attached port comes up.

> Note Unlike configured zones, default zone information is not distributed to the other switches in the fabric.

> Traffic can either be permitted or denied among members of the default zone. This information is not distributed to all switches; it must be configured in each switch.

> Note When the switch is initialized for the first time, no zones are configured and all members are considered to be part of the default zone. Members are not permitted to talk to each other.

> Configure the default zone policy on each switch in the fabric. If you change the default zone policy on one switch in a fabric, be sure to change it on all the other switches in the fabric.

> Note The default settings for default zone configurations can be changed.

> The default zone members are explicitly listed when the default policy is configured as permit or when a zone set is active. When the default policy is configured as deny, the members of this zone are not explicitly enumerated when you view the active zone set.

> Note The current default zoning policy in both the switches is deny. In the Cisco MDS 9222i Switch, the active zone set is coco_isola_zoneset. In the Cisco MDS 9513 Switch, there is no active zone set. However, because the default zoning policy is deny, the hidden active zone set is d__efault__cfg which causes zone merge to fail. The behavior is same between two Brocade switches.

> You can change the default zone policy for any VSAN by choosing VSAN xx > Default Zone from the DCNM-SAN menu tree and clicking the Policies tab. It is recommended that you establish connectivity among devices by assigning them to a nondefault zone.

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