what i meant is those tasks to make difference between core and edge switches, since I don't have ideas what made of core switches, any specific work to distinguash between cores and edges.

Hello ciscomagic1,

The definition of core and edge swicthes in a FC architecture is related the topology point of view.

The core could be NPIV enabled switche and all edges running as NPV mode.

Also the core could be the switch that will make the translation of FC to another protocol as FCoE, FCIP or iSCSI and should be licensed to those protocols.

Normally the core is the more centralized switch in the entire fabric, with more backplane capacity, redundancy and high port density. Of course this is not a rule at all.

Essentially the core and edge switches can perform the same tasks and have the same functionality, the point is how them will be better availed in a design.

A few more specific questions , if you dont' mind.

1. Do people usually plug server into the core switch as well?

2. In most of cases, should core switch share the same active zonesets with edge switches, or depends?

3. Assume some switches need to share the same active zonesets, every time when make a change on one switch, do I need to manually distribute them to the other switches?

Thanks for you time in advance!

1) depends on your requirements, port density. We plug in our servers to 48 port blades where port are more oversubscribed than say 24 port card (where we plug-in our arrays to)

2) i do, i enabled full zoneset propagation so that you can be doing zoning (cli) from any switch in the fabric

3) read #2.

@dynamoxxx