VSANs can be used to isolate traffic based on the unique requirements of each organization:
• Different customers in storage provider data centers • Production and test environments in an enterprise network • Low and high security requirements • Backup and data replication traffic on separate VSANs • Dedicated resources and bandwidth for priority applications
The primary architectural difference between VSANs and zones is that VSANs are completely isolated from each other, while zones share some common traffic (such as fabric service messages) and share fabric services (such as the Domain Manager and Name Server). Each VSAN effectively functions like a separate SAN, with its own Domain Manager, Name Server, and so on. This means that a reconfiguration or fault in one VSAN will not affect traffic in any other VSAN.