Patent ID: 8886771

Claim:
A method of providing distributed allowed domains in a fibre channel fabric, comprising: determining, by a primary switch configured to operate in the fibre channel fabric, a first allowed domain configuration of a resource of the fabric, wherein the first allowed domain configuration specifies a first range of domains; determining a second allowed domain configuration of the primary switch, wherein the second allowed domain configuration specifies a second range of domains differing from the first range; retrieving one or more current domain configuration parameters that are associated with the primary switch from a memory at the primary switch; determining, by the primary switch, a list of utilized domains that are currently being utilized in the fibre channel fabric; generating, by the primary switch, an updated allowed domain list that specifies an overlapping range of domains from the first and second ranges and that encompasses the one or more current domain configuration parameters and the list of utilized domains such that the updated allowed domain list includes only domains that all of the switches in the fabric are configured to allow, wherein the updated allowed domain list includes a plurality of fibre channel identification (FCID) domains that are assignable to other switches in the fibre channel fabric; and distributing the updated allowed domain list to each switch in the fabric so as request approval of such updated allowed domain list from each switch and for each switch to store such updated allowed domain list locally.