EMC UIM/P: Server Provisioning failed: Could not create zones.

EMC UIM/P server provisioning failed with the following error message:

This error message is not a problem with UIM/P (Come on! Stop blaming UIM for everything!), it is Cisco MDS SAN switch “Enhanced zoning” feature.

Enhanced zoning uses a session locking facility like CFS to prevent simultaneous zoning configuration changes by two users on the same or separate switches. When a user starts to make a zoning change on one switch for a VSAN, that switch will lock the fabric to prevent others from making zoning changes. The user must issue a commit to make the changes active and release the fabric wide lock.
Problems can occur when the lock is acquired, but not released. In this situation, you cannot configure zoning on that VSAN. If you are using the CLI, you see error messages when you attempt to enter the zoning configuration mode.

Troubleshooting CLI commands to use for enhanced zoning issues:

• show zone internal change event-history
• show zone status vsan
• show zone pending-diff
• show zone pending vsan

Use the ‘show zone status vsan‘ command to determine the lock holder. If the lock holder is on this switch, the command output shows the user. If the lock holder is on a remote switch, the command output shows the domain ID of the remote switch.

1. Determine who is logged in and has a lock;

   DC2-DSWT04# show zone status vsan 11
   VSAN: 11 default-zone: deny distribute: full Interop: default
   mode: enhanced merge-control: allow
   session: cli [admin]             <---- User 'admin' has a lock
   hard-zoning: enabled broadcast: unsupported
   smart-zoning: disabled

2. Use the ‘no zone commit vsan‘ command on the switch that holds the lock to release the lock if you are the holder of the lock;
3. Use the ‘no zone commit vsan <vsan id> force‘ command on the switch that holds the lock to release the lock if another user holds the lock;

   DC2-DSWT04(config)# no zone commit vsan 11 force
   DC2-DSWT04(config)# show zone status vsan 11
   VSAN: 11 default-zone: deny distribute: full Interop: default
   mode: enhanced merge-control: allow
   session: none             <---- No active sessions / locks
   hard-zoning: enabled broadcast: unsupported
   smart-zoning: disabled
   Default zone:
   qos: none broadcast: unsupported ronly: unsupported
   Full Zoning Database :
   DB size: 4992 bytes
   Zonesets:1  Zones:37 Aliases: 0 Attribute-groups: 1
   Active Zoning Database :
   DB size: 2804 bytes
   Name: UIM_ZONESET_B  Zonesets:1  Zones:37
   Status: Commit completed at 07:46:04 UTC Apr 27 2013

4. If problems persist, use the ‘clear zone lock‘ command to remove the lock from the switch. This should only be done on the switch that holds the lock;
5. Re-run the server provisioning in UIM/P.