On 7/22/08, Kurt Tunkko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > :-o ... wait, not THAT simple ... simple is something like: throw in > coin here -> get a beer :-) > mmm, Beeeeer!
AOE stands for "ATA over Ethernet" and is a means of building a poor mans Storage Area Network (SAN). Look at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ata_over_ethernet"; for the details. At one time the world was flat, and we used ATA disks to make it spin. In particular, we used Parallel ATA (PATA). These drives used a ribbon cable and transferred data down the wires a bit per wire (hence parallel). Then Christopher Columbus set out and discovered the new world, Serial ATA. In this world data was transferred down a single wire serially. The beauty of this was that by using serial communications the length of the wire could be drastically increased (literally from inches to miles). What AOE does is replace the serial interface normally found within the box and extends it across the network (which is itself a serial communications link). Now when your dealing with a interface in a box you have a straight forward point-to-point link so you don't require any discovery mechanisms. When you introduce the network a number of protocol related things get added to allow a provider to advertise resources and consumers the ability to discover resources. This puts the "simple" into the equation. Once the AOE serves up a device it looks to the Linux kernel like its just another locally attached disk. All of the standard mkfs/lvm/etc utilities can be used to integrate it into your environment. Caveats - It is normally recommended that you have a separate network interface for AOE devices and it should be a minimum of 100MB and even better would be GigE. Disk IO is notoriously chatty and can disrupt/overburden a shared network interface. -- Jonathan Craig ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
