back to article An introduction to Ethernet storage

Deep dive El Reg has teamed up with the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) for a series of deep dive articles. Each month, the SNIA will deliver a comprehensive introduction to basic storage networking concepts. This article looks at mainstream Ethernet-based storage. Ethernet-based Storage – Standards, Deployment …

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  1. Andrew Ducker

    ATA over Ethernet?

    Any sign of ATAoE catching on?

    Or is it still extremely niche?

    1. Kirbini
      Happy

      I came here to post the same thing...

      We recently purchased a 24-slot Coraid device and can't say enough good things about it. We are using it to replace both a new Dell Equilogix and aging IBM DS3300 iSCSI devices as our primary backup storage platform. As a very small shop we just don't have the time to learn complicated SAN crap nor the resources to purchase a pair of HBAs for each and every server.

      We were able to build 4T luns for each of 4 backup servers in under 30 minutes (ok, the actual parity build took way longer but human intervention was under 30). Performance has been stellar, way faster than iSCSI on the same equipment (nearly double with one NIC as opposed to two before) and the 1/3rd price means I doubt we'll ever look at anything else.

  2. Levente Szileszky
    Paris Hilton

    "...complicated SAN crap..."

    You're funny, Kirbini: you don't even know how to spell properly EqualLogic (<-sic, FYI) and then you go on harping about "a very small shop we just don't have the time to learn complicated SAN crap nor the resources to purchase a pair of HBAs for each and every server."

    If you have ever used EqualLogic you should know it's probably the simplest SAN setup out there, anyone can get it up and running with 4 volumes in 30 minutes - there's literally NOTHING to set up beyond choosing your default RAID (10 or 50 or 6), giving IPs to the unit and then setting up your admin password. Pretty much that's it.

    Also you obviously don't need any extra HBA because literally any half-decent server comes with at last two gigabit ports for years now - use on for LAN, one for iSCSI, just like the manuals suggest (the on that you didn't read either, I bet.) Another false claim, oops.

    As for being way faster than iSCSI - that's probably the most clueless comment and as such I don't even want to get into how this depends on your disks, traffic etc, let's just say iSCSI is perfectly capable to reach line speed especially on cheap gigabit folks like you typically use.

    Of course that implies you know what you are doing but it's clearly not the case here...

    Paris - hommage a' la Paris...

    1. Jeff 11
      Stop

      Levente Szileszky - Seriously?

      "As for being way faster than iSCSI - that's probably the most clueless comment and as such I don't even want to get into how this depends on your disks, traffic etc, let's just say iSCSI is perfectly capable to reach line speed especially on cheap gigabit folks like you typically use."

      Way to come off like a patronising ignoramus. AoE can be far more suitable for small installations because iSCSI is complicated, routable, and wasteful. It requires either a CPU core or an optional, often expensive TCPOE extension (or iSCSI-enabled HBA, which is what the OP was presumably talking about) to decode packets quickly enough at the gigabit threshold. AoE certainly isn't the most robust protocol (try running it on a slightly problematic network and it blows) but it can often do more with less.

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