ATA over Ethernet

ATA over Ethernet (AoE) is a network protocol developed by the Brantley Coile Company, designed for simple, high-performance access of block storage devices over Ethernet networks. It is used to build storage area networks (SANs) with low-cost, standard technologies.

AoE runs on layer 2 Ethernet. AoE does not use layer 3 IPv4 or IPv6; it cannot be accessed over the Internet or other IP networks. In this regard it is more comparable to FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) than iSCSI.

Installation

Kernel

KERNEL Enable CONFIG_ATA_OVER_ETH in the kernel

Device Drivers  --->
  [*] Block devices  --->
    <M> ATA over Ethernet support

Server

Install the vblade package:

root #emerge -av sys-block/vblade

Create a 100GB sparse file which will be the AoE target:

root #dd if=/dev/zero bs=1MiB count=0 seek=100000 of=/mnt/storage01/aoe-target-0-0.bin

Edit the vblade config file:

FILE /etc/conf.d/vbladeConfigure an AoE target

# If you intent to run only one vblade, you should edit config_vblade0
# SYNTAX: SHELF SLOT NETIF SOURCE
config_vblade0="0 0 eth0 /mnt/storage01/aoe-target-0-0.bin"

# SHELF is a numeric value >= 0
# SLOT is a numeric value 0 <= X <= 15
# NETIF is a network interface name
# SOURCE is a file or block device

# For additional vblades, run:
# ln -s /etc/init.d/vblade.vblade0 /etc/init.d/vblade.$NAME
# and define config_$NAME in this file.

# Note that the combination of SHELF:SLOT:NETIF should be unique for your
# network.

# Some additional examples
# config_vblade1="0 1 eth0 /root/test2.img"
# config_foobar="0 1 eth1 /dev/md0"

Start the vblade service:

root #/etc/init.d/vblade.vblade0 start

Client

Install the aoetools package:

root #emerge -av sys-block/aoetools

Use aoe-stat to view the aoe target and the above example should be located at /dev/etherd/e0.0

See also

• ISCSI — an IP-based network standard and a Storage Area Network (SAN) protocol.