[CentOS] ATA-over-Ethernet v's iSCSI

[Dave Hornford]

Nick,

What are you planning on running over the shared connection? Database, eMail, File Shares? How many users? How much data? What is your I/O profile?

I've worked with 'enterprise' storage most of my career either as a consumer, adviser or provider - can't comment on AoE other than to suggest you look at what are the business & technical goals, how they solve it and what is your risk profile against the business need of the system. (I'm currently working as an adviser)

When you have an opportunity to chase into "enterprise support" of new disk is usually comes down to insufficient time for testing, or known problems (heat, torque, variability in sample, failure rate & edge-case incompatibility with previously certified products are normal)

You have hinted with the concern over TCP offload that you may have higher-end performance needs and that this system carries a high business value and needs a lower risk solution. 

Remember risk is a cost.

regards Dave
www.hornfordassociates.com

>Nick Bryant
>Subject: [CentOS] ATA-over-Ethernet v's iSCSI
>
>Just wondering if anyone out there has any opinions or better still
>experience with Coraid's AoE products in a centos environment?
>
>We're looking at developing a very basic active/standby 2 node cluster
>which will need a shared storage component. It would be a huge bonus if
>other servers could also use the storage device. Originally I was looking
>at the Dell/EMC iSCSI solution as it's a cheaper solution than fibre
>channel.
>However, the performance issues without using a TCP offload HBA are a bit
>of a concern. 
>
>Then I found the Coraid (www.coraid.com) products based on the open
>standard AoE protocol. It's got a number of benefits including: price,
>less protocol overhead for the server and the ability to use any disks
>where as "enterprise" approved products form the likes of Dell/Sun etc
>only support 250gb sata disks at the moment.
>
>I guess my concern is that it's a new technology that's not been widely
>adopted so far and all the issues that go along with that. 
>
>Any options or feedback would be really helpful.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Nick
>
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