Comments on Using ATA Over Ethernet (AoE) On Ubuntu 12.04 (Initiator And Target)
Using ATA Over Ethernet (AoE) On Ubuntu 12.04 (Initiator And Target) This guide explains how you can set up an AoE target and an AoE initiator (client), both running Ubuntu 12.04. AoE stands for "ATA over Ethernet" and is a storage area network (SAN) protocol which allows AoE initiators to use storage devices on the (remote) AoE target using normal ethernet cabling. "Remote" in this case means "inside the same LAN" because AoE is not routable outside a LAN (this is a major difference compared to iSCSI). To the AoE initiator, the remote storage looks like a normal, locally-attached hard drive.
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I had an AOE setup on a 1Gb network, and I was getting 45 to 50 MB/s transfers. I tried the open iSCSI package with Ubuntu and after I got 70 to 80 MB/s transfers with the exact same hardware. I don't know why this is. If you listen to Coraid AOE is faster because of lower overhead. I think it is because Network Interfaces are highly optimized for IP packets and the IP Packet and Ethernet frames are handled better by the application specific logic in the interface chips than when Ethernet frames are handled by the AOE software. Maybe AOE is faster if you buy Coraid hardware.