does ata over ethernet need a logical volume?
 

Do I really need to use lvm? Or can I just use my previously formatted /dev/md0? aoe-stat doesn't show anything and I'm just wondering what the issue could be. I don't want to reformat and have to spend hours copying the same stuff over again just to find out it still doesn't work with lvm.

Ok, I'm doing this wrong and the windows client doesn't seem to work properly anyway. I'll try iscsi instead. Well, apparently neither open iscsi or iscsi target are compatible with kernel 2.6.37.

Are you using vblade with AoE? You don't need a logical volume. You can point it at /dev/mdo or /dev/hda or /home/user/filename.img or whatever you want. Make sure you compile your own aoe.ko module because the one that comes with the kernel is very old and out of date and incompatible. Be sure to use the latest vblade also. I've been using AoE for years in mission critical money-making operations because it is so simple and bullet-proof.

Is there any decent (working) aoe initiator for windows? I tried winaoe, but it doesn't seem to work on my system.

http://www.rocketdivision.com/port.html is the only Windows initiator I am aware of.

There may be another possible option for hedron.

We offer our own Windows AoE initiator called miniSAN. It was designed specifically for our own line of AoE hardware targets and RAID equipment. There are some exceptions but very often, one may find that it is altogether faster, easier and more affordable to use purpose built AoE target hardware instead of trying to roll/build your own vblade system. This is especially the case if one undertakes the job to build and support several vblade boxes with identical firmware, operating system levels and configurations. Then, with a sizable vblade project there may be other issues later on with electrical and cooling costs.

I should also point out that the hardware targets are accessible via the AoE module Linux initiator so we continue to adhere to AoE standards. This helps customers with fears of vendor lock-in scenarios.

I understand from our developers that it is theoretically possible to modify miniSAN to work with vblade. It's not a supported option at this time but if there is some interest in this area then perhaps we can be convinced into developing this as a viable consumer product offering.

Anyway, if you wish to learn more about miniSAN and the AoE hardware targets then please see here:

http://www.tangiblestorage.com/


Thanks.