AoE Initiator for VMware

[pneumatic]

Is StarWind going to make an AoE software initiator for VMware ESXi in the future?

In my testing, AoE is head and shoulders above iSCSI and on-par with fiber channel at a fraction of the cost.

Since it is datagram-based, the bandwidth can scale with additional ports, unlike IP-based solutions (which can be multi-path in the context that each conversation must take place on a single port, limiting max bandwidth for each to the speed of a single port). I can get 10 Gb/s for under $1000 using my existing gigabit switches.

This is unreal. It is a shame that CORAID limits their VMware AoE driver to only CORAID HBAs (which are just standard cheap old Intel NICs).

[anton (staff)]

No we don't have any plans to have anything like that. You may read this:

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/forums/ ... t2332.html

to find out why exactly. I don't feel like willing to start another holy war here. But time is going to show who's the winner (it does already actually).

Is StarWind going to make an AoE software initiator for VMware ESXi in the future?

In my testing, AoE is head and shoulders above iSCSI and on-par with fiber channel at a fraction of the cost.

Since it is datagram-based, the bandwidth can scale with additional ports, unlike IP-based solutions (which can be multi-path in the context that each conversation must take place on a single port, limiting max bandwidth for each to the speed of a single port). I can get 10 Gb/s for under $1000 using my existing gigabit switches.

This is unreal. It is a shame that CORAID limits their VMware AoE driver to only CORAID HBAs (which are just standard cheap old Intel NICs).