Linux EtherBoot Adds Support for ATA-over-Ethernet-Based Storage

Coraid, the inventors of the ATA-over-Ethernet (AoE) protocol and EtherDrive® Storage products, announced today that the Open Source EtherBoot project now supports system booting from ATA-over-Ethernet-based (AoE) storage. EtherBoot code can be added to FLASH on a host system's NIC, enabling diskless servers to boot directly from AoE storage connected via Ethernet. This approach dramatically improves the manageability, reliability, availability and performance of networked storage.

"Etherboot is the defacto standard for network booting on the Linux platform," said Jim Kemp, Coraid's CEO. "By extending the capabilities of Etherboot to AoE-based storage, the Linux community and our customers now have a simplified way to manage diskless servers, more reliably, and at a much lower price point."

"We are delighted to be working with Coraid to add this extra functionality to Etherboot," said Michael Brown of Fen Systems Ltd., who implemented the new feature. "Diskless booting has traditionally required complex customized setups; this new method allows people to use familiar tools such as LILO even when booting from network-attached storage."

The open source EtherBoot project has developed a version of EtherBoot that allows a server to boot directly from AoE storage. Using this approach, servers can be assembled without disk drives and boot directly from an AoE-based storage device on the network. Network booting from AoE storage allows servers to boot using exactly the same code as when booting from a local physical disk, and is increasingly becoming a popular method to ease the burden of software administration tasks.

Highlighted Links Coraid

Coraid sells its AoE storage products under the brand name EtherDrive Storage. AoE-based storage lowers the cost of a SAN to less than $0.93/GB. AoE delivers a scalable, low cost storage alternative to iSCSI and FibreChannel. Because it is a non-routed protocol, AoE eliminates the overhead of TCP/IP and the need for expensive ToE (TCP/IP off-load Engine) cards or HBAs (Host Bus Adapters).

Users of Etherboot for AoE can purchase a preconfigured NIC card from Coraid or download the EtherBoot FLASH code and install it on their own NIC card or EtherBoot project at www.etherboot.org. Etherboot is available under the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPL2).

About Coraid Inc.

Coraid designs and manufactures innovative networked storage appliances. Coraid developed the open source ATA-over-Ethernet (AoE) storage protocol now included in the Linux kernel. The AoE protocol is a scalable, low cost alternative to iSCSI and FibreChannel and is the foundation for EtherDrive storage products. Coraid products utilize the cost advantages of Ethernet to provide true networked storage for under $1 per Gigabyte. Coraid's SR1520 EtherDrive® Storage platform won the Product Excellence Award for Best Data Backup and Storage Solution at the Linux World Expo 2005 in San Francisco. For more information please contact Coraid at 877-548-7200 or visit our web site at http://www.coraid.com.

About Etherboot.org

Etherboot is an open-source package for booting computers over a network. It provides a direct, backwards-compatible replacement for legacy network booting technologies such as PXE. Etherboot can be installed into a network card's ROM, and NIC manufacturers can include Etherboot with their product without incurring any licensing fees. Etherboot is released under the GNU General Public License. The project is available at http://www.etherboot.org.

About Fen Systems Ltd.

Fen Systems is a UK-based company developing customized open source solutions for companies around the world. By building upon the capabilities of existing open-source software, it allows businesses to obtain new functionality at a much lower price point than the development of a comparable closed-source solution. For more information, please contact Michael Brown at +44-7736-461350, or visit http://www.fensystems.co.uk.

Contact:

Rebecca Jepsen Coraid 408-399-3391 Email Contact

SOURCE:  Coraid

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