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EtherDrive® blades and Linux 2.4

Sam Hopkins and Ed L. Cashin `{sah,ecashin}@coraid.com`

August 2004

Using EtherDrive blades with the Linux Operating System is easy after understanding a few very simple concepts. This document begins by explaining the key components of the EtherDrive system and the communication method. It next covers how the dynamically loadable Linux device driver module glues the EtherDrive blades into the system. Finally it provides an example showing how to use the blades for secure storage with Linux Software RAID.

1. The EtherDrive System

2. How Linux Uses The EtherDrive System

3. Faster, Safer Storage With EtherDrive Blades

4. FAQ

4.1 Q: How does the system know about the blades on the network?
4.2 Q: How do I see what blades the system knows about?
4.3 Q: How does the system know an EtherDrive blade has failed?
4.4 Q: How do I take a blade out of the failed state?
4.5 Q: How can I use LVM on my EtherDrive blade?
4.6 Q: When I "modprobe aoe", it takes a long time.
4.7 Q: Can I allow multiple Linux hosts to use a filesystem that is on my EtherDrive blades?
4.8 Q: How can I make a RAID of more than 27 EtherDrive blades?
4.9 Q: Why can't I make a large block device?