Hi,

Has anyone looked into ATA Over Ethernet (AoE) for their system? I'm considering using it for a Music database.

Any advice as to pros or cons?

1) Configuring it (they say its easy, is it)
2) Actual Throughput MBytes/s (overhead of protocol)
3) Does it clog up the Ethernet network and make it unusable
4) Reliability (non-TCP/IP device)
5) Multiple AoE devices on the network
6) Relative speed at 1000 Mb/s vs IDE or SATA 1.5 or 3.0 internal drives
7) More than one AoE drive on a network
8) Overhead or drivers
9) Reliability of drivers
10) Anything I've missed?

I have a Windows XP Home, local network with only RIOs on it periodically for updating their databases. I plan on using it at the 100/1000 Mb/s rate and will throttle down to 10 Mb/s only for RIO updates. I will probably need the 1000Mb/s for Up/Down loading database files.

Anyone have recommendations for devices they might have used or are looking at using, what to stay away from, etc. My alternative is to just keep buying more 750 GB drives or make a server cabinet.

I may or may not consider using RAID for the drive(s).

Thanks,

Ross