Re: [Aoetools-discuss] vblade

[Sam H. <sa...@co...>]

Hi Tracy,

> Sam Hopkins wrote:
>> The vblade software serves an aoe target that aoe initiators can send
>> requests to; the vblade doesn't know when the network goes down, it
>> just responds to requests.
> 
> Can someone tell me where this target/initiator jargon comes from, why 
> each is called what it is called, and how one can remember which is 
> which? I had never heard of this before iSCSI came along and now AoE 
> people are using it also. Why do we not call vblade a server and the 
> machine with the aoe module in the kernel the client?

The initiator / target nomenclature goes back as far as SASI, the
predecessor to SCSI.  It's also used by Fibre Channel, PCI, iSCSI, and
we use it in AoE.  I've sent an email over to alacritech in hopes that
Larry Boucher can shed some light on the origin of the terms, but I'm
not holding my breath.  :)

While initiator / target might seem to make more sense when talking
about bus communication, it's natural for ethernet storage protocols
as well.  In effect, the network is the bus.

For clarification, client == initiator and server == target.  it's
difficult to have a concise conversation about the technology with
client / server; many users of AoE have their initiator on their
"server".  It's also easier for new users to understand AoE when we
play along with the language used by existing storage technologies.

Cheers,

Sam