[ofw] iSCSI via IPoIB on Windows XP 32 Bit clients?

[Axel Mertes]

Hi All,

I am new to this list, but following the IB Windows approach for about three 
years already, with occasional contact to Erez and Marc and other people 
involved.

I need to make some decisions on storage system investments and would like 
to know if it is possible to use iSCSI protocol via IPoIB on a Windows XP 32 
Bit client. On the long term we'd like to set Tiger Technologies MetaLAN on 
top of it for control, but the lower layer would have to be iSCSI.

The point is that we still need to stay on 32 Bit edition for some 
specialized HDTV broadcast video boards that aren't supporting Windows XP 64 
Bit. We investigate if there are alternatives, but yet none.

So the only option for us going the IB route would be if iSCSI could work, 
as SCSI RDMA is currently unavailable for XP (and is expected to be 
unavailable in future too).

As iSCSI runs on XP 32 bit edition via any Ethernet card I see currently no 
reason why it should not work in conjunction with IB / IPoIB. But I have no 
chance to test that yet on my own.
Anyone around had been testing this yet?
If yes, what kind of transfer speeds and latency is realistic then?
Could we transfer 500 to 800 MB/s into a single machine (sourcing from 
several native IB storage target machines via an IB switch)?
Imagine video editing and several server systems that do at least 800 MB/s 
sustained, each.

Btw, is there some kind of "Jumbo Frame" setting for the IPoIB option (given 
its a native 20 GBit IP network it'll be wise...) and if yes, which is the 
largest block size supported / allowed?

Please let me know!


Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Best regards,

Axel Mertes
Geschäftsführer/CTO
Tel: +49 69 978837-20
Fax: +49 69 978837-22
eMail: axel at magnamana.com

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