Bill Main wrote (Mon, 10 Jul 2000 09:11:00 -0400):
>
> Ben-
> Good to hear from you again. I believe we communicated while I was on the
> Digital
> Hippi program some years back. I have just joined the project at Cambex and
> we are
> just getting started. It is my opinion that both STP and ipSCSI must exist
> because
> there are different perfomance problems at different distances to be solved.
>
Hi Bill, yes we did interact during the Dec Hippi installation phase
here. I agree that if SCSI must run over WAN's then ST alone won't be
adequate as a carrier and IP needs looking at. But I believe stSCSI (or
"SST" as SCSI-over-ST is normally written) is more advanced in the
standards and implementation process than ipSCSI.
> Given we are in ramp up stage, any help getting caught up to everybody
> else would
> be helpful. In particular a list of equipment you are using on the Linux/STP
> so that
> we can all stay in the same envirnoment.
>
We and SGI are using Intel boxes (single or multiple CPU) with Tigon 2
GigE adapters (i.e. Alteon, 3COM, Bay Networks cards).
> How far along is the project at this point?
>
ST runs over GigE under Linux, the main implementors being Aman Singla
and the SGI team under Jean-Michel Pittet in Mountain View (see the URL
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/stp for details). At CERN, I have a
Master's student (Pekka Pietikainen) beginning to implement OS Bypass
within this Linux ST/GigE tree.
So far, under Linux, file systems haven't had their SCSI layer linked up
to SST; however, this has been done for file systems on True64, Solaris
and Irix platforms, for both GSN and GigE I believe. The leader in this
latter work is Genroco - you can contact Don Woelz <don@xxxxxxxxxxx> or
Mike Barratt <mike@xxxxxxxxxxx> about this. SGI and Compaq have also
worked on it and I believe IBM may be active too. Genroco may get into
Linux SST some time this year (ask Don), but SGI isn't doing it so far
and at CERN we haven't yet committed to it, as Pekka must do the OS
Bypass first.
> Has anyone worked up a spec for stSCSI yet?
>
Yes indeed! It's an ANSI standard, developed by the T.10 committee. For
all their latest docs on ST, see the site (including a simple ST FAQ)
at:
http://www.hippi.org/cNEW.html
and for SST see: http://www.hippi.org/dSST-r03.pdf
> Is there a mailing list for stSCSI?
>
Well, for Linux ST it's at: http://oss.sgi.com/projects/stp/mail.html
> Regards,
> Bill Main
>
==================================================================================
> Ben Segal wrote (Mon, 10 Jul 2000 14:41:13 +0200):
>
> > Hallo Bill,
> >
> > Just to support Aman's answer: we at CERN (myself, Pekka and Arie) are
> > very happy that the ipSCSI and SST ("stSCSI") efforts collaborate as
> > much as possible.
> >
> > With Cambex's IBM connections (via your HBA's) and ipSCSI contacts, you
> > must know the Satran group from IBM Haifa. They visited us here at CERN
> > recently and we spoke then of our hope that ipSCSI and SST got closer
> > together.
> >
> > Ben
> >
> > ==================================================================================
> > > Bill Main wrote:
> > >
> > > > Folks-
> > > > We are looking seriously at STP as a jumping off point to the ipSCSI
> > > > endeavor. Toward that end we would like to work with you on the
> > > > Linux/STP project. It will take a a little time to set up our test bed
> > > > and get the same kernel up that you are using. I gather also that you
> > > > have twiked a NIC driver, so I think we should use that net card as well
> > > > (which one is it?).
> > >
> > Aman Singla wrote (Fri, 07 Jul 2000 14:06:14 -0700):
> >
> > > Though the Linux/STP code will work on most ethernet and/or IP devices
> > > without any modification of the driver/NIC (by simulating most STP
> > > reqd. functionality in s/w), we've been principally interested in
> > > enhancing GbE for STP. Toward this end, we've modified the
> > > GbE driver and the firmware to a limited extent. The NIC we're using
> > > for our purpose is the Tigon-2 based alteon GbE NIC.
> > >
> > > A group at CERN is also very interested in running SCSI over STP,
> > > and I'm CCing them on this email to introduce your intentions to
> > > each other.
> > >
> > > In the future, it might be useful to have such discussion on the
> > > stp mailing list (stp@xxxxxxxxxxx) to have everyone participate in
> > > the discussion and be aware of work happening in this dimension.
> > >
> > > thanks,
> > >
> > > :a
> > >
> > > >
> > > > After that stage, I will be happy to share the work load with you on
> > > > pushing it forward.
> > > >
> > > > Our near term goal is to get a iSCSI like system up on IP or TCP/IP
> > > > to study perfomance issues with general traffic on the same net.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > > Bill Main
> > > > Cambex Corporation
> >
Ben
--
Ben M. Segal / CERN - IT Division, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland.
Tel: +41-22 767 4941 / Mobile: +41-79 201 0618 Fax: +41-22 767 7155
WWW: http://home.cern.ch/ben/
**** See you at INET'2000, Yokohama, 18-21 July 2000 ****
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