====== AoE - ATA over Ethernet ======

Classic/"normal" Operating systems, like:
  * many Linux releases
  * DOS
  * Windows 1.0 - 3.11
  * Windows 9x

...just need the Interrupt 13 to run and to do file operations, such as:
  * loading Operating system components and booting the Operating System itself
  * writing log files
  * reading settings
  * loading drivers
  * ...

So, the EtherBoot currently supported protocols:
  * TFTP
  * FSP
  * NFS
  * HTTP

provide a certain environment level, which is adequate and sufficient to boot the operating systems mentioned above.

\\
New Operating systems, like Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 require a more in-depth hard disk environment.

In contrast to the default EtherBoot supported protocols the ATA over Ethernet specification additionally provides/emulates all necessary components for Operating Systems which require an in-depth hard disk / hard disk controller environment[...]


====== Chart / Diagram ======

<file>Directory or hard disk (or hard disk image) containg an installed Operating System</file>
 |
<file>AoE Server</file>
 |\\
 |\\
 | <= network connection\\
 |\\
 |
<file>Client</file>
 |
<file>EtherBoot binary with AoE support</file>
 |
<file>Boot priority set to "EtherBoot" in the BIOS setup menu</file>
 |
<file>EtherBoot with AoE support will be used as boot device</file>
 |
<file>EtherBoot with AoE support provides in-depth hard disk environment and loads the Operating System from the harddisk from the AoE Server.</file>


====== AoE server applications for Linux/Unix ======

  * [[http://lpk.com.price.ru/~lelik/AoE/|Vblade Linux kernel module by Lelik P. Korchagin]]
  * [[http://sourceforge.net/projects/aoetools/|vblade ( virtual EtherDrive (R) blade ) and ATA over Ethernet Tools]]

====== AoE server applications for Windows/DOS ======


...article will be continued

====== AoE state of development in EtherBoot ======

zpxe files have been handed out to demonstrate successful AoE boot.
[[http://etherboot.org/aoedemo/rtl8139.pxe|A RTL8139.zpxe demo file]] has been published by Michael Brown. A [[http://etherboot.org/aoedemo/aoedemo.img.gz|prebuilt Fedora 5 hard disk image]] can also be downloaded.

To get you started, retrieve those files (you will need a RTL8139 card in the client). Setup DHCP reasonably (so the .zpxe file will be loaded). Download [[http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/aoetools/vblade-10.tar.gz?download|the virtual hard drive blade server]] (or use a real AoE capable drive, of course).

Running<file>vbladed 0 0 eth0 aoedemo.img</file> you should be able to boot the client into Fedora.

This is proof-of-concept only, and the code is only in developer codetree yet.