Goal: The main purpose of the course is to show the main features of data storage systems,
by introducing data storage building blocks, and structures built upon them. By the
end of the course students are expected to know the major data storage physical
devices (disks, tapes, SSDs, etc.), data storage networks (SAN, NAS, FC, etc.), and
generic storage solutions needed to use virtual facilities (like volumes, redundancy
structures, multipathing) based on the physical devices.
Course description: We start with introducing the fundamental terms of storage infrastructures, then
introducing the physical data storage devices, followed by the widely used data
storage networks. We follow the logical layered model of data storage architectures,
at each layer showing the most frequently used virtualization solutions as well as
parameters. The lab practices will correspond to the theoretical overview, where
students are allowed to try out in practice what they learn in theory.