Academy of Technical and
Art Applied Studies Belgrade

Storage Systems Course code: 317201 | 8 ECTS credits

Basic information
Level of Studies:
Year of Study: 1
Semester: 2
Requirements: Computer architecture, operating systems, computer networks.
Goal: To familiarize students with the fundamental characteristics of modern magnetic and solid state disks and disk controllers, complex storage systems (storage systems, NAS, SAN), RAID systems, modern file systems and techniques for accelerating disks and file systems.
Outcome: The course is the basis for understanding the various fields in the disk I/O systems. Students will be trained in the administration and optimization of the disk system under most modern operating systems.
Contents of the course
Theoretical instruction:
  1. Introductory lecture. Course program, organization and course content.
  2. Characteristics of modern disks (Disk Internals).
  3. Disk controllers and an overview of modern disk interface.
  4. ATA disk interface (PATA/SATA).
  5. SCSI disk interface (SCSI/SAS), flash and SSD technology.
  6. Storage systems (DAS, NAS, SAN, FC, iSCSI)
  7. Introduction to RAID. Overview and characteristics of the RAID concept.
  8. Basic RAID levels.
  9. Nested RAID levels (X+Y).
  10. File systems: theory and UNIX file systems.
  11. MS Windows file systems (FAT, NTFS).
  12. Linux file systems (ext2-3-4, ReiserFS, XFS, JFS).
  13. Fifth generation file systems (BTRFS, ZFS)..
  14. Increase of disk performance: disk I/O scheduling and caching.
  15. Various techniques for speeding up the disks and file systems.
Practical instruction (Problem solving sessions/Lab work/Practical training):
  1. Practical classes are followed by a lecture program and performed in a computer laboratory where students are practically trained in administration, performance measurement and optimization of the disk system.
Textbooks and References
  1. M. Bach,The Design of the UNIX Operating System, Prentice Hall, 1987.
  2. B. Đorđević, D. Pleskonjić, N. Maček, Operativni sistemi: koncepti, VETŠ, Beograd, 2004.
  3. A. Silberschatz, P. Galvin, G. Gagne, Operating System Concepts,John Wiley&Sons, Inc, 2007.
  4. IBM SAN Solution Design Best Practices for VMware vSphere ESXi., IBM Redbooks, 2013.
  5. IBM FlashSystem in IBM PureFlex System EnvironmentsSolution Guide, IBM Redbooks,2013.
  6. IBM XIV Storage System: Host Attachment and Interoperability, IBM Redbooks, 2013.
Number of active classes (weekly)
Lectures: 3
Practical classes: 3
Other types of classes: 0
Grading (maximum number of points: 100)
Pre-exam obligations
Points
activities during lectures
10
activities on practial excersises
30
seminary work
0
colloquium
0
Final exam
Points
Written exam
60
Oral exam
0