BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE, PILANI

WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING PROGRAMMES

COURSE HANDOUT

Part A: Content Design

Course Title Data Storage Technology and Networks

Course No(s) CSI ZC446 / ES ZC446 / IS ZC446/SS ZC446
Credit Units 3 (1+2) (1 credit - Lecture, 2 credits – Self study)
Course Author Virendra Shekhawat
Version No 1.0
Date

Course Objectives
No Course Objective

CO1 Student should be able to understand the different data storage technologies

CO2 Student should be able to the learn the different data storage and data access methods

CO3 Student should be able to understand data storage management methods

CO4 Student should be able to design and architect data storage solution for an organization

Text Book(s)
T1 Storage Networking-Real World Skills for the CompTIA Storage+ Certification and
Beyond by Nigel Poulton, Publishers, SYBEX a Wiley brand, 2015
T2 Storage Networks Explained – by Ulf Troppens, Wolfgang Muller-Freidt, Rainer
Wolafka, IBM Storage Software Development, Germany. Publishers: Wiley

Reference Book(s) & other resources

R1 Storage Networks: The complete Reference, Robert Spalding TMH.
R2 Web resource : http://www.snia.orghttp://www.snia.org/
http://www.snia.org/
Modular Structure

No Title of the Module

M1 Storage Fundamentals
M2 File Systems and I/O Methods
M3 Network Attached Storage
M4 Storage Area Networks
M5 Storage Applications

Learning Outcomes:
No Learning Outcomes

LO1 Students equipped with various data storage technologies like SAN, NAS and DAS and
their relative performance and cost analysis.

LO2 Students equipped with the knowledge of various protocols used by storage devices to
transfer data and their relative performance measures.

LO3 Students will be able to design and architect storage solution for an organization

LO4 Students will be equipped with the knowledge of different storage applications like
backup, recovery, capacity planning and replication.

Part B: Contact Session Plan

Academic Term First Semester 2022-2023
Course Title Data Storage Technology and Networks
Course No CSI ZC446 / ES ZC446 / IS ZC446/SS ZC446
Lead Instructor Sourish Bannerjee

Glossary of Terms
1. Contact Hour (CH) stands for a hour long live session with students conducted either in a
physical classroom or enabled through technology. In this model of instruction, instructor led
sessions will be for 22 CH.
a. Pre CH = Self Learning done prior to a given contact hour
b. During CH = Content to be discussed during the contact hour by the course instructor
c. Post CH = Self Learning done post the contact hour
2. Contact Hour (CS) stands for a two-hour long live session with students conducted either in a
physical classroom or enabled through technology. In this model of instruction, instructor led
sessions will be for 11 CS.
a. Pre CS = Self Learning done prior to a given contact session
b. During CS = Content to be discussed during the contact session by the course
instructor
c. Post CS = Self Learning done post the contact session
 3. RL stands for Recorded Lecture or Recorded Lesson. It is presented to the student through an
online portal. A given RL unfolds as a sequences of video segments interleaved with
exercises
4. SS stands for Self-Study to be done as a study of relevant sections from textbooks and
reference books. It could also include study of external resources.
5. LE stands for Lab Exercises
6. HW stands for Home Work.
7. M stands for module. Module is a standalone quantum of designed content. A typical course
is delivered using a string of modules. M2 means module 2.

Teaching Methodology (Flipped Learning Model)

The pedagogy for this course is centered around flipped learning model in which the traditional class-
room instruction is replaced with recorded lectures to be watched at home as per the student’s
convenience and the erstwhile home-working or tutorials become the focus of classroom contact
sessions. Students are expected to finish the home works on time.

Contact Session Plan

o Each Module (M#) covers an independent topic and module may encompass more than one
Recorded Lecture (RL).
o Contact Sessions (2hrs each week) are scheduled alternate weeks after the student watches
all Recorded Lectures (RLs) of the specified Modules (listed below) during the previous week
o In the flipped learning model, Contact Sessions are meant for in-classroom discussions on
cases, tutorials/exercises or responding to student’s questions/clarification--- may encompass
more than one Module/RLs/CS topic.
o Contact Session topics listed in course structure (numbered CSx.y) may cover several RLs;
and as per the pace of instructor/students’ learning, the instructor may take up more than one
CS topic during each of the below sessions.

Detailed Structure
Introductory Video/Document: << Introducing the faculty, overview of the course, structure and
organization of topics, guidance for navigating the content, and expectations from students>>

 Each of the sub-modules of Recorded Lectures (RLx.y ) shall delivered via 30 – 60mins
videos followed by:
 Contact session (CSx.y) of 2Hr each for illustrating the concepts discussed in the videos with
exercises, tutorials and discussion on case-problems (wherever appropriate); contact sessions
(CS) may cover more than one recorded-lecture (RL) videos.
 Course Contents

Contact Session 1
Time Type Description Content
Reference
Pre-CS RL1.1 RL1.1.1 = Computer system architecture: Memory Bandwidth
requirements and memory hierarchy of a computer system
RL1.2 RL1.2.1 = Storage Devices→Hard Disk Drive (HDD): Disk
geometry, Disk characteristics, Disk Access time, Disk
performance parameters
RL1.3 RL1.3.1 = Storage Devices→ Solid State Device (SSD): Flash
Memory, NAND and NOR Organization, R/W performance
RL1.4 RL1.4.1 = Array of Disks→ Disk Reliability, RAID Levels
(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,1+0,0+1), RAID performance parameters, RAID
Implementations
During CS1.1 CS1.1.1 = Demonstration of various linux commands to
CS inspect the hard disks and sectors: such as lsblk, fdisk, df,
hwinfo, parted, cfdisk, sfdisk, etc. Explain about smartctl
command line tool to check the health of a disk drive on linux
system
CS1.1.2 = File System Fragmentation vs. Disk Fragmentation,
SSD Defragmentation (Ref. Page 47-50, T1- Chapter-2),
Demonstration of Windows defragmentation tool and linux
defragmentation tool
CS1.2 Base Presentation in modular form (should include concept
statements followed by problem solving
CS1.2.1 = Following can be demonstrated on an IDS
(Intelligent Disk System) (If available) otherwise this demo can
be given on regular linux machine as well
a) Execute commands to list all hard disks in sub system.
b) Demonstrate setup of various RAID levels on the IDS.
c) Create volumes on the RAID devices.
d) Simulate disk failure and show data can be recovered using
RAID.
CS1.2.2 = Explain about future RAID trends (Ref. Page 160-
165 T1-Chapter-4)
Post-CS LE1.1 NA
SS1.1 NA
HW1.1 Use smartctl command line tool to monitor the health of the
Disk drive of your machine.
QZ1.1 NA
Lab
Reference
 Contact Session 2
Time Type Description Content
Reference
Pre-CS RL2.1 RL2.1.1 = File System: Unix file system as an example-part(1)
RL2.1.2 = File System: Unix file system as an example-part(2)
RL2.2 RL2.2.1 = Journaling Flash File System (JFFS) for SSDs
During CS2.1 CS2.1.1 = Demonstrate setup of journaling on ‘ext’ volume
CS using "tune2fs". Use "journalctl" command to demonstrate the
entries in the system logs.
CS2.2 CS2.2.1 = Explain wear leveling algorithms (i.e. Static and
Dynamic) for flash file system
Post-CS LE2.1
SS2.1
HW2.1
QZ2.1
Lab
Reference

Contact Session 3
Time Type Description Content
Reference
Pre-CS RL2.3 RL2.3.1 = I/O Techniques: Polling, Interrupt, DMA, I/O
Processors
RL2.4 RL2.4.1 = Buses as data transporter: System Bus, I/O Bus, and
PCI Bus protocol
RL2.4.2 = SCSI Bus protocol and commands
RL3.1 RL3.1.1 = Network Attached Storage (NAS) architectures and
objectives
During CS2.3 CS2.3.1 = Different I/O techniques comparison for their
CS suitability in different application scenario
CS3.1 CS3.1.1 = Explain about Direct Attached Storage (DAS) and
Network Attached Storage and their applicability with respect
to different applications (Ref. Page 1-4, T2- Chapter-1)
Post-CS LE3.1
SS3.1
HW3.1
QZ3.1
Lab
Reference
 Contact Session 4
Time Type Description Content
Reference
Pre-CS RL3.2 RL3.2.1 = Network File System protocol (NFS)
RL3.2.2 = NFS performance Issues: Inconsistency, caching
During CS3.2 CS3.2.1.1 = Setup NFS server. Mount the NFS volume on
CS client and show file transfer in NAS environment. In NFS
demonstrate how to restrict user access to files (file
permissions modification).
CS3.2.2.2 = If you have access to IDS then show various
features of NAS management such as creation and
management of user quotas.
CS3.3 CS3.3.1.1 Repeat the CS3.2 exercise for CIFS protocol
Post-CS LE4.1
SS4.1
HW4.1 Explore SimSAN tool for comparing different SAN designs
for I/O performance
QZ4.1
Lab
Reference

Contact Session 5: Review

Contact Session 6
Time Type Description Content
Reference
Pre-CS RL4.1 RL4.1.1 = Fibre Channel Protocol Stack
RL4.2 RL4.2.1 = Fibre Channel SAN: FC-SAN topologies, Hardware
Components of FC-SAN
RL4.3 RL4.3.1 = SAN Addressing, Zoning, Multi-pathing, Trunking,
LUN Masking
RL4.4 RL4.4.1 = SAN over IP (iSCSI, iFCP, FCIP)
RL4.4.2 = Storage Traffic over Ethernet (FCoE)
During CS4.1 CS4.1.1 = Use SimSAN Simulator (http://www.simsans.org) to
CS demonstrate SAN infrastructure design. Setting up typical SAN
environment and allocation of various addresses to devices in
SAN network. (e.g. Zoning, Naming SAN devices)
CS4.2 CS4.2.1 = Demonstrate different SAN design (i.e. FC-SAN,
iSCSI, iFCP, FCIP, FCoE)
CS4.2.2 = Demonstrate and explain I/O Performance analysis
with different SAN designs using SimSAN
Post-CS LE4.1
SS4.1
HW4.1 Explore SimSAN tool for comparing different SAN designs
 for I/O performance
QZ4.1
Lab
Reference

Contact Session 7, 8, 9
Time Type Description Content
Reference
Pre-CS RL5.1 RL5.1.1 = Replication Technologies: Synchronous,
Asynchronous, Application Layer, Logical Volume Manager
based Replication, Hypervisor based replication, Array based
replication
RL5.1.2 = Asynchronous Replication: Snapshot and Journal
based replication, RL5.1.3 = Replication Topologies: Three
site cascade, Three site multi-target, Three site triangle
RL5.2 RL5.2.1 = Storage Virtualization: SNIA shared storage model,
Host based, Network based, Storage based virtualization
RL5.2.2 = Controller based virtualization
RL5.3 RL5.3.1 = Capacity Optimization Technologies: Thin and
Thick Provisioning, Compression
RL5.3.2 = Capacity Optimization Technologies:
Deduplication, Tiering
RL5.4 RL5.4.1 = Backup and Recovery: Backup methods (Hot,
Offline, LAN based, SAN based)
RL5.4.2 = Backup types (Full, Incremental, Differential,
Synthetic Application aware)
RL5.4.3 = Backup retention policies and Archiving
RL5.5 RL5.5.1 = Capacity Management
RL5.5.2 = Performance Management
RL5.6 RL5.6.1 = Storage and the Cloud: Data Durability and
Consistency Model
During CS5.1 CS5.1.1 =
CS i) Demonstrate creation of local snapshots using "lvcreate"
commands.
ii) Use "Rsync" to demonstrate remote mirroring.
iii) Use "Rsync" to demonstrate incremental remote mirroring.
iv) Demonstrate how we can configure remote mirroring with
variable Bandwidth Limit and max size of Transferred File.
v) Demonstrate the replication, migration and mirroring using
LVM (Logical Volume Manager) in Linux
CS5.2 CS5.2.1 = Explain levels of virtualization in typical SAN
storage, Explain and demonstrate storage virtualization using
LVM in Linux
CS5.3 CS5.3.1 = Explain and demonstrate thin provisioning in Linux
using lvmthin command, demonstrate the working of inline
deduplication/compression file system lessfs in Linux (can be
 considered any other such compression tool as well); An
appropriate case study can be discussed here to explain the
importance of compression and deduplication and the
approaches/tools used by industry for capacity optimization
with implementation prespective.
CS5.4 CS5.4.1 = Demonstrate different backup and restore utilities in
Linux, different types of backup like full backup, incremental
backup, synthetic backup of file systems.
CS5.5 CS5.5.1 = Demonstrate and explain different capacity planning
tools/commands and performance monitoring tools to measure
memory, CPU and Disk I/O performance like top, iotop,
netstat, iostat etc. in Linux; An appropriate case study can be
discussed here to explain capacity planning and performance
monitoring
CS5.6 CS5.6.1 = Explain analyze different data consistency models
used by different cloud providers like Amazon, Google, Azure
etc.
Post CS LE5.1
SS5.1
HW5.1
QZ5.1
Lab
Reference

Contact Session 10, 11: Review

Evaluation Scheme:
Legend: EC = Evaluation Component; AN = After Noon Session; FN = Fore Noon Session
No Name Type Duration Weight Day, Date, Session, Time
EC-1 Quiz-I/ Assignment-I Online - 5% August 16-30, 2022
Quiz-II Online - 5% September 16-30, 2022
Quiz-III/ Online - 5%
October 16-30, 2022
Assignment-II
EC-2 Mid-Semester Test Open 2 hours 35%
Friday, 23/09/2022 (AN)
Book
EC-3 Comprehensive Open 2 hours 50%
Friday, 25/11/2022 (AN)
Exam Book
Note - Evaluation components can be tailored depending on the proposed model.

Important Information:
Syllabus for Mid-Semester Test (Open Book): Topics in CS 1-5.
Syllabus for Comprehensive Exam (Open Book): All topics given in plan of study
Evaluation Guidelines:
1. For Closed Book tests: No books or reference material of any kind will be permitted.
Laptops/Mobiles of any kind are not allowed. Exchange of any material is not allowed.
2. For Open Book exams: Use of prescribed and reference text books, in original (not
 photocopies) is permitted. Class notes/slides as reference material in filed or bound form is
permitted. However, loose sheets of paper will not be allowed. Use of calculators is permitted
in all exams. Laptops/Mobiles of any kind are not allowed. Exchange of any material is not
allowed.
3. If a student is unable to appear for the Regular Test/Exam due to genuine exigencies, the
student should follow the procedure to apply for the Make-Up Test/Exam. The genuineness of
the reason for absence in the Regular Exam shall be assessed prior to giving permission to
appear for the Make-up Exam. Make-Up Test/Exam will be conducted only at selected exam
centres on the dates to be announced later.
It shall be the responsibility of the individual student to be regular in maintaining the self-study
schedule as given in the course handout, attend the lectures, and take all the prescribed evaluation
components such as Assignment/Quiz, Mid-Semester Test and Comprehensive Exam according to the
evaluation scheme provided in the handout.
Appendix
Course Plan

Contact hour Pre-contact hour prep During Contact hour Post-contact hour
1 RL1.1, RL1.2 CS1.1 HW1.1
2 RL1.3, RL1.4 CS1.2 NA
3 RL2.1 CS2.1
4 RL2.2 CS2.2
5 RL2.3, RL2.4 CS2.3
6 RL3.1 CS3.1
7 RL3.2 CS3.2
8 NA CS3.3
9 Review
10 Review
11 RL4.1, RL4.2 CS4.1
12 RL4.3, RL4.4 CS4.2
13 RL5.1 CS5.1
14 RL5.2 CS5.2
15 RL5.3 CS5.3
16 RL5.4 CS5.4
17 RL5.5 CS5.5
18 RL5.6 CS5.6
19 Review
20 Review
21 Review
22 Review