LESSON PLAN

This lesson plan provides information on the structure and planning of the course. This lesson plan is an illustration based on teaching best-practices. However, individual institutions can modify the course duration as per their teaching schedule.
The course delivery is divided into lectures (L), problems and assessment. The recommended duration for the course is 52 hours.

Lecture: 40 hours (1 hour per lecture)
Problems: 10 hours
Assessment: 2 hours

Lecture Topic

L1 Course introduction

Course introduction, why ISM, types of data, big data, overview of storage, and evolution of storage architecture

Pre-reading: Virtualization and cloud computing
Self study: Application, DBMS, operating systems and host Recitation topics:
1. Big data analytics
2. Personal data management

3. Data center environmental control parameters (such as HVAC, power supply and security)

L2 Application, DBMS, and Host (Compute)

Core elements and key characteristics of a data center, managing data center, and overview of virtualization and cloud computing

Pre-reading: Key I/O characteristics of an application, application, compute, and desktop virtualization

Self study: File system, memory virtualization

L3 Connectivity

Key I/O characteristics of an application, application virtualization, file system mapping, LVM, compute virtualization, desktop virtualization, and popular connectivity protocols

Pre-reading: Disk drive performance and compare I/O controller utilization and response time

Self study: Storage options

L4 Storage

 Disk drive components, logical block addressing, disk drive performance, compare I/O controller utilization and response time, and storage design based on application requirements and disk drive performance

Pre-reading: Flash drives and host to storage access Self study: DAS

L5 RAID Overview

 Flash drives, host to storage access, DAS, concept in practice, RAID implementation methods, and RAID techniques

Pre-reading: RAID impacts on performance
Assignment 1: Prepare solution for the exercise – “Designing storage solution for new application”

Assignment 2: Instructors are expected to create assignments based on self study topics covered so far to evaluate student’s learning on those topics

L6 RAID Levels

 Commonly used RAID levels, RAID impacts on performance, and RAID penalty exercise

Pre-reading: Cache operation and management Recitation topics:
1. Cache coherency
2. Cache parameters (such as cache page size, read vs. write cache allocation, cache prefetch size, and write aside size)
3. File access and sharing features of pNFS

4. Scale-out NAS

L8 Storage provisioning and ISS implementation

 Server flash-caching technology, back end, physical disks, traditional and virtual storage provisioning, LUN expansion, and LUN masking

Pre-reading: Fibre Channel technology

L9 Overview of FC SAN

Types of intelligent storage systems, concept in practice, Fibre Channel, and components of SAN

Pre-reading: Addressing in switched fabric

L10 Fibre Channel (FC) Architecture

 FC interconnectivity options, and types of ports in a switched fabric FC protocol stack, addressing in switched fabric, WWN, and organization of FC data

Pre-reading: Fabric services, login types and block-level storage virtualization

L11 FC SAN Topologies and Zoning

 Fabric services, login types, topologies, zoning, types of zoning, and block-level storage virtualization

Pre-reading: VSAN

L12 Virtualization in SAN

 Virtual SAN, concept in practice, components of iSCSI, host connectivity options, and iSCSI topologies

Assignment 4: Prepare solution for the FC SAN exercise

L13 IP SAN

 Protocol stack, iSCSI names, FCIP protocol, and FICP protocol stack

Pre-reading: Priority-based flow control, enhanced transmission selection, congestion notification, and data center bridging exchange protocol

L14
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

Components of FCoE, FCoE frame mapping, and Converged Enhanced Ethernet

L15 NAS Components and Benefits

 Compare general purpose server and NAS devices, components of NAS, NAS file sharing protocols, and NAS I/O operations

Pre-reading: File-level virtualization

L16 NAS Implementation and File-level Virtualization

 NAS implementations and connectivity, file-level virtualization, and concept in practice

L17 Object-based Storage

 Comparison of hierarchical file system and flat address space, compare traditional and object-based storage model, key components of OSD, and storage and retrieval process in OSD

L18 Unified Storage

 CAS, components of unified storage, data access from unified storage, and concept in practice

Pre-reading: Information availability, BC terminologies

Assessment

 This test will be based on topics covered in module 1 to module 8

L19 Business Continuity Overview

 Overview of BC, causes of information unavailability, measuring information availability, and BC terminologies

Pre-reading: Resolving single points of failure, multipathing software, backup, and replication Recitation topics:

  1. SOAP and REST
  2. Server clustering
  3. Object-based storage

L20 BC Planning and Technology Solutions

BC planning lifecycle, BIA, and BC technology solutions, and concept in practice

Pre-reading: Backup server, backup client, and storage node Assignment 5: Prepare solution for BC exercise 1 and 2

L21 Backup Overview

Backup granularity, restoring from incremental and cumulative backup, backup architecture, backup/recovery operations, backup methods, server configuration backup, and backup/recovery considerations

Pre-reading: NDMP 2-way and NDMP-3 way

L22 Backup Topologies and Backup in NAS Environment

Backup topologies and backup in NAS environment

Pre-reading: VTL and deduplication

L23 Backup Targets

Backup to tapes, backup to disks, backup to virtual tapes, data deduplication methods, and data deduplication implementations

Pre-reading: Backup in virtualized environment

L24 Data Deduplication

Backup approaches in virtualized environment, fixed content and data archive, archiving solution architecture, and concept in practice

Pre-reading: File system snapshot
Assignment 6: Prepare solution for backup/recovery exercise

L25 Backup in Virtualized Environment

Replication overview, consistency of a replica, and host-based replication

Pre-reading: Pointer-based full volume replication, pointer-based virtual replication
Recitation topics:

  1. Benefits of CDP technology over array-based replication technologies
  2. SONET, DWDM, and CWDM

L26 Data Archive

Full volume mirroring, pointer-based full volume replication, pointer-based virtual replication, tracking changes to the source and target, and restore/restart considerations

Pre-reading: CDP, Local replication in virtualized environment

L27 Local Replication Overview

CDP, local replication in virtualized environment, and concept in practice

Pre-reading: CDP remote replication and three site replication

L28 Local Replication Technologies

 Remote replication overview, host-based remote replication, storage array-based replication, CDP remote replication, and three-site replication

Pre-reading: Remote replication/migration in virtualized environment

L29 Local Replication in Virtualized Environment

Data migration solution, remote replication/migration in virtualized environment, and concept in practice

Pre-reading: Essential cloud characteristics

L30 Remote Replication Overview

Cloud computing overview, essential cloud characteristics, and cloud enabling technologies

Pre-reading: CDP remote replication and three site replication

L27 Local Replication Overview

CDP, local replication in virtualized environment, and concept in practice

Pre-reading: Cloud service models and cloud deployment models
Recitation topics:

  1. Benefits and challenges of using cloud storage for archiving
  2. SOA and its application in cloud computing
  3. Cloud orchestration

  4. Research on service offerings from any 3 public cloud service provider (example: Amazon, Google, Salesforce, Microsoft)

L31 Remote Replication Technologies

Cloud service models and cloud deployment models

Pre-reading: Cloud management and service creation tools and cloud optimized storage

L32 Cloud Computing Overview

Cloud infrastructure framework, physical infrastructure, virtual infrastructure, application and platform software, cloud management and service creation tools, and cloud optimized storage

Pre-reading: Cloud challenges and financial advantage

L33 Cloud Service and Deployment Models

Cloud challenges, cloud adoption considerations, deployment model suitable for different types of users, choosing application for public cloud, financial advantage, selecting a public cloud service provider, QoS considerations, and concept in practice

Pre-reading: Storage security domains

L34 Cloud Infrastructure, Challenges, and Considerations

Storage security, information security framework, risk triad, security controls, and storage security domains

Pre-reading: Securing FC switch ports, switch-wide access control, and fabric-wide access control
Recitation topics:

  1. RADIUS and DH-CHAP
  2. Firewall
  3. IP-Sec

L35 Information Security Framework

Securing FC switch ports, switch-wide and fabric-wide access control, VSAN, defense-in-depth, Windows ACLs, UNIX permissions, authentication and authorization

Pre-reading: Kerberos and security in virtualized and cloud environment

L36 Storage Security Domains

Kerberos, network firewalls, security implementation in IP SAN, security in virtualized and cloud environment, and concept in practice

L37 Security Implementations in Storage Networking

Parameters monitored in a storage infrastructure, components monitored, and monitoring examples

L38 Security in Virtualized and Cloud Environments

Alerts and management activities

Pre-reading: storage infrastructure management in virtualized environment and storage multitenancy

L39 Managing the Storage Infrastructure

Storage infrastructure management in virtualized environment, storage multitenancy, storage management examples, storage infrastructure management challenges, ideal solution, SMI, and EMP

Pre-reading: ILM and storage tiering

L40 Information Lifecycle Management

Challenges in managing information, information lifecycle management, benefits of ILM, storage tiering, and concept in practice

Assessment

 This test will be based on topics covered in module 9 to module 15