18-746 Storage Systems (Fall 2021)

Overview

Storage systems are among the most fascinating and the most important parts of computer systems. They often dominate the performance of a system, and failures of other components are frequently addressed by restarting from the data stored on them. Indeed, storage systems hold the crown jewels of most organizations: their information (from source code to Microsoft's software to the sales databases of every e-commerce site to the logs and indices driving the Big Data revolution). There continues to be great demand for bright people and better solutions in this critical field of computer systems.

This course covers the design, implementation, and use of storage systems, from the characteristics and operation of individual storage devices to the OS, database, and networking approaches involved in tying them together and making them useful in servers and large-scale distributed systems. Along the way, we will examine several case studies of real systems, demands placed on storage systems by important applications, and impacts of trends and emerging technologies on future storage systems.

Although the word "Advanced" is no longer part of the title for this class, due to an unfortunate acronym, the class will continue to have the same advanced level of content, projects, and high-level expectations.

This class is supported in part by a AWS in Education Grant award.

Make sure you visit this page regularly for updates.

Components

Books and readings

There will be no assigned book for this offering. Instead, the instructors will rely on readings from books and the research literature to complement the lectures. See the Schedule & Readings pages for an overview of the latest plan.


Staff (746-staff [at] lists [dot] andrew [dot] cmu [dot] edu)

Instructors

NameOfficePhone
Picture of Greg Greg Ganger CIC 2208 (412) 268-1297
Picture of George George Amvrosiadis CIC 2311 (412) 268-7814
Picture of Huaicheng Huaicheng Li CIC 2213


Teaching Assistants

NameHours (Timezone is EST)Location
Picture of Aditya Aditya Shetty Tue 11-12; Thu 11-12 Gates 5th floor commons
Picture of Brian Brian Schwedock Mon 1-2; Wed 3.30-4.30 Gates 5th floor commons
Picture of Jeremy Jeremy Dropkin Thu 5.30-6.30; Fri 1-2 Gates 5th floor commons
Picture of Mohammed Mohammed Sameer Mon 6-7; Wed 1-2 Gates 5th floor commons
Picture of Suhas Suhas Jayaram Subramanya Tue 5-6; Fri 5-6 Gates 5th floor commons

Last updated: 2021-09-28 18:12:29 -0400