Data Centre Infrastructure

Objectives and outcomes

Students gain knowledge of technologies and how the data centre functions as a system. They
understand how individual components are implemented and interconnected. Upon completion of the
course, students analyse the fundamental problems, concepts and approaches in the design and
implementation of data centre systems. They understand server virtualisation concepts. Students
implement basic network architecture in traditional data centre design. They understand the connection
between virtualised computing resources and data recording systems, as well as how to implement it.
Moreover, they analyse modern trends in the evolution of data centre technologies. Students analyse the
advantages and disadvantages of data centre solutions and “cloud” systems and make decisions about
which platform is more optimal for a particular application.

 

Lectures

Evolution of computing and computer service delivery models, from mainframe to cloud. Traditional data
centre architecture: Three-tier architecture: structure, advantages and disadvantages. Classical
philosophy of designing failure protection systems. Network topology design and application of network
protocols and services (STP, HSRP,…) in data centre environment. Types of computer virtualisation.
Server virtualisation as a basic innovation. Types of server virtualisation. Traditional data recording
technologies (SCSI, NAS, SAN). System bottlenecks and suboptimal resource utilisation. Complexity
and the need to change the architecture. Hyperconverged systems as an evolutionary model of
traditional data centre design: Technological foundations of HCI infrastructure (Hyper-Converged
Infrastructure). Infrastructure building blocks. Basic characteristics of
computing as a service: NIST definition and five attributes. Service modalities: Infrastructure (IaaS),
Platform (PaaS) and Application (SaaS) as a service. Examples of typical cloud services and their use as
building blocks in system design. Optimal hybrid model as a combination of data centre and cloud
services. Overview of functions of management portals for hybrid infrastructure.

Practical classes

Configuration of network switches and routers for data centre environment. Data storage device
configuration (FreeNAS platform). Working on a server virtualisation platform (VMware ESXi, KVM).
System installation and cluster creation. Creation, management and monitoring of virtual machines.
Managing templates, “system images” (snapshots) and clones. Migrating virtual machines.