17.1 Why a Database File System?

Conceptually, a database file system is a file system interface placed on top of files and directories that are stored in database tables.

Applications commonly use the standard SQL data types, BLOBs and CLOBs, to store and retrieve files in Oracle AI Database, files such as medical images, invoice images, documents, videos, and other files. Oracle AI Database provides much better security, availability, robustness, transactional capability, and scalability than traditional file systems. Files stored in the database along with relational data are automatically backed up, synchronized to the disaster recovery site using Data Guard, and recovered together.

Database File System (DBFS) is a feature of Oracle AI Database that makes it easier for users to access and manage files stored in the database. With this interface, access to files in the database is no longer limited to programs specifically written to use BLOB and CLOB programmatic interfaces. Files in the database can now be transparently accessed using any operating system (OS) program that acts on files. For example, ETL (extraction, transformation, and loading) tools can transparently store staging files in the database and file-based applications can benefit from database features such as Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA) without any changes to the applications.