8 Block Volume Storage Overview

Block Volumes provide high-performance network storage capacity that supports a broad range of I/O intensive workloads.

You can use block volumes to expand the storage capacity of your compute instances, to provide durable and persistent data storage that can be migrated across compute instances, and to host large databases.

The Block Volume service enables you to group multiple volumes in a volume group. Volume groups simplify the process to create backups and clones. For more information, see Block Volume Groups.

For step-by-step instructions for managing block volumes, Refer to Block Volume Storage in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance User Guide.

Types of Block Volumes

There are two types of volumes:

• Boot volume: A detachable boot volume device that contains the image that is used to boot a Compute instance. See Boot Volumes.

• Block volume: A detachable block storage device that allows you to dynamically expand the storage capacity of an instance.

The default size for both types of volumes is 50 GB.

You can create, attach, connect, and move volumes, as well as change volume performance to meet your storage, performance, and application requirements.

After you attach and connect a volume to a compute instance, you can use the volume like a regular hard drive. You can also disconnect a volume and attach it to another compute instance without the loss of data.

Required Components

These components are required to create a volume and attach it to a compute instance:

• Compute Instance: A virtual machine (VM) running in the cloud appliance.

• Volume attachment: A paravirtualized attachment that is available for compute instances.

• Volume: A block volume or boot volume.