10 Block Volume Storage

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 lets you dynamically provision and manage block storage volumes. You can create, attach, connect, and move volumes to meet your storage, performance, and application requirements.

After a block volume is created, you attach the volume to one or more instances. You can use the volume like a regular hard drive. You can also disconnect a volume and attach it to another instance without the loss of data.

There are two types of volumes:

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

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

When a volume is created, the volume is thin (sparse) provisioned: The volume consumes only the space that has been written to the volume. When the volume is attached to an instance, the volume is thick (non-sparse) provisioned: The volume reserves exactly enough space to completely fill the volume. This behavior avoids out-of-space errors. When the volume is detached, the volume is again thin provisioned if it is not still attached to another instance.

For more conceptual information, refer to the Block Volume Storage Overview section in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Concepts Guide.

This section provides instructions for managing block volumes.