OCI Storage - Block Volume Service

Oracle Technology

With Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Block Volume service, you can dynamically provision and be able to manage block storage volumes. A common usage of Block Volume is adding storage capacity to an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure instance. This enables you to use the volume like a regular hard drive.

Just to re-emphasize, Block Volume is persistent block-level storage that uses the iSCSI protocol and can be dynamically attached to any compute instance. Volumes can be attached only to an instance in the same Availability Domain. Once attached, you connect to the volume from your instance’s guest operating system (OS) using iSCSI or para-virtualized mode. In addition, data stored in a block volume can be retained until the volume is reformatted or deleted. Oracle block volume service allows you to have several block volumes that can be attached to an instance but the maximum volume per compute instance is 32.

Note: 1 PB block storage per compute instance is the highest-class storage available on Oracle public cloud.

Features of Block Storage volume:

• Backups are encrypted for increased security
• Can be detached from existing compute instance and attached to a new compute instance
• Data at rest is always encrypted
• Service is local to Availability Domain
• Backup to regional object storage
• Persistent Storage

To manage the Block Storage Volume, you can use the Oracle public cloud Console, REST API or SDK. Knowing that this is a storage service, you can do a backup of the Block Volume. This volume will be stored in Oracle Object Storage (the back will be encrypted). The backed-up volume can be restored as new volume to any availability Domain within the same Region they are stored (You cannot restore a new volume to a different Region).

If you need to backup more than one related Block Volumes, it is advisable to create a volume group for the volumes.

Use your existing Oracle account or register for a trial/free-tier account and start using Block Volume Storage using the URL below:

https://www.oracle.com/cloud/

This blog's content is intended solely for informational purposes. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, completeness, and relevance, the information may not be current or applicable in all situations. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any organization they may be affiliated with.