Block Volume Elastic Performance - OCI
Oracle introduced a new feature to control the performance of Block Volume that is the Volume Performance Unit (VPU). It’s easy to manage and can be controlled with Console, API, and CLI. Its dynamic nature makes it the best option.
What Is Block Volume?
It provides high-performance constant Cloud storage in a wide range of application workloads. The Block Volume helps to provide network storage that can be used with OCI instances.
Volume Performance Unit (VPU) – New Feature
Oracle charges it according to the performance units per GB per month.
Higher IOPS and throughput corresponds to higher VPU.
VPU is inversely proportional to the cost of the storage.
Measured in terms of IO per sec and Throughput per GB.
For Block Volume Elastic Performance, there are three elastic performance configuration options, as described below.
Balanced: This is the default setting for new and existing block and boot volumes. It provides a good balance between performance and cost savings for most workloads, including those that perform random I/O such as boot volumes. This option provides linear peformance scaling with 60 IOPS/GB up to 25,000 IOPS per volume. Throughtput scales at 480 KBPS/GB up to a maximum of 480 MBPS per volume. With this option you are purchasing 10 VPUs per GB/month.
Higher Performance: Recommended for workloads with the highest I/O requirements, requiring the best possible performance, such as large databases. This option provides the best linear performance scale with 75 IOPS/GB up to a maximum of 35,000 IOPS per volume. Throughput also scales at the highest rate at 600 KBPS/GB up to a maximum of 480 MBPS per volume. With this option you are purchasing 20 VPUs per GB/month.
Lower Cost: Recommended for throughput intensive workloads with large sequential I/O, such as streaming, log processing, and data warehouses. The cost is only the storage cost, there is no additional VPU cost. This option gives you linear scaling 2 IOPS/GB upt to a maximum of 3000 IOPS per volume. This option is only available for block volumes, it is not available for boot volumes.
The following table lists the performance characteristics for each elastic performance level.
Performance Level | IOPS/GB | Max IOPS/Volume | Throughput/GB | Max Throughput/Volume | VPUs/GB |
Lower Cost | 2 | 3000 | 240 | Up to 480 | 0 |
Balanced | 60 | 25,000 | 480 | 480 | 10 |
Higher Performance | 75 | 35,000 | 600 | 480 | 20 |
Configuring Volume Performance
You can configure the volume performance for a block volume when you create a volume. You can also change the volume performance for an existing block volume.
Create a new volume
Log into Oracle Cloud and click the Block Storage and select Block Volumes.
Click in Create Block Volume
Enter the details of Block Volume and click the “Create Block Volume”
Name: BV_PERF_UNIT
Compartment : <keep value>
Availability Domain : <keep value>
Size (in GB) : 50
Compartment for Backup Policies : <keep value>
Backup Policy: Bronze
Volume Perfomance : Lower Cost – For this example
Encryption : Encrypt
This process will take between 1 and 2 minutes to complete.
Change the volume performance
Log into Oracle Cloud and click the Block Storage and select Block Volumes.
Select your block volume. For this example BV_PERF_UNIT
Click in the “Change Performance”
Now it’s possible you select the best options for your environment. For this test let’s select the “Balanced” and click in “Change Performance”
This process will take between 1 and 2 minutes to complete.
On the Storage pricing, Oracle has added Block Volume Performance unit which is priced as
Performance Units Per GB/Month
0 VPUs at $0 for Lower Cost
10 VPUs at $0.017 for Balanced
20 VPUs at $0.034 for Higher Performance
As of now, OCI Block Volume Elastic Performance has 2 limitations:
Only changes Block volumes elastic performance configuration on three volumes concurrently per tenancy.
Boot volumes only have 2 options: Balanced or Higher performance.
This feature is definitely going to help the customer on the performance side and will save the costs as well.
I hope this helps you!!!
Andre Luiz Dutra Ontalba
Disclaimer: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent may actual employer positions, strategies or opinions. The information here was edited to be useful for general purpose, specific data and identifications was removed to allow reach generic audience and to be useful.”
