The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Block Volume service uses NVMe-based storage
infrastructure, designed for consistency, and offers flexible and elastic performance.
You only need to provision the capacity needed and performance scales with the
performance characteristics of the performance level selected up to the service
maximums.
You don't need to decide on performance needs ahead of creating and attaching block
volumes. When you create a volume, by default, it's configured for the Balanced
performance level. You can change this when create the volume or you can update it at
any point after the volume is created. The elastic performance capability of the service
lets you to pay for the performance characteristics you require independently from the
size of block volumes and boot volumes. If the requirements change, you only need to
adjust the performance settings for the volume, you don't need to re-create the
volumes.
Block Volume provides dynamic performance scaling with
autotuning, see Dynamic Performance Scaling for more
information.
Note
You should perform benchmark analysis during proof of concept testing to
verify that the environment's configuration has adequate performance for the
application's requirements, for more information, see Metrics and Performance Testing.
Block Volume Performance Levels
When you create a volume, you can select the performance level, see Creating a Block Volume. You can also change the performance level
for an existing volume. For more information, see Changing the Performance of a Volume. In the Console, you configure the
performance using the slider or the VPU control as shown in the following screenshot.
The following performance levels are available:
Ultra High Performance: Recommended for workloads with the highest I/O
requirements, requiring the best possible performance. With this option, you can
purchase between 30 – 120 VPUs per GB/month. For more information, including
specific throughput and IOPS performance numbers for various volume sizes, see Ultra High Performance.
Higher Performance: Recommended for workloads with high I/O requirements that
don't require the performance of the Ultra High Performance level. With this
option, you are purchasing 20 VPUs per GB/month. For more information, including
specific throughput and IOPS performance numbers for various volume sizes, see Higher Performance.
Balanced: The default performance level for new and existing block and boot
volumes, and provides a good balance between performance and cost savings for most
workloads. With this option, you are purchasing 10 VPUs per GB/month. For more
information, including specific throughput and IOPS performance numbers for various
volume sizes, see Balanced Performance.
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 is only
available for block volumes, it is not available for boot volumes. For more
information, including specific throughput and IOPS performance numbers for various
volume sizes, see Lower Cost.
When you create a compute instance, the volume performance level for the instance's boot volume is set to Balanced by default. You can change this setting after the instance has launched, see To change the volume performance for an existing boot volume.
Volume Performance Units 🔗
Block Volume performance includes the concept of volume performance units (VPUs). You can
purchase more VPUs to allocate more resources to a volume, increasing IOPS/GB and
throughput per GB. You also have the flexibility to purchase fewer VPUs, which reduces
the performance characteristics for a volume, however it can also provide cost savings.
You can also choose not to purchase any VPUs which can provide significant cost savings
for volumes that don't require the increased performance characteristics.
The following table lists the performance characteristics for each performance level,
along with the number of VPUs.
Elastic Performance Level
Volume Performance Units (VPUs)
IOPS per GB
Max IOPS per Volume
Size for Max IOPS (GB)
KBPS per GB
Max MBPS per Volume
Lower Cost
0
2
3,000
1,500
240
480
Balanced
10
60
25,000
417
480
480
Higher Performance
20
75
50,000
667
600
680
Ultra High Performance
30
90
75,000
833
720
880
Ultra High Performance
40
105
100,000
952
840
1,080
Ultra High Performance
50
120
125,000
1,042
960
1,280
Ultra High Performance
60
135
150,000
1,111
1,080
1,480
Ultra High Performance
70
150
175,000
1,167
1,200
1,680
Ultra High Performance
80
165
200,000
1,212
1,320
1,880
Ultra High Performance
90
180
225,000
1,250
1,440
2,080
Ultra High Performance
100
195
250,000
1,282
1,560
2,280
Ultra High Performance
110
210
275,000
1,310
1,680
2,480
Ultra High Performance
120
225
300,000
1,333
1,800
2,680
Calculating Volume Performance 🔗
You can calculte the expected performance for a volume, using the following
calculations:
Starting at 10 VPUs (Balanced performance level), for each 10 VPU/GB
increment, performance scales as follows:
+ 15 IOPS/GB scale
+ 25K IOPS for Max IOPS/Volume limit limit (up to maximum 300K IOPS for
120 VPU/GB)
+ 120 KBPS/GB scale
+ 200 Max MBPS/Volume limit
IOPS/GB = 1.5 * VPU/GB + 45
Max IOPS/Volume = 2,500 * VPU/GB
KBPS/GB = 12 * VPU/GB + 360
Max MBPS/Volume = 20 * VPU/GB + 280
Performance Details for Shapes 🔗
A shape is a template that specifies the number of OCPUs, amount of memory, and other
resources that are allocated to a Compute instance, see Compute Shapes for more information. An
instance's shape impacts the performance of attached volumes. This section provides Block Volume specific details for shapes.
Multipath-enabled attachments are required for volumes configured for the Ultra High
Performance level. The shapes that support multipath-enabled attachments are
identified with a value of Yes in the Supports Ultra High Performance
(UHP) column.
Performance Details for Previous Generation Instance Shapes 🔗
The instance shapes listed in the following tables are previous generation shapes. See Performance Details for Shapes for a list of current instance shapes and their corresponding performance details.
For general information and additional details about compute instance shapes, see Compute Shapes.
Previous Generation Bare Metal Shapes 🔗
The following table lists the applicable details for attaching volumes to instances based
on previous generation bare metal shapes.
Note
All current bare metal shapes support the Ultra High Performance level.
Shape
OCPU
Memory (GB)
Max Network Bandwidth
Max IOPS per Instance
Max Throughput per Instance (Block Volume)
Max Number of Attachments
Supports Ultra High Performance (UHP)
BM.Standard.E3.128
128
2048
2 x 50 Gbps
1,300,000
6 GB/s
32
Yes
BM.Standard.E2.64
64
512
2 x 25 Gbps
625,000
3 GB/s
32
Yes
BM.Standard2.52
52
768
2 x 25 Gbps
625,000
3 GB/s
32
Yes
BM.DenseIO2.52
52
768
2 x 25 Gbps
625,000
3 GB/s
32
Yes
BM.HPC2.36
36
384
1 x 25 Gbps
1 x 100 Gbps RDMA
625,000
3 GB/s
32
Yes
BM.Standard.B1.44
44
512
1 x 25 Gbps
625,000
3 GB/s
32
Yes
BM.Standard1.36
36
256
1 x 10 Gbps
300,000
1.2 GB/s
32
Yes
BM.DenseIO1.36
36
512
1 x 10 Gbps
300,000
1.2 GB/s
32
Yes
Previous Generation VM Shapes for iSCSI and Paravirtualized Attached Volumes 🔗
The following table lists the applicable details for attaching volumes to instances based
on previous generation VM shapes using iSCSI and paravirtualized attachments.
Shape
OCPU
Memory (GB)
Max Network Bandwidth
Max IOPS per Instance
Max Throughput per Instance (Block Volume)
Max Number of Attachments
Supports Ultra High Performance (UHP)
VM.Standard.E3.Flex
1 OCPU minimum, 64 OCPU maximum
1 GB minimum, 1024 GB maximum
1 Gbps per OCPU, maximum 40 Gbps
20,000 * max network bandwidth in Gbps (up to 600,000)
120 MB/s * max network bandwidth in Gbps
32 for iSCSI
16 for Paravirtualized
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.DenseIO2.24
24
320
24.6 Gbps
480,000
2,880 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.DenseIO2.16
16
240
16.4 Gbps
320,000
1,920 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.DenseIO2.8
8
120
8.2 Gbps
160,000
960 MB/s
32 for iSCSI
16 for Paravirtualized
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard2.24
24
320
24.6 Gbps
480,000
2,880 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard2.16
16
240
16.4 Gbps
320,000
1,920 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard2.8
8
120
8.2 Gbps
160,000
960 MB/s
32 for iSCSI
16 for Paravirtualized
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard2.4
4
60
4.1 Gbps
80,000
480 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard2.2
2
30
2 Gbps
50,000
240 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard2.1
1
15
1 Gbps
25,000
120 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard.E2.8
8
64
5.6 Gbps
80,000
480 MB/s
32 for iSCSI
16 for Paravirtualized
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard.E2.4
4
32
2.8 Gbps
50,000
240 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard.E2.2
2
16
1.4 Gbps
25,000
120 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard.E2.1
1
8
700 Mbps
12,500
60 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.DenseIO1.16
16
240
4.8 Gbps
80,000
480 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.DenseIO1.8
8
120
2.4 Gbps
50,000
240 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.DenseIO1.4
4
60
1.2 Gbps
25,000
120 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard.B1.16
16
192
9.6 Gbps
160,000
960 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard.B1.8
8
96
4.8 Gbps
80,000
480 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard.B1.4
4
48
2.4 Gbps
50,000
240 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard.B1.2
2
24
1.2 Gbps
25,000
120 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard.B1.1
1
12
600 Mbps
12,500
60 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard1.16
16
112
4.8 Gbps
80,000
480 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard1.8
8
56
2.4 Gbps
50,000
240 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard1.4
4
28
1.2 Gbps
25,000
120 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard1.2
2
14
1.2 Gbps
25,000
120 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
VM.Standard1.1
1
7
600 Mbps
12,500
60 MB/s
32
Yes (≥16 OCPUs)
No (<16 OCPUs)
Performance Limitations and Considerations 🔗
Block Volume performance SLA for IOPS per volume applies to the Balanced, Higher Performance, and Ultra High Performance levels only, not the Lower Cost level.
The performance results described in this topic are for unformatted data volumes. Performance could be lower based on the file system used.
Throughput performance results are for bare metal compute
instances. Throughput performance on virtual machine (VM) compute instances
depends on the network bandwidth that's available to the instance, and further
limited by that bandwidth for the volume. For details about the network
bandwidth available for VM shapes, see the Network Bandwidth column in
the VM Shapes table.
An instance's performance characteristics affect an attached volume's effective IOPS and throughput. For information about the performance characteristics for instance shapes, see Performance Details for Shapes.
Block Volume performance SLA for
IOPS per volume and IOPS per instance applies to raw, unformatted volumes, with
iSCSI volume attachments and to paravirtualized volume attachments for 16 core
or higher VMs for Ultra High Performance, and for 8 cores or higher VMs
for Balanced and Higher Performance, at the Block Volume service level.
For the Lower Cost option, you might not see the same latency performance
that you see with the other performance levels. You might also see a greater
variance in latency with the Lower Cost option.
Third-party security tools for Compute instances that perform disk I/O operations can have a
significant negative impact on performance. The IOPS performance characteristics
described in this topic are valid for Compute instances with no security tools
running on the instance.
Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP)
is enabled by default on all Windows platform images. This tool has a
significant negative impact on disk I/O performance. The IOPS performance
characteristics described in this topic are valid for Windows instances with
Windows Defender ATP disabled for disk I/O. Customers must carefully consider
the security implications of disabling Windows Defender ATP. See Windows Defender Advanced Threat
Protection.
Block volume performance is per volume, so when a block volume is attached to
multiple instances, the performance is shared across all the attached instances.
See Attaching a Volume to Multiple Instances.
Performance is lower for attachments with in-transit encryption enabled.