Updated 2024-10-15

Replicating a Volume

The Block Volume service provides you with the capability to perform ongoing automatic asynchronous replication of block volumes, boot volumes, and volume groups to other regions and availability domains.

Block Volume supports two types of replication:

This feature supports the following scenarios without requiring volume backups and volume group backups:

  • Disaster recovery
  • Migration
  • Business expansion

The replication feature is complementary to the backup feature, not a replacement. Backups give you a point-in-time snapshot of volumes that enables you to return to a previous version of a volume or volume group. Replicas give you the current version of the data.

When you enable replication for a volume or volume group, the process includes an initial sync of the data from the source to the replica. Depending on volume size and amount of data written to volumes, this sync can take hours. After the initial synchronization process is complete, the replication process is continuous, with the typical Recovery Point Object (RPO) target rate being less than thirty minutes for replication across regions, however the RPO can vary. See Limitations and Considerations.

Note

Replication doesn't cause any downtime or impact on source volumes.

Limitations and Considerations

The following applies to both replication to another region and replication to another availability domain within the same region.

  • Replication isn't supported for volumes encrypted using customer-managed Vault encryption keys.
  • You can't resize a volume with replication enabled. When resizing a volume, you need to disable replication, which deletes the volume replica. After the volume is resized, you can reenable replication for the volume, which starts the replication process from scratch.
  • While the typical RPO target rate is significantly less than thirty minutes for replication, the RPO can vary depending on the change rate of data on the source volume. For example, the RPO can be greater than an hour for volumes with a large amount of write I/O operations to the volume.

Cost Considerations for Replication

After you enable replication for a volume or volume group, it will be replicated in the specified availability domain or the specified region and availability domain. Your bill will include storage costs for the volume or volume group replica in the destination. The replica in the destination is billed using the Block Storage Lower Cost option price, regardless of volume type in the source region.

See Oracle Storage Cloud Pricing for information about storage pricing.

For cross region replication, your bill will also include applicable network costs, see Network Costs for Cross Region Replication.

Cross Region Replication

Block Volume replication supports replicating a volume or volume group to another region. For this type of replication, when you enable replication for a volume or volume group, you select a different region than the current source region as the destination region to replicate to. If the destination region supports multiple availaiblity domains, you can also select the availability domain you want to replicate to.

The source region for the volume or volume group determines the target regions available to select as a destination region for replication. Each region has one or more regions available as possible destination regions. The destination regions are selected based on geographical locations. Your tenancy must be subscribed to the destination region for replication. See Source and Destination Region Mappings for more information.

Network Costs for Cross Region Replication

Your bill will also include any applicable network costs for the replication process between regions. Network costs for replication between availability domains within the same region are not billed. As part of the replication process, all data being updated on the source volume or source volume group is transferred to the replica, so volumes with continual updates incur higher network costs.

You can see the amount of data transferred for an individual volume during replication in the Console.

To see the amount of data transferred from the replication process for a volume

  1. Open the navigation menu and click Storage. Under Block Storage, click Block Volumes.
  2. Click the replica that you want to see the amount of data transferred for. On the Replica Details page, the Total Data Transferred field displays the amount of data, in GBs, that has been transferred during the replication process for the volume. This number includes all data from the point that volume replication was enabled to now.

See Oracle Networking Cloud Pricing for information about network pricing.

Source and Destination Region Mappings

If your tenancy is not subscribed to any of the destination regions for the source region, and the source region only supports one availability domain, no regions are displayed in the region list and an error message is shown. For source regions containg multiple availability domains, the source region is displayed in the region list, and cross availability domain replication is the only replication available. To use cross region replication, you must subscribe to one of the destination regions for the source region. To subscribe to a region, see Managing Regions.

Note

If you do not see a region that you are subscribed to in the destination region list, open a support ticket to request that the region be added as a destination target for the source region for your volume or volume group.

The following table lists the region mappings for cross region replication.

Source Region Destination Region
Australia East (Sydney)
  • Australia Southeast (Melbourne)
  • Japan East (Tokyo)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US Midwest (Chicago)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
Australia Southeast (Melbourne)
  • Australia East (Sydney)
  • Singapore (Singapore)
  • Singapore West (Singapore)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US Midwest (Chicago)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
Brazil East (Sao Paulo)
  • Brazil Southeast (Vinhedo)
  • Chile Central (Santiago)
  • Colombia Central (Bogota)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
Brazil Southeast (Vinhedo)
  • Brazil East (Sao Paulo)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
Canada Southeast (Montreal)
  • Canada Southeast (Toronto)
Canada Southeast (Toronto)
  • Canada Southeast (Montreal)
  • US Midwest (Chicago)
  • US East (Ashburn)
Chile Central (Santiago)
  • Brazil East (Sao Paulo)
  • Chile West (Valparaiso)
Chile West (Valparaiso)
  • Chile Central (Santiago)
  • Colombia Central (Bogota)
Colombia Central (Bogota)
  • Brazil East (Sao Paulo)
  • Chile West (Valparaiso)
  • Mexico Central (Queretaro)
  • US East (Ashburn)
France Central (Paris)
  • France South (Marseille)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • Spain Central (Madrid)
  • Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • UK South (London)
  • UK West (Newport)
  • US East (Ashburn)
France South (Marseille)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • Spain Central (Madrid)
  • Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • UK South (London)
  • UK West (Newport)
Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • France South (Marseille)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • Israel Central (Jerusalem)
  • Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • Spain Central (Madrid)
  • Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • UK South (London)
  • UK West (Newport)
India South (Hyderabad)
  • India West (Mumbai)
  • Singapore (Singapore)
  • Singapore West (Singapore)
India West (Mumbai)
  • India South (Hyderabad)
  • Singapore West (Singapore)
  • UK South (London)
Israel Central (Jerusalem)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • UK South (London)
Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • France South (Marseille)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • Spain Central (Madrid)
  • Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • UK South (London)
  • UK West (Newport)
Japan Central (Osaka)
  • Japan East (Tokyo)
  • South Korea Central (Seoul)
  • South Korea North (Chuncheon)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
Japan East (Tokyo)
  • Australia East (Sydney)
  • Japan Central (Osaka)
  • Singapore (Singapore)
  • Singapore West (Singapore)
  • South Korea Central (Seoul)
  • South Korea North (Chuncheon)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
Mexico Central (Queretaro)
  • Colombia Central (Bogota)
  • Mexico Northeast (Monterrey)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
Mexico Northeast (Monterrey)
  • Mexico Central (Queretaro)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • Spain Central (Madrid)
  • Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • UK South (London)
  • UK West (Newport)
  • US East (Ashburn)
Saudi Arabia West (Jeddah)
  • UAE East (Dubai)
Singapore (Singapore)
  • Australia Southeast (Melbourne)
  • India South (Hyderabad)
  • Japan East (Tokyo)
  • Singapore West (Singapore)
Singapore West (Singapore)
  • Australia Southeast (Melbourne)
  • India South (Hyderabad)
  • India West (Mumbai)
  • Japan East (Tokyo)
  • Singapore (Singapore)
South Africa Central (Johannesburg)
  • UK South (London)
South Korea Central (Seoul)
  • Japan Central (Osaka)
  • Japan East (Tokyo)
  • South Korea North (Chuncheon)
South Korea North (Chuncheon)
  • Japan Central (Osaka)
  • Japan East (Tokyo)
  • South Korea Central (Seoul)
Spain Central (Madrid)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • France South (Marseille)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • UK South (London)
  • UK West (Newport)
Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • France South (Marseille)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • Spain Central (Madrid)
  • Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • UK South (London)
  • UK West (Newport)
Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • France South (Marseille)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • Spain Central (Madrid)
  • Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • UK South (London)
  • UK West (Newport)
UAE Central (Abu Dhabi)
  • UAE East (Dubai)
UAE East (Dubai)
  • Saudi Arabia West (Jeddah)
  • UAE Central (Abu Dhabi)
UK South (London)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • France South (Marseille)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • India West (Mumbai)
  • Israel Central (Jerusalem)
  • Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • Spain Central (Madrid)
  • Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • UK West (Newport)
  • US East (Ashburn)
UK West (Newport)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • France South (Marseille)
  • Germany Central (Frankfurt)
  • Italy Northwest (Milan)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • Spain Central (Madrid)
  • Sweden Central (Stockholm)
  • Switzerland North (Zurich)
  • UK South (London)
US East (Ashburn)
  • Australia East (Sydney)
  • Australia Southeast (Melbourne)
  • Brazil East (Sao Paulo)
  • Brazil Southeast (Vinhedo)
  • Colombia Central (Bogota)
  • Canada Southeast (Toronto)
  • France Central (Paris)
  • Japan Central (Osaka)
  • Japan East (Tokyo)
  • Mexico Central (Queretaro)
  • Mexico Northeast (Monterrey)
  • Netherlands Northwest (Amsterdam)
  • UK South (London)
  • US Midwest (Chicago)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
US Midwest (Chicago)
  • Australia East (Sydney)
  • Australia Southeast (Melbourne)
  • Canada Southeast (Toronto)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US West (Phoenix)
  • US West (San Jose)
US West (Phoenix)
  • Australia East (Sydney)
  • Australia Southeast (Melbourne)
  • Brazil East (Sao Paulo)
  • Brazil Southeast (Vinhedo)
  • Japan Central (Osaka)
  • Japan East (Tokyo)
  • Mexico Central (Queretaro)
  • Mexico Northeast (Monterrey)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US Midwest (Chicago)
  • US West (San Jose)
US West (San Jose)
  • Australia East (Sydney)
  • Australia Southeast (Melbourne)
  • Brazil East (Sao Paulo)
  • Brazil Southeast (Vinhedo)
  • Japan Central (Osaka)
  • Japan East (Tokyo)
  • Mexico Central (Queretaro)
  • Mexico Northeast (Monterrey)
  • US East (Ashburn)
  • US Midwest (Chicago)
  • US West (Phoenix)

Cross Availability Domain Replication

Block Volume replication supports replicating a volume or volume group to another availability domain within the same region. For this type of replication, when you enable replication for a volume or volume group, if the current region contains more than one availability domain, the regions list will include the current region. Select this region as the source region, and then select the availaiblity domain that you want to replicate to.

Note

Replication across availability domains is only supported in commercial regions with multiple availability domains. To determine which regions contain more than one availability domain, see the Availability Domains field in the table listing the commercial regions in About Regions and Availaibility Domains.

Tagging Resources

You can apply tags to your resources to help you organize them according to your business needs. You can update the resource later with the desired tags. For general information about applying tags, see Resource Tags. Any tags applied to the source volume are replicated to the volume replica in the destination region.

Required IAM Policy

To use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, you must be granted security access in a policy  by an administrator. This access is required whether you're using the Console or the REST API with an SDK, CLI, or other tool. If you get a message that you don't have permission or are unauthorized, verify with your administrator what type of access you have and which compartment  to work in.

For administrators: The policy in Let volume admins manage block volumes, backups, and volume groups lets the specified group do everything with block volumes, backups, and volume groups.

If you're new to policies, see Getting Started with Policies and Common Policies. For reference material about writing policies for instances, cloud networks, or other Core Services API resources, see Details for the Core Services.

Using the Console

Block Volume Replicas

Use the Console procedures in this section for block volume replicas.

Boot Volume Replicas

Use the Console procedures in this section for boot volume replicas.

Using the CLI

For information about using the CLI, see Command Line Interface (CLI).

Block Volume Operations

Use the following operations for cross region replication of block volumes.

Boot Volume Operations

Use the following operations for cross region replication of boot volumes.

Using the API

For information about using the API and signing requests, see REST API documentation and Security Credentials. For information about SDKs, see SDKs and the CLI.

Use the following operations to list and retrieve volume replicas:

You can enable replication for a boot volume or block volume when you create or update a volume. To disable replication, use the Update operation. To activate a volume replica, use the Create operation and pass the source volume's replica ID.

Note

For volumes in a volume group configured for replication, use CreateVolumeGroup to activate replicas instead of CreateVolume or CreateBootVolume if you want to ensure that all replicas are activated from the same coordinated synchronization point. See Limitations and Considerations.