How do OCI block volume performance tiers work?

Each performance tier provides a different IOPS and throughput rate per GB. Lower Cost provides 2 IOPS/GB, Balanced provides 60 IOPS/GB, and Higher Performance provides 75 IOPS/GB. The maximum IOPS scales linearly up to a cap — 25,000 IOPS for Balanced and 35,000 IOPS for Higher Performance on volumes up to 32 TB. You can also purchase additional performance units (VPUs) to increase IOPS beyond the default for your tier.

Can I change a block volume's performance tier without downtime?

Yes, you can change the performance tier of a block volume online without detaching it or stopping the attached instance. The change takes effect within seconds. This is useful for temporarily boosting performance during batch processing or migration tasks and then reverting to a lower-cost tier. You can also resize volumes online, and the new capacity is immediately available after extending the filesystem.

OCI Block Volume Calculator

StorageOCI

Calculate OCI Block Volume IOPS, throughput, and monthly costs by performance tier.

Block Volume Configuration

Volume Size (GB)

VPUs per GB (0-120)

Raw Output

Output will appear here...

About This Tool

OCI Block Volumes offer configurable performance tiers — Lower Cost, Balanced, and Higher Performance — with different IOPS and throughput limits per GB. Unlike AWS EBS where you choose from fixed volume types, OCI lets you select a performance level and the IOPS and throughput scale linearly with volume size within that tier. The Block Volume Calculator helps you determine the right volume size and performance tier combination to meet your IOPS and throughput requirements. It also calculates costs including any additional performance units purchased beyond the included baseline.

When to Use This Tool

•Calculating the minimum block volume size needed to achieve 25,000 IOPS for an Oracle Database workload
•Comparing the cost of a large Balanced volume versus a smaller Higher Performance volume to meet the same IOPS target
•Estimating backup costs based on volume size and change rate for block volume backups stored in Object Storage
•Determining the maximum throughput achievable for a data analytics workload that needs sustained sequential read performance

Frequently Asked Questions

How do OCI block volume performance tiers work?: Each performance tier provides a different IOPS and throughput rate per GB. Lower Cost provides 2 IOPS/GB, Balanced provides 60 IOPS/GB, and Higher Performance provides 75 IOPS/GB. The maximum IOPS scales linearly up to a cap — 25,000 IOPS for Balanced and 35,000 IOPS for Higher Performance on volumes up to 32 TB. You can also purchase additional performance units (VPUs) to increase IOPS beyond the default for your tier.
Can I change a block volume's performance tier without downtime?: Yes, you can change the performance tier of a block volume online without detaching it or stopping the attached instance. The change takes effect within seconds. This is useful for temporarily boosting performance during batch processing or migration tasks and then reverting to a lower-cost tier. You can also resize volumes online, and the new capacity is immediately available after extending the filesystem.

Related Learning Guides

OCI Compute Shapes & Instances18 min read

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