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copyright
years
2014, 2019
lastupdated 2019-04-22
keywords Block Storage, IOPS, Security, Encryption, LUN, secondary storage, mount storage, provision storage, ISCSI, MPIO, redundant
subcollection BlockStorage

{:new_window: target="_blank"} {:tip: .tip} {:note: .note} {:important: .important} {:DomainName: data-hd-keyref="APPDomain"} {:DomainName: data-hd-keyref="DomainName"}

About {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}}

{: #About}

{{site.data.keyword.cloud}} {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} is persistent, high-performance iSCSI storage that is provisioned and managed independently of compute instances. iSCSI-based {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} LUNs are connected to authorized devices through redundant multi-path I/O (MPIO) connections.

{{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} brings best-in-class levels of durability and availability with an unmatched feature set. It is built by using industry standards and best practices. {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} is designed to protect the integrity of the data and maintain availability through maintenance events and unplanned failures, and provide a consistent performance baseline.

Core Features

{: #corefeatures}

Take advantage of the following features of {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}}:

  • Consistent performance baseline
    • Provided through the allocation of protocol-level IOPS to individual volumes.
  • Highly durable and resilient
    • Protects the integrity of the data and maintains availability through maintenance events and unplanned failures without the need to create and manage operating system-level redundant array of independent disk (RAID) arrays.
  • Data-At-Rest Encryption (Available in select data centers)
    • Provider-managed encryption for data-at-rest at no additional cost.
  • All Flash Backed Storage (Available in select data centers)
    • All flash storage for volumes that are provisioned with Endurance or Performance at 2 IOPS/GB or higher levels.
  • Snapshots (Available in select data centers)
    • Captures point-in-time data snapshots non-disruptively.
  • Replication (Available in select data centers)
    • Automatically copies snapshots to a partner {{site.data.keyword.BluSoftlayer_full}} data center.
  • Highly available connectivity
    • Uses redundant networking connections to maximize availability
    • iSCSI-based {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} uses Multipath I/O (MPIO).
  • Concurrent access
    • Allows multiple hosts to simultaneously access block volumes (up to eight) for clustered configurations.
  • Clustered databases
    • Supports advanced use cases, such as clustered databases.

Billing

{: #billing}

You can select hourly or monthly billing for a Block LUN. The type of billing that is selected for a LUN applies to its snapshot space and replicas. For example, if you provision a LUN with hourly billing, any snapshots or replica fees are billed hourly. If you provision a LUN with monthly billing, any snapshots or replica fees are billed monthly.

With hourly billing, the number of hours the block LUN existed on the account is calculated at the time the LUN is deleted or at the end of the billing cycle, which ever comes first. Hourly billing is a good choice for storage that is used for a few days or less than a full month. Hourly billing is available for storage that is provisioned in select data centers only.

With monthly billing, the calculation for the price is pro-rated from the date of creation to the end of the billing cycle and billed immediately. If a LUN is deleted before the end of the billing cycle, there's no refund. Monthly billing is a good choice for storage that is used in production workloads that use data that needs to be stored and accessed for long periods of time (one month or longer).

Performance

Table 1 is showing the prices for Performance Storage with monthly and hourly billing.
Monthly Price $0.10/GB + $0.07/IOP
Hourly Price $0.0001/GB + $0.0002/IOP

Endurance

Table 2 is showing the prices for Endurance Storage for each tier with monthly and hourly billing options.
IOPS Tier 0.25 IOPS/GB 2 IOPS/GB 4 IOPS/GB 10 IOPS/GB
Monthly Price $0.06/GB $0.15/GB $0.20/GB $0.58/GB
Hourly Price $0.0001/GB $0.0002/GB $0.0003/GB $0.0009/GB

Provisioning

{: #provisioning}

{{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} LUNs can be provisioned from 20 GB to 12 TB with two options:

  • Provision Endurance tiers that feature pre-defined performance levels and other features like snapshots and replication.
  • Build a high-powered Performance environment with allocated input/output operations per second (IOPS).

Provisioning with Endurance Tiers

{: #provendurance}

Endurance {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} is available in four IOPS performance tiers to support varying application needs.

  • 0.25 IOPS per GB is designed for workloads with low I/O intensity. These workloads are typically characterized by having a large percentage of data inactive at any time. Example applications include storing mailboxes or departmental level file shares.

  • 2 IOPS per GB is designed for most general-purpose usage. Example applications include hosting small databases that are backing web applications or VM disk images for a hypervisor.

  • 4 IOPS per GB is designed for higher-intensity workloads. These workloads are typically characterized by having a high percentage of data active at any time. Example applications include transactional and other performance-sensitive databases.

  • 10 IOPS per GB is designed for the most demanding workloads such as those created by NoSQL databases, and data processing for Analytics. This tier is available for storage that is provisioned up to 4 TB in select data centers only.

Up to 48,000 IOPS are available with a 12-TB Endurance volume.

Choosing the right Endurance tier for your workload is key. It's equally important to use the right block size, Ethernet connection speed, and the number of hosts necessary to achieve maximum performance. If any of these parts don't align with the other, it can have a significant impact on the resulting throughput.

Provisioning with Performance

{: #provperformance}

Performance is a class of {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} that is designed to support high I/O applications with understood performance requirements that don't fit well within an Endurance tier. Predictable performance is achieved through the allocation of protocol-level IOPS to individual volumes. Various IOPS rates (100 - 48,000) can be provisioned with storage sizes that range from 20 GB to 12 TB.

Performance for {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} is accessed and mounted through a Multipath I/O (MPIO) internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) connection. {{site.data.keyword.blockstorageshort}} is typically used when the volume is accessed by a single server. Multiple volumes can be mounted to a host and striped together to achieve larger volumes and higher IOPS counts. Performance volumes can be ordered according to the sizes and IOPS rates in Table 3 for Linux, XEN, and Windows operating systems.

Table 3 is showing size and IOPS combinations for Performance storage.
Footnote IOPS limits greater than 6,000 is available in select data centers.
Size (GB) Min IOPS Max IOPS
20 100 1,000
40 100 2,000
80 100 4,000
100 100 6,000
250 100 6,000
500 100 6,000 or 10,000 Footnote
1,000 100 6,000 or 20,000 Footnote
2,000 200 6,000 or 40,000 Footnote
3,000-7,000 300 6,000 or 48,000 Footnote
8,000-9,000 500 6,000 or 48,000 Footnote
10,000-12,000 1,000 6,000 or 48,000 Footnote

Performance volumes are designed to operate consistently close to the provisioned IOPS level. Consistency makes it easier to size and scale application environments with a specific level of performance. Additionally, it's possible to optimize an environment by building a volume with the ideal price-to-performance ratio.