Is it possible to run a large Oracle Database (7TB) on Amazon EC2+EBS?

Question

I'm wondering if Amazon EC2+EBS can handle large Oracle databases (7TB to start with). Sounds like EBS can have storage volumes of up to 1TB and I could have many storage volumes attached to the same EC2 instance, but is it possible then to configure Oracle to use those storage volumes so that the database can grow to 7TB and beyond?

To pursue this I would bring in Oracle DBAs to assist, but I want to figure out if this is even a valid approach, or should we look elsewhere?

What other options are there for large (7-15 TB) databases in the cloud?

Answer 1

Yes, you can. But it can be painful. For instances this size you want: tape backup, fast storage, and, most importantly Automatic Storage Management (ASM).

When using ASM: You can run the oracle processes in a cloud, not the storage. Is not possible to really use ASM in the cloud, it uses specific hardware instructions to make storage fast, the VM would get in the way and make it too slow.

Running oracle without ASM for 5TB+ of data is not practical.

Important: If you have 5TB of DATA, you need AT LEAST, 13TB of disk space to run a HA oracle instance.

In my company we run a 15TB Oracle in the cloud, but we hired dedicated storage devices. You can't do that with Amazon. (try mediatemple)