Block Storage
Centralized storage is integrated into servers as a local hard drive managed by the operating system to enable access to this storage via the local file system.
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How can central storage be accessed as a local drive by servers and hosted applications? |
Context
Virtual and non-virtualized servers offered as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) can be managed significantly easier if they do not store any state information locally, i.e., on their (virtual) hard drives. This eases their provisioning, decommissioning, and failure handling.
Solution
Centralized storage is accessed by servers as if it was a local hard drive, also referred to as block device.
Related Patterns
Environment-based Availability, Blob Storage, Strict Consistency, Eventual Consistency