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?
[Note: I posted original question on Stackoverflow, but this site may be more appropriate]
I'm certain it is possible, but "is it a good idea," remains to be seen. With 7TB of data, that thing is going to be RAM hungry. The Extra Large instance gives you 15GB of RAM which may or may not be enough for you. The High Memory Quadruple Extra Large tier has 68GB of RAM, which again may or may not be enough (though more likely than mere 'Extra Large').
Sure, you could. An EBS volume shows up as a block device on Linux like any other disk; documentation you can find about managing storage on linux (mdadm) or oracle (ASM) applies. I think the standard approach on EC2 is to attach multiple EBS volumes and create a software RAID0 device on them. Google ebs raid for more information.
Be forewarned that EBS is reported to have unpredictable performance and to be unreliable. For some reports from the trenches, search for ebs on Hacker News.