What is the default backup location for database backup on Database Cloud Service (DBCS)?

Anjali D.Feb 7, 2026

The answer is A, Object Storage on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and this one tripped up a few folks in our group at first. When you provision a DBCS instance and enable automated backups, Oracle routes those backups to OCI Object Storage by default, not to local disk or block volume. The reason makes sense when you think about it: Object Storage is durable, regionally redundant, and decoupled from the compute and storage of the DB instance itself, so a VM failure does not take your backups down with it. ASM diskgroups and block volumes are used for database files and data storage, not the default backup destination, and NVMe local storage would be a disaster recovery nightmare since it is ephemeral and tied to the physical host. Does anyone in the group want to add anything about how this changes if you use on-prem RMAN configs or bring your own backup bucket?

Yusuf A.Mar 4, 2026

Saw something almost exactly like this on my practice run last week and I almost picked C thinking block volume made sense since that is where the DB lives, but my senior had drilled into me that DBCS defaults to Object Storage on OCI for backups so A clicked right away. Glad that stuck because it is one of those things that feels obvious after you hear it once but trips you up if nobody ever mentions it.

Mateus R.Feb 19, 2026

I almost picked C thinking local block storage, but DBCS ships your backups off-box to Object Storage by default.

Orla P.Feb 26, 2026

On the real exam this one trips people up because they assume "database backup" means it stays close to the compute, like on a block volume or ASM diskgroup, but Oracle DBCS defaults to Object Storage on OCI for automated backups precisely because it is durable and decoupled from the VM itself. If the VM goes down, your backups are still sitting safely in Object Storage and not lost with it. That decoupling is the whole architectural point, and it is also why you can restore to a different shape or region without hunting for a local backup artifact. Here is my question for anyone who has dug into this further: when you look at the DBCS provisioning wizard and enable automated backups, does the retention period you set there apply to both the Object Storage copy and any fast recovery area on block storage, or do those retention settings operate independently of each other?

Prof. SaraFeb 15, 2026

Object Storage, always Object Storage, DBCS backs up to OCI by default. Saw this exact stem on my 2024 sitting, remembered the mnemonic CLOUD keeps backups in the CLOUD, circled A without hesitation.