From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Bill Davidsen Subject: How well does KVM connect a physical drive to the VM? Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:22:04 -0500 Message-ID: <512E951C.3000201@tmr.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: KVM list Return-path: Received: from mail.tmr.com ([64.65.253.246]:33651 "EHLO partygirl.tmr.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757852Ab3B0X4M (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:56:12 -0500 Received: from partygirl.tmr.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by partygirl.tmr.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id r1RNM4o5020473 for ; Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:22:05 -0500 Sender: kvm-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: I have a program which I need to run against a pile of drives. The program needs to boot to a dedicated machine and will only do one drive at a time, and I only have one machine I can tie up to use dedicated, making it a very slow process and requiring a manual drive change when the program is done poking in the SMART firmware. I also have a 4 bay eSATA box and an evil thought, I could do this in a VM, many VMs perhaps, if KVM really lets the VM see the drive. I propose to do something like this: qemu-kvm -m 600 -hda /dev/sdi -cdron diskfiddle.iso -boot d Before I try this I'd like an opinion, because while I can hot swap drives in the external enclosure, the enclosure warns against connecting to a powered computer, so I have to take a downtime. Thanks for any educated opinions. -- Bill Davidsen We are not out of the woods yet, but we know the direction and have taken the first step. The steps are many, but finite in number, and if we persevere we will reach our destination. -me, 2010