Re: [LSF/MM/BPF ATTEND][LSF/MM/BPF TOPIC] : blktests: status, expansion plan for the storage stack test framework

Haris Iqbal
2026-02-25T10:08:11Z

On Mon, Feb 23, 2026 at 6:08 PM Bart Van Assche <bvanassche@acm.org> wrote:
>
> On 2/15/26 1:18 PM, Haris Iqbal wrote:
> > A possible feature for blktest could be integration with something
> > like virtme-ng.
> > Running on VM can be versatile and fast. The run can be made parallel
> > too, by spawning multiple VMs simultaneously.
> Hmm ... this probably would break tests that measure performance and
> also tests that modify data or reservations of a physical storage
> device.

Performance related tests can be skipped when running in a virtual environment.
Regarding data modification, if the tests do not involve any crash or
reboot, then the VMs can be started in "snapshot" mode. This gives a
number of advantages.
a) Data modifications will not persist once the VM is shut down. This
means the disk will be clean for the next test cycle.
b) Using just a single set of qcow files, one can bring up any number
of VMs in snapshot mode. The data written while the VM is running can
be safely read/modified, but it disappears after a reboot.

>
> Bart.