QEMU Storage Daemon and libblkio: Exploring New Frontiers for the QEMU Block Layer

Explore the evolving landscape of QEMU's block layer in this conference talk. Delve into the motivations behind moving the block layer to a separate process, including enhanced security, separation of concerns, and improved flexibility. Learn about QEMU-Storage-Daemon and libblkio, two key components that enable new possibilities for storage management. Discover how these tools facilitate connections between various components and the QEMU block layer, allowing for optimized utilization of building blocks. Examine use cases where local storage assumptions are changing, such as attaching images to host systems or applications running in containers. Investigate the role of userspace hardware drivers and vDPA in expanding storage options, including hardware acceleration for network protocols like Ceph RBD and iSCSI on SmartNICs. Gain insights into the future of QEMU's block layer and its potential impact on virtualization and storage management.