Expose a read-only host file/partition to a Firecracker microVM with the virtio-pmem device (persistent memory), including snapshot-coherent usage

domain: firecracker-microvm.github.io · 5 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Documented steps

  1. vhost-user unsupported for pmem; use the virtio-pmem device configured via PUT /pmem/{id} with id, path_on_host and read_only (pmem is read-only) before starting the VM
  2. curl --unix-socket /tmp/firecracker.socket -X PUT http://localhost/pmem/pmem0 -d '{"id":"pmem0","path_on_host":"/mnt/disk.img","read_only":true}'
  3. The guest mounts it as a persistent-memory device (e.g. mount -t ext4 /dev/pmem0 /mnt or a dax mount) for fast read-only access to a host file
  4. Because it is read-only, copy data you want to mutate into a writable virtio-block drive instead
  5. Optionally set a rate_limiter on the pmem device to cap bandwidth

Known gotchas

Related routes

Add or remove memory to a running Firecracker microVM dynamically with the virtio-mem device (memory hotplug)
firecracker-microvm.github.io · 6 steps · unrated
Attach additional read-only or read-write block drives to a Firecracker microVM beyond the root device
firecracker-microvm.github.io · 5 steps · unrated
Reclaim and return guest memory in a Firecracker microVM with the virtio balloon device
firecracker-microvm.github.io · 4 steps · unrated

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