2 In addition to using normal file images for the emulated storage
3 devices, QEMU can also use networked resources such as iSCSI devices.
4 These are specified using a special URL syntax.
7 iSCSI support allows QEMU to access iSCSI resources directly and use
8 as images for the guest storage. Both disk and cdrom images are
11 Syntax for specifying iSCSI LUNs is
12 "iscsi://<target-ip>[:<port>]/<target-iqn>/<lun>"
14 By default qemu will use the iSCSI initiator-name
15 'iqn.2008-11.org.linux-kvm[:<name>]' but this can also be set from
16 the command line or a configuration file.
18 Since version Qemu 2.4 it is possible to specify a iSCSI request
19 timeout to detect stalled requests and force a reestablishment of the
20 session. The timeout is specified in seconds. The default is 0 which
21 means no timeout. Libiscsi 1.15.0 or greater is required for this
24 Example (without authentication):
28 |qemu_system| -iscsi initiator-name=iqn.2001-04.com.example:my-initiator \
29 -cdrom iscsi://192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/2 \
30 -drive file=iscsi://192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/1
32 Example (CHAP username/password via URL):
36 |qemu_system| -drive file=iscsi://user%password@192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/1
38 Example (CHAP username/password via environment variables):
42 LIBISCSI_CHAP_USERNAME="user" \
43 LIBISCSI_CHAP_PASSWORD="password" \
44 |qemu_system| -drive file=iscsi://192.0.2.1/iqn.2001-04.com.example/1
47 QEMU supports NBD (Network Block Devices) both using TCP protocol as
48 well as Unix Domain Sockets. With TCP, the default port is 10809.
50 Syntax for specifying a NBD device using TCP, in preferred URI form:
51 "nbd://<server-ip>[:<port>]/[<export>]"
53 Syntax for specifying a NBD device using Unix Domain Sockets;
54 remember that '?' is a shell glob character and may need quoting:
55 "nbd+unix:///[<export>]?socket=<domain-socket>"
57 Older syntax that is also recognized:
58 "nbd:<server-ip>:<port>[:exportname=<export>]"
60 Syntax for specifying a NBD device using Unix Domain Sockets
61 "nbd:unix:<domain-socket>[:exportname=<export>]"
67 |qemu_system| --drive file=nbd:192.0.2.1:30000
69 Example for Unix Domain Sockets
73 |qemu_system| --drive file=nbd:unix:/tmp/nbd-socket
76 QEMU supports SSH (Secure Shell) access to remote disks.
82 |qemu_system| -drive file=ssh://user@host/path/to/disk.img
83 |qemu_system| -drive file.driver=ssh,file.user=user,file.host=host,file.port=22,file.path=/path/to/disk.img
85 Currently authentication must be done using ssh-agent. Other
86 authentication methods may be supported in future.
89 Sheepdog is a distributed storage system for QEMU. QEMU supports
90 using either local sheepdog devices or remote networked devices.
92 Syntax for specifying a sheepdog device
96 sheepdog[+tcp|+unix]://[host:port]/vdiname[?socket=path][#snapid|#tag]
102 |qemu_system| --drive file=sheepdog://192.0.2.1:30000/MyVirtualMachine
104 See also https://sheepdog.github.io/sheepdog/.
107 GlusterFS is a user space distributed file system. QEMU supports the
108 use of GlusterFS volumes for hosting VM disk images using TCP, Unix
109 Domain Sockets and RDMA transport protocols.
111 Syntax for specifying a VM disk image on GlusterFS volume is
116 gluster[+type]://[host[:port]]/volume/path[?socket=...][,debug=N][,logfile=...]
119 'json:{"driver":"qcow2","file":{"driver":"gluster","volume":"testvol","path":"a.img","debug":N,"logfile":"...",
120 "server":[{"type":"tcp","host":"...","port":"..."},
121 {"type":"unix","socket":"..."}]}}'
128 |qemu_system| --drive file=gluster://192.0.2.1/testvol/a.img,
129 file.debug=9,file.logfile=/var/log/qemu-gluster.log
132 |qemu_system| 'json:{"driver":"qcow2",
133 "file":{"driver":"gluster",
134 "volume":"testvol","path":"a.img",
135 "debug":9,"logfile":"/var/log/qemu-gluster.log",
136 "server":[{"type":"tcp","host":"1.2.3.4","port":24007},
137 {"type":"unix","socket":"/var/run/glusterd.socket"}]}}'
138 |qemu_system| -drive driver=qcow2,file.driver=gluster,file.volume=testvol,file.path=/path/a.img,
139 file.debug=9,file.logfile=/var/log/qemu-gluster.log,
140 file.server.0.type=tcp,file.server.0.host=1.2.3.4,file.server.0.port=24007,
141 file.server.1.type=unix,file.server.1.socket=/var/run/glusterd.socket
143 See also http://www.gluster.org.
145 ``HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/FTPS``
146 QEMU supports read-only access to files accessed over http(s) and
149 Syntax using a single filename:
153 <protocol>://[<username>[:<password>]@]<host>/<path>
158 'http', 'https', 'ftp', or 'ftps'.
161 Optional username for authentication to the remote server.
164 Optional password for authentication to the remote server.
167 Address of the remote server.
170 Path on the remote server, including any query string.
172 The following options are also supported:
175 The full URL when passing options to the driver explicitly.
178 The amount of data to read ahead with each range request to the
179 remote server. This value may optionally have the suffix 'T', 'G',
180 'M', 'K', 'k' or 'b'. If it does not have a suffix, it will be
181 assumed to be in bytes. The value must be a multiple of 512 bytes.
185 Whether to verify the remote server's certificate when connecting
186 over SSL. It can have the value 'on' or 'off'. It defaults to
190 Send this cookie (it can also be a list of cookies separated by
191 ';') with each outgoing request. Only supported when using
192 protocols such as HTTP which support cookies, otherwise ignored.
195 Set the timeout in seconds of the CURL connection. This timeout is
196 the time that CURL waits for a response from the remote server to
197 get the size of the image to be downloaded. If not set, the
198 default timeout of 5 seconds is used.
200 Note that when passing options to qemu explicitly, ``driver`` is the
203 Example: boot from a remote Fedora 20 live ISO image
207 |qemu_system_x86| --drive media=cdrom,file=https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/releases/20/Live/x86_64/Fedora-Live-Desktop-x86_64-20-1.iso,readonly
209 |qemu_system_x86| --drive media=cdrom,file.driver=http,file.url=http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/20/Live/x86_64/Fedora-Live-Desktop-x86_64-20-1.iso,readonly
211 Example: boot from a remote Fedora 20 cloud image using a local
212 overlay for writes, copy-on-read, and a readahead of 64k
216 qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file='json:{"file.driver":"http",, "file.url":"http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/releases/20/Images/x86_64/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2",, "file.readahead":"64k"}' /tmp/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2
218 |qemu_system_x86| -drive file=/tmp/Fedora-x86_64-20-20131211.1-sda.qcow2,copy-on-read=on
220 Example: boot from an image stored on a VMware vSphere server with a
221 self-signed certificate using a local overlay for writes, a readahead
222 of 64k and a timeout of 10 seconds.
226 qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file='json:{"file.driver":"https",, "file.url":"https://user:password@vsphere.example.com/folder/test/test-flat.vmdk?dcPath=Datacenter&dsName=datastore1",, "file.sslverify":"off",, "file.readahead":"64k",, "file.timeout":10}' /tmp/test.qcow2
228 |qemu_system_x86| -drive file=/tmp/test.qcow2