HYPER-V(4)

📦
version 15.1 · 2 versions
, in freebsd 15.1, nixpkgs unstable

💅 HYPER-V(4) — the hv_storvsc era 💅

okay so bestie, this is the HYPER-V page from section 4 of the manual, and the actual star of the show is hv_storvsc. yes it's a mouthful, no we're not renaming it, let's go 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

hv_storvsc — the Hyper-V Storage Virtual Service Consumer, aka your guest's ride-or-die for talking to storage 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

to compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in the system kernel configuration file:

device hyperv

that's it. one line. iconic behaviour honestly 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

the hv_storvsc driver implements the virtual store device for FreeBSD guest partitions running on Hyper-V. lowkey important context: FreeBSD guest partitions running on Hyper-V do not have direct access to storage devices attached to the Hyper-V server. so rude of them tbh.

and yes, a FreeBSD guest can access storage devices using Hyper-V's full emulation mode — but the performance in this mode tends to be unsatisfactory 😭 like, it works, but it's giving dial-up energy, and nobody wants that.

to counter the above issues, the hv_storvsc driver implements a storage Virtual Service Consumer (VSC) that relays storage requests from the guest partition to the storage Virtual Service Provider (VSP) hosted in the root partition, using the high performance data exchange infrastructure provided by hv_vmbus(4) driver. then the VSP in the root partition forwards the storage related requests to the physical storage device. teamwork!! the VSC hands it off, the VSP finishes the job, slay 🤝✨

how does this driver function, you ask? it presents a SCSI HBA interface to the Common Access Method (CAM) layer. CAM control blocks (CCBs) are converted into VSCSI protocol messages, which are delivered to the root partition VSP over the Hyper-V VMBus. it's giving translation layer main character energy 🌈

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read them bestie, they're the whole friend group 🫶

⭐ HISTORY ⭐

support for hv_storvsc first appeared in FreeBSD 10.0. the driver was developed through a joint effort between Citrix Incorporated, Microsoft Corporation, and Network Appliance Incorporated — a collab so stacked it's basically a supergroup 💖

🎀 AUTHORS 🎀

FreeBSD support for hv_storvsc was first added by Microsoft BSD Integration Services Team <bsdic@microsoft.com>. say thank you 🫡💜

and that's the page!! this one came to you from Debian, dated September 10, 2013 — yeah she's a vintage icon, we stan a classic 💀🌸 mwah, go read some more manpages bestie 😘

📦 where this page comes from