Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH] block: Add support for Secure Shell (ssh) block device.

[Stefan Hajnoczi]

On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 01:38:58PM +0000, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> From: "Richard W.M. Jones" <address@hidden>
> 
>   qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=ssh://hostname/some/image
> 
> QEMU will ssh into 'hostname' and open '/some/image' which is made
> available as a standard block device.
> 
> You can specify a username (ssh://address@hidden/...) and/or a port number
> (ssh://host:port/...).

I can see this being handy for qemu-img since it gives you the ability
to work with remote image files.

> Current limitations:
> 
> - Authentication must be done without passwords or passphrases, using
>   ssh-agent.  Other authentication methods are not supported. (*)
> 
> - Does not check host key. (*)
> 
> - New remote files cannot be created. (*)

Would be important to fix these limitations.  Authentication methods to
make this more usable.  Host key check for security.  File creation for
qemu-img.

> - Uses coroutine read/write, instead of true AIO.  (libssh2 supports
>   non-blocking access, so this could be fixed with some effort).

This patch does not really use coroutines - the SSH I/O is blocking!

Coroutines must submit the SSH I/O and then yield so the QEMU event loop
can get on with other work.  When SSH I/O finishes the request's
coroutine is re-entered and the request gets completed.

> - Blocks during connection and authentication.

Right now the code also blocks while SSH I/O takes place.

> (*) = potentially easy fix
> 
> This is implemented using libssh2 on the client side.  The server just
> requires a regular ssh daemon with sftp-server support.  Most ssh
> daemons on Unix/Linux systems will work out of the box.

How much of a win over sshfs is this?

sshfs can be mounted by unprivileged users and QEMU accesses it like a
regular file.  So the sshfs approach already works today.

Stefan