QEMU (and hence KVM) has long supported thin provisioning, through both sparse raw files and image formats such as qcow2. However, there are several limitations in the implementation of this feature, which make it much less effective as the lifetime of a virtual machine image grows. This talk will cover how thin provisioning can help both virtual machine and host administrators, as well as when/how it can be used now. It will also present a plan for making this feature more generally, effectively and easily usable.
This talk is aimed at system administrators and developers. While relevant concepts will be introduced during the talk, some familiarity with storage technology is expected.