The Challenges of Asynchronous Teardown of KVM Guests

Explore the complexities of asynchronous teardown for KVM guests in this informative conference talk. Delve into the challenges faced when terminating large virtual machines, particularly those with multi-terabyte protected or secure configurations. Learn about various approaches to implementing asynchronous teardown, including cleanup in kernel or user threads during shutdown, and using clone(CLONE_VM) in userspace. Examine the pros and cons of each method, as well as ongoing issues with QEMU and libvirt. While focusing on the s390x implementation as an example, discover how these concepts can be applied to other architectures. Gain insights into the need for a more generic approach and participate in a productive discussion on improving VM termination efficiency.