Virtual block devices
On Linux as a KVM guest on IBM Z, you can use generic virtual block devices, for example, paravirtualized DASDs or SCSI LUNs.
These virtual block devices are handled by the
virtio_blk device driver
module. This module is loaded automatically during the boot process.A virtual block device might be backed by a disk device, but it might also be backed by a file on the hypervisor. Do not perform operations that require knowledge of the specific hardware that backs a virtual block device. For example, do not attempt to run a low-level formatting operation on a virtual block device.