Efficient and secure direct storage device sharing in virtualized environments

An article of manufacture comprising:

• at least one tangible computer readable device having computer readable program code logic embodied therein for direct storage device sharing in a virtualized environment, the computer readable program code logic, when executing, performing the following:
• assigning each of a plurality of virtual functions an associated memory area of a physical memory, including:
• at a first boot of one of a plurality of guests, receiving at a storage controller a request from the one of the guests, and in response to the request, triggering an interrupt of a physical function to a hypervisor;
• and receiving at the storage controller and from the hypervisor a configuration command over the physical function, the configuration command setting up hardware in the storage controller to allocate storage in the storage device for said one of the guests and providing a mapping function for the one of the guests;
• for a subsequent boot of the one of the guests, after said first boot, the storage controller receiving a subsequent request from the one of the guests, and the storage controller setting up mapping for the one of the guests using the mapping function provided at the first boot of the one of the guests, to provide said one of the guests with direct access to the physical memory;
• and
• executing the virtual functions in a single root-input/output virtualization environment to provide each of the plurality of guests with direct access to the physical memory.