--- fixes: - | Update the way QEMU cache mode is configured for Nova guests: If the file system hosting the directory with Nova instances is capable of Linux's O_DIRECT, use ``none``; otherwise fallback to ``writeback`` cache mode. This improves performance without compromising data integrity. `Bug 1818847`_. Context: What makes ``writethrough`` so safe against host crashes is that it never keeps data in a "write cache", but it calls fsync() after *every* write. This is also what makes it horribly slow. But cache mode ``none`` doesn't do this and therefore doesn't provide this kind of safety. The guest OS must explicitly flush the cache in the right places to make sure data is safe on the disk; and all modern OSes flush data as needed. So if cache mode ``none`` is safe enough for you, then ``writeback`` should be safe enough too. .. _Bug 1818847: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bug/1818847