Patent ID: 8095675

Claim:
A method for specifying input/output (I/O) settings for a virtual machine, comprising: assigning a bandwidth for the virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine is executing on a host computer, and wherein the host computer is connected to a network attached storage (NAS) device over a network; assigning a priority for the virtual machine; sending a mount request, by the virtual machine, for a volume on the NAS device by the virtual machine over the network, wherein the bandwidth and priority are transmitted to the NAS device as part of the mount request, wherein the NAS device stores the bandwidth and priority in response to the mount request, wherein the NAS device is a logical file system for the virtual machine when the volume is mounted in response to the mount request, and wherein the mount request is sent using the Network File System (NFS) protocol, and wherein the bandwidth and the priority are transmitted in a NFS protocol extension header as part of the mount request; and receiving a mount handle by the virtual machine, wherein the mount handle is associated with the volume.