Use the noop IO elevator
$ dd bs=1M count=512 if=/dev/zero of=test conv=fdatasync 536870912 bytes (537 MB) copied, 12,538 s, 42,8 MB/s $ vim /etc/default/grub (GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="elevator=noop") $ update-grub $ reboot $ dd bs=1M count=512 if=/dev/zero of=test conv=fdatasync 536870912 bytes (537 MB) copied, 8,49777 s, 61,8 MB/s
Use para-virtualized block and net devices
$ kvm -drive file=$IMAGE,if=virtio,cache=none -net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=$MAC -net tap,ifname=$NET_DEV,script=no
Expose all host cpu flags to guest OS
$ kvm -cpu host
Assign multiple processors/cores/threads to the guest
$ kvm -smp cores=2,threads=2
