diskvisible

Diskvisible is a term used in computer storage management to describe whether a disk device is exposed to a given layer of the computing stack, such as the host operating system, a virtual machine, or a container. It covers both physical visibility (the device is detectable by drivers) and logical visibility (the device is presented to a specific OS instance or workload through virtualization or container runtimes). Because it is not a universally standardized term, its exact meaning can vary between platforms.

In virtualization environments, disk visibility is controlled by the hypervisor or orchestration layer. Administrators can attach or detach virtual disks from virtual machines, or choose to hide certain disks from a VM to improve isolation or security. The visibility state affects how the guest sees device names, paths, and disk enumeration, and it can influence boot order and disk provisioning behavior. In container and orchestration contexts, visibility often determines whether a block device or volume is mounted inside a container, and may be governed by configuration options, storage classes, and volume plugins.

Practical considerations include how diskvisibility interacts with device naming (such as /dev entries or mounted paths), hot-plug capabilities, and dynamic resizing. Tools and APIs that manage storage, like virtualization managers, container runtimes, and udev rules, are typically involved in toggling visibility. Properly managing visibility is important for data isolation, security, and predictable boot and runtime behavior.

See also: virtualization, disk management, volume provisioning, hot-plug, udev, container storage.