At the vhostmd side virtio channels are Unix domain sockets from QEMU which are created during a VM start and removed when the VM is stopped. Basically this implementation - monitors a directory for new virtio channels - for valid IDs, also known by libvirtd, it connects to the UDS - buffers VM/HOST metrics and handles request/response on the sockets It provides the functions virtio_init() init function of virtio layer virtio_run() the start_routine for the virtio-thread to handle the virtio based communication virtio_metrics_update() called for each VM/HOST metrics update to update the virtio internal metrics buffer. virtio_stop() stop the virtio-thread