diff --git a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Schema.pm b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Schema.pm
index d965e3293..5a900e6c6 100644
--- a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Schema.pm
+++ b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Schema.pm
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ vmmaster => {
     }
 },
 vm => {
-    cols => [qw(node mgr host migrationdest storage storagemodel cfgstore memory cpus nics nicmodel bootorder clockoffset virtflags master vncport textconsole powerstate beacon datacenter cluster guestostype othersettings vidmodel vidproto vidpassword comments disable)],
+    cols => [qw(node mgr host migrationdest storage storagemodel storagecache storageformat cfgstore memory cpus nics nicmodel bootorder clockoffset virtflags master vncport textconsole powerstate beacon datacenter cluster guestostype othersettings vidmodel vidproto vidpassword comments disable)],
     keys => [qw(node)],
     tablespace =>'XCATTBS32K',
     table_desc => 'Virtualization parameters',
@@ -230,6 +230,8 @@ vm => {
 	'vidproto' => "Request a specific protocol for remote video access be set up.  For example, spice in KVM.",
 	'vidmodel' => "Model of video adapter to provide to guest.  For example, qxl in KVM",
 	'vidpassword' => "Password to use instead of temporary random tokens for VNC and SPICE access",
+    'storagecache' => "Select caching scheme to employ.  E.g. KVM understands 'none', 'writethrough' and 'writeback'",
+    'storageformat' => "Select disk format to use by default (e.g. raw versus qcow2)",
     }
 },
 hypervisor => {
@@ -2237,6 +2239,14 @@ my @nodeattrs = (
                  tabentry => 'vm.storagemodel',
                  access_tabentry => 'vm.node=attr:node',
                 },
+                {attr_name => 'vmstoragecache',
+                 tabentry => 'vm.storagecache',
+                 access_tabentry => 'vm.node=attr:node',
+                },
+                {attr_name => 'vmstorageformat',
+                 tabentry => 'vm.storageformat',
+                 access_tabentry => 'vm.node=attr:node',
+                },
                 {attr_name => 'vmcfgstore',
                  tabentry => 'vm.cfgstore',
                  access_tabentry => 'vm.node=attr:node',
diff --git a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/VMCommon.pm b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/VMCommon.pm
index 96dc6367f..ab657b47d 100644
--- a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/VMCommon.pm
+++ b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/VMCommon.pm
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ sub grab_table_data{ #grab table data relevent to VM guest nodes
   if ($vpdtab) {
       $cfghash->{vpd} = $vpdtab->getNodesAttribs($noderange,['uuid']);
   }
-  $cfghash->{vm} = $vmtab->getNodesAttribs($noderange,['node','host','migrationdest','cfgstore','storage','vidmodel','vidproto','vidpassword','storagemodel','memory','cpus','nics','nicmodel','bootorder','virtflags','datacenter','guestostype','othersettings','master']);
+  $cfghash->{vm} = $vmtab->getNodesAttribs($noderange,['node','host','migrationdest','cfgstore','storage','storagecache','storageformat','vidmodel','vidproto','vidpassword','storagemodel','memory','cpus','nics','nicmodel','bootorder','virtflags','datacenter','guestostype','othersettings','master']);
   my $mactab = xCAT::Table->new("mac",-create=>1);
   my $nrtab= xCAT::Table->new("noderes",-create=>1);
   $cfghash->{mac} = $mactab->getAllNodeAttribs(['mac'],1);
diff --git a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/kvm.pm b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/kvm.pm
index fc3880957..2c52ffb1e 100644
--- a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/kvm.pm
+++ b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/kvm.pm
@@ -488,6 +488,10 @@ sub build_diskstruct {
       $cdhash->{target}->{dev}='hdc';
       push @returns,$cdhash;
     }
+    my $cachemethod = "none";
+    if ( $confdata->{vm}->{$node}->[0]->{storagecache}) {
+        $cachemethod = $confdata->{vm}->{$node}->[0]->{storagecache};
+    }
 
 
     if (defined $confdata->{vm}->{$node}->[0]->{storage}) {
@@ -530,8 +534,7 @@ sub build_diskstruct {
                     $tdiskhash->{device}='disk';
                     $tdiskhash->{driver}->{name}='qemu';
                     $tdiskhash->{driver}->{type}=$disks{$_}->{format};
-                    $tdiskhash->{driver}->{cache}="none"; #in this scenario, making a brand new vm, there is not much the hypervisor cache can do for us that the 
-								#guest cannot do for itself
+                    $tdiskhash->{driver}->{cache}=$cachemethod;
                     $tdiskhash->{source}->{file}=$_;
                     $tdiskhash->{target}->{dev} = $disks{$_}->{device};
                     if ($disks{$_} =~ /^vd/) {
@@ -1209,13 +1212,17 @@ sub createstorage {
     #my $diskstruct = shift;
     my $node = $cfginfo->{node};
     my @flags = split /,/,$cfginfo->{virtflags};
+    my $format;
     foreach (@flags) {
         if (/^imageformat=(.*)\z/) {
-            $imgfmt=$1;
+            $format=$1;
         } elsif (/^clonemethod=(.*)\z/) {
             $clonemethod=$1;
         }
     }
+    if ($cfginfo->{storageformat}) {
+        $format = $cfginfo->{storageformat};
+    }
     my $mountpath;
     my $pathappend;
 
@@ -1242,7 +1249,7 @@ sub createstorage {
     if ($filename =~ /^nfs:/ or $filename =~ /^dir:/ or $filename =~ /^lvm:/) { #libvirt storage pool to be used for this
         my @sizes = split /,/,$size;
         foreach (@sizes) {
-            get_filepath_by_url(url=>$filename,dev=>$prefix.shift(@suffixes),create=>$_, force=>$force);
+            get_filepath_by_url(url=>$filename,dev=>$prefix.shift(@suffixes),create=>$_, force=>$force, format=>$format);
         }
     }else{
         oldCreateStorage($filename, $mastername, $size, $cfginfo, $force);
@@ -1653,6 +1660,15 @@ sub chvm {
                 $suffix=$1;
                 $format='raw';
             }
+            if ($confdata->{vm}->{$node}->[0]->{storageformat}) {
+                $format = $confdata->{vm}->{$node}->[0]->{storageformat};
+            }
+    	    #when creating a new disk not cloned from anything, disable cache as copy on write content similarity is a lost cause...
+            my $cachemode = 'none';
+            #unless user knows better
+            if ($confdata->{vm}->{$node}->[0]->{storagecache}) {
+                $cachemode = $confdata->{vm}->{$node}->[0]->{storagecache};
+            }
             my $bus;
             if ($suffix =~ /^sd/) {
                 $bus='scsi';
@@ -1661,8 +1677,7 @@ sub chvm {
             } elsif ($suffix =~ /vd/) {
                 $bus='virtio';
             }
-	    #when creating a new disk not cloned from anything, disable cache as copy on write content similarity is a lost cause...
-            my $xml = "<disk type='file' device='disk'><driver name='qemu' type='$format' cache='none'/><source file='$_'/><target dev='$suffix' bus='$bus'/></disk>";
+            my $xml = "<disk type='file' device='disk'><driver name='qemu' type='$format' cache='$cachemode'/><source file='$_'/><target dev='$suffix' bus='$bus'/></disk>";
             if ($currstate eq 'on') { #attempt live attach
               eval {
               $dom->attach_device($xml);