1. A system comprising: a first host; an off-host virtualizer; wherein the off-host virtualizer is configured to: generate operating system metadata for a virtual storage device; make the operating system metadata accessible to the first host; and provide configuration information at a designated range of blocks within the virtual storage device; wherein the first host comprises a storage software stack including a first layer and a second layer; wherein the first layer is configured to use the operating system metadata to detect an existence of the virtual storage device as addressable storage device; and wherein the second layer is configured to read the configuration information from the designated range of blocks.