A method of virtual machine (VM) access to physical storage through a direct path to a virtual function (VF) of a storage adapter, the method for use in a system that includes a host computing machine configured to implement a virtualization intermediary and the virtual machine (VM) and that includes the storage adapter the method, comprising: sending virtual SCSI IO request from the VM to the physical storage that identifies a virtual disk address; mapping within the VF the identified virtual address to at least one physical region of the physical storage; creating within the VF a physical SCSI IO request that identifies a physical address for the mapped-to physical region; sending the physical SCSI IO request from the VF to the physical storage.