Performing a hot-swap of a storage device for a node in a virtualization environment having a plurality of storage devices, includes performing pass-thru of a storage manager managing the plurality of storage devices to a service virtual machine, such that the service virtual machine communicates with the plurality of storage devices without going through a storage software layer of its corresponding hypervisor, booting the hypervisor from a device other than the plurality of storage devices and performing the hot-swap of the storage device.