diff --git a/performance-metrics/src/main.rs b/performance-metrics/src/main.rs
index 8c1b669bb..c34815581 100644
--- a/performance-metrics/src/main.rs
+++ b/performance-metrics/src/main.rs
@@ -106,10 +106,45 @@ impl Default for MetricsReport {
     }
 }
 
+#[derive(Clone, Copy, Default)]
+pub enum ImageFormat {
+    #[default]
+    Raw,
+    Qcow2,
+    Vhd,
+    Vhdx,
+}
+
+impl std::str::FromStr for ImageFormat {
+    type Err = ();
+
+    fn from_str(s: &str) -> Result<Self, Self::Err> {
+        match s {
+            "raw" => Ok(ImageFormat::Raw),
+            "qcow2" => Ok(ImageFormat::Qcow2),
+            "vhd" => Ok(ImageFormat::Vhd),
+            "vhdx" => Ok(ImageFormat::Vhdx),
+            _ => Err(()),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl fmt::Display for ImageFormat {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
+        match self {
+            ImageFormat::Raw => write!(f, "raw"),
+            ImageFormat::Qcow2 => write!(f, "qcow2"),
+            ImageFormat::Vhd => write!(f, "vhd"),
+            ImageFormat::Vhdx => write!(f, "vhdx"),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 #[derive(Default)]
 pub struct PerformanceTestOverrides {
     test_iterations: Option<u32>,
     test_timeout: Option<u32>,
+    test_image_format: Option<ImageFormat>,
 }
 
 impl fmt::Display for PerformanceTestOverrides {
@@ -121,6 +156,10 @@ impl fmt::Display for PerformanceTestOverrides {
             write!(f, "test_timeout = {test_timeout}")?;
         }
 
+        if let Some(test_image_format) = self.test_image_format {
+            write!(f, "test_image_format = {test_image_format}")?;
+        }
+
         Ok(())
     }
 }
@@ -686,6 +725,15 @@ fn main() {
                 .help("Override test timeout, Ex. --timeout 5")
                 .num_args(1),
         )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::new("image-format")
+                .long("image-format")
+                .help(
+                    "Override the image format used for block tests, supported values: qcow2, raw, vhd, vhdx. \
+                     Default is 'raw'.",
+                )
+                .num_args(1),
+        )
         .get_matches();
 
     // It seems that the tool (ethr) used for testing the virtio-net latency
@@ -723,9 +771,14 @@ fn main() {
             .map(|s| s.parse())
             .transpose()
             .unwrap_or_default(),
+        test_image_format: cmd_arguments
+            .get_one::<String>("image-format")
+            .map(|s| s.parse())
+            .transpose()
+            .unwrap_or_default(),
     });
 
-    init_tests();
+    init_tests(&overrides);
 
     for test in test_list.iter() {
         if test_filter.is_empty() || test_filter.iter().any(|&s| test.name.contains(s)) {
diff --git a/performance-metrics/src/performance_tests.rs b/performance-metrics/src/performance_tests.rs
index a2d700490..46eb090fc 100644
--- a/performance-metrics/src/performance_tests.rs
+++ b/performance-metrics/src/performance_tests.rs
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ use std::{fs, thread};
 use test_infra::{Error as InfraError, *};
 use thiserror::Error;
 
-use crate::{mean, PerformanceTestControl};
+use crate::{mean, ImageFormat, PerformanceTestControl, PerformanceTestOverrides};
 
 #[cfg(target_arch = "x86_64")]
 pub const FOCAL_IMAGE_NAME: &str = "focal-server-cloudimg-amd64-custom-20210609-0.raw";
@@ -30,16 +30,30 @@ enum Error {
     RestoreTimeParse,
 }
 
+// The test image cannot be created on tmpfs (e.g. /tmp) filesystem,
+// as tmpfs does not support O_DIRECT
 const BLK_IO_TEST_IMG: &str = "/var/tmp/ch-blk-io-test.img";
 
-pub fn init_tests() {
-    // The test image cannot be created on tmpfs (e.g. /tmp) filesystem,
-    // as tmpfs does not support O_DIRECT
-    assert!(exec_host_command_output(&format!(
-        "dd if=/dev/zero of={BLK_IO_TEST_IMG} bs=1M count=4096"
-    ))
-    .status
-    .success());
+pub fn init_tests(overrides: &PerformanceTestOverrides) {
+    let mut cmd = format!("dd if=/dev/zero of={BLK_IO_TEST_IMG} bs=1M count=4096");
+
+    if let Some(o) = overrides.test_image_format {
+        match o {
+            ImageFormat::Raw => { /* Nothing to do */ }
+            ImageFormat::Qcow2 => {
+                cmd =
+                    format!("qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o preallocation=full {BLK_IO_TEST_IMG} 4G");
+            }
+            ImageFormat::Vhd => {
+                cmd = format!("qemu-img create -f vpc -o subformat=fixed {BLK_IO_TEST_IMG} 4G");
+            }
+            ImageFormat::Vhdx => {
+                cmd = format!("qemu-img create -f vhdx -o subformat=fixed {BLK_IO_TEST_IMG} 4G");
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    assert!(exec_host_command_output(&cmd).status.success());
 }
 
 pub fn cleanup_tests() {