# Microdroid Payload Payload disk is a composite disk image referencing host APEXes and an APK so that microdroid mounts/activates APK/APEXes and executes a binary within the APK. Payload disk is created by [VirtualizationService](../../android/virtualizationservice) Service when starting a VM. ## Partitions Payload disk has 1 + N(number of APEX/APK payloads) partitions. The first partition is a "payload-metadata" partition which describes other partitions. And APEXes and an APK are following as separate partitions. For now, the order of partitions are important. * partition 1: Metadata partition * partition 2 ~ n: APEX payloads * partition n+1, n+2: APK payload and its idsig It's subject to change in the future, though. ### Metadata partition Metadata partition provides description of the other partitions and the location for VM payload configuration. The partition is a protobuf message prefixed with the size of the message. | offset | size | description | | ------ | ---- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | 0 | 4 | Header. unsigned int32: body length(L) in big endian | | 4 | L | Body. A protobuf message. [schema](metadata.proto) | ### Payload partitions Each payload partition presents APEX or APK passed from the host. The size of a payload partition must be a multiple of 4096 bytes.