diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index bf592b7e3..17d95e838 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -23,6 +23,11 @@ dependencies = [
  "winapi 0.3.7 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "anyhow"
+version = "1.0.23"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "arc-swap"
 version = "0.4.4"
@@ -925,6 +930,24 @@ dependencies = [
  "unicode-width 0.1.7 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "thiserror"
+version = "1.0.6"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+dependencies = [
+ "thiserror-impl 1.0.6 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "thiserror-impl"
+version = "1.0.6"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2 1.0.6 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+ "quote 1.0.2 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+ "syn 1.0.11 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "thread_local"
 version = "0.3.6"
@@ -1044,6 +1067,13 @@ dependencies = [
 [[package]]
 name = "vm-device"
 version = "0.1.0"
+dependencies = [
+ "anyhow 1.0.23 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+ "serde 1.0.103 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+ "serde_derive 1.0.103 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+ "serde_json 1.0.44 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+ "thiserror 1.0.6 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+]
 
 [[package]]
 name = "vm-memory"
@@ -1167,6 +1197,7 @@ dependencies = [
 [metadata]
 "checksum aho-corasick 0.6.10 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "81ce3d38065e618af2d7b77e10c5ad9a069859b4be3c2250f674af3840d9c8a5"
 "checksum ansi_term 0.11.0 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "ee49baf6cb617b853aa8d93bf420db2383fab46d314482ca2803b40d5fde979b"
+"checksum anyhow 1.0.23 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "6f1072d8f55592084072d2d3cb23a4b680a8543c00f10d446118e85ad3718142"
 "checksum arc-swap 0.4.4 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "d7b8a9123b8027467bce0099fe556c628a53c8d83df0507084c31e9ba2e39aff"
 "checksum arrayref 0.3.5 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "0d382e583f07208808f6b1249e60848879ba3543f57c32277bf52d69c2f0f0ee"
 "checksum arrayvec 0.5.1 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "cff77d8686867eceff3105329d4698d96c2391c176d5d03adc90c7389162b5b8"
@@ -1262,6 +1293,8 @@ dependencies = [
 "checksum tempfile 3.1.0 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "7a6e24d9338a0a5be79593e2fa15a648add6138caa803e2d5bc782c371732ca9"
 "checksum term 0.4.6 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "fa63644f74ce96fbeb9b794f66aff2a52d601cbd5e80f4b97123e3899f4570f1"
 "checksum textwrap 0.11.0 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "d326610f408c7a4eb6f51c37c330e496b08506c9457c9d34287ecc38809fb060"
+"checksum thiserror 1.0.6 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "cc6b305ec0e323c7b6cfff6098a22516e0063d0bb7c3d88660a890217dca099a"
+"checksum thiserror-impl 1.0.6 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "45ba8d810d9c48fc456b7ad54574e8bfb7c7918a57ad7a6e6a0985d7959e8597"
 "checksum thread_local 0.3.6 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "c6b53e329000edc2b34dbe8545fd20e55a333362d0a321909685a19bd28c3f1b"
 "checksum unicode-width 0.1.7 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "caaa9d531767d1ff2150b9332433f32a24622147e5ebb1f26409d5da67afd479"
 "checksum unicode-xid 0.0.3 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)" = "36dff09cafb4ec7c8cf0023eb0b686cb6ce65499116a12201c9e11840ca01beb"
diff --git a/vm-device/Cargo.toml b/vm-device/Cargo.toml
index 88b5c228d..aa1725538 100644
--- a/vm-device/Cargo.toml
+++ b/vm-device/Cargo.toml
@@ -5,3 +5,8 @@ authors = ["The Cloud Hypervisor Authors"]
 edition = "2018"
 
 [dependencies]
+anyhow = "1.0"
+thiserror = "1.0"
+serde = {version = ">=1.0.27", features = ["rc"] }
+serde_derive = ">=1.0.27"
+serde_json = ">=1.0.9"
diff --git a/vm-device/src/lib.rs b/vm-device/src/lib.rs
index c4d9b5bac..124e1338d 100644
--- a/vm-device/src/lib.rs
+++ b/vm-device/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+extern crate serde;
+extern crate thiserror;
+
+use thiserror::Error;
+
 /// Trait meant for triggering the DMA mapping update related to an external
 /// device not managed fully through virtio. It is dedicated to virtio-iommu
 /// in order to trigger the map update anytime the mapping is updated from the
@@ -9,3 +14,31 @@ pub trait ExternalDmaMapping: Send + Sync {
     /// Unmap a memory range
     fn unmap(&self, iova: u64, size: u64) -> std::result::Result<(), std::io::Error>;
 }
+
+#[derive(Error, Debug)]
+pub enum MigratableError {
+    #[error("Failed to pause migratable component: {0}")]
+    Pause(#[source] anyhow::Error),
+
+    #[error("Failed to resume migratable component: {0}")]
+    Resume(#[source] anyhow::Error),
+}
+
+/// A Pausable component can be paused and resumed.
+pub trait Pausable {
+    /// Pause the component.
+    fn pause(&mut self) -> std::result::Result<(), MigratableError>;
+
+    /// Resume the component.
+    fn resume(&mut self) -> std::result::Result<(), MigratableError>;
+}
+
+/// A snapshotable component can be snapshoted.
+pub trait Snapshotable {}
+
+/// Trait to be implemented by any component (device, CPU, RAM, etc) that
+/// can be migrated.
+/// All migratable components are paused before being snapshotted, and then
+/// eventually resumed. Thus any Migratable component must be both Pausable
+/// and Snapshotable.
+pub trait Migratable: Pausable + Snapshotable {}