diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/ephemeral_file.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/ephemeral_file.rs
index a62a47f9a7..1e2e1aaf46 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/ephemeral_file.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/ephemeral_file.rs
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ use crate::tenant::storage_layer::inmemory_layer::vectored_dio_read::File;
 use crate::virtual_file::owned_buffers_io::slice::SliceMutExt;
 use crate::virtual_file::owned_buffers_io::util::size_tracking_writer;
 use crate::virtual_file::owned_buffers_io::write::Buffer;
-use crate::virtual_file::{self, owned_buffers_io, VirtualFile};
+use crate::virtual_file::{self, owned_buffers_io, IoBufferMut, VirtualFile};
 use bytes::BytesMut;
 use camino::Utf8PathBuf;
 use num_traits::Num;
@@ -107,15 +107,18 @@ impl EphemeralFile {
         self.page_cache_file_id
     }
 
-    pub(crate) async fn load_to_vec(&self, ctx: &RequestContext) -> Result<Vec<u8>, io::Error> {
+    pub(crate) async fn load_to_io_buf(
+        &self,
+        ctx: &RequestContext,
+    ) -> Result<IoBufferMut, io::Error> {
         let size = self.len().into_usize();
-        let vec = Vec::with_capacity(size);
-        let (slice, nread) = self.read_exact_at_eof_ok(0, vec.slice_full(), ctx).await?;
+        let buf = IoBufferMut::with_capacity(size);
+        let (slice, nread) = self.read_exact_at_eof_ok(0, buf.slice_full(), ctx).await?;
         assert_eq!(nread, size);
-        let vec = slice.into_inner();
-        assert_eq!(vec.len(), nread);
-        assert_eq!(vec.capacity(), size, "we shouldn't be reallocating");
-        Ok(vec)
+        let buf = slice.into_inner();
+        assert_eq!(buf.len(), nread);
+        assert_eq!(buf.capacity(), size, "we shouldn't be reallocating");
+        Ok(buf)
     }
 
     /// Returns the offset at which the first byte of the input was written, for use
@@ -385,7 +388,7 @@ mod tests {
 
         // assert the state is as this test expects it to be
         assert_eq!(
-            &file.load_to_vec(&ctx).await.unwrap(),
+            &file.load_to_io_buf(&ctx).await.unwrap(),
             &content[0..cap + cap / 2]
         );
         let md = file
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer/inmemory_layer.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer/inmemory_layer.rs
index e487bee1f2..0bce261829 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer/inmemory_layer.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer/inmemory_layer.rs
@@ -809,9 +809,9 @@ impl InMemoryLayer {
 
         match l0_flush_global_state {
             l0_flush::Inner::Direct { .. } => {
-                let file_contents: Vec<u8> = inner.file.load_to_vec(ctx).await?;
-
-                let file_contents = Bytes::from(file_contents);
+                let file_contents = inner.file.load_to_io_buf(ctx).await?;
+                // TODO(yuchen): see ways to avoid this copy.
+                let file_contents = Bytes::copy_from_slice(&file_contents);
 
                 for (key, vec_map) in inner.index.iter() {
                     // Write all page versions
diff --git a/pageserver/src/virtual_file/aligned_buffer.rs b/pageserver/src/virtual_file/aligned_buffer.rs
index 18e1d2937b..7cbec0cb1f 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/virtual_file/aligned_buffer.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/virtual_file/aligned_buffer.rs
@@ -11,12 +11,14 @@ use std::{
 
 use bytes::buf::UninitSlice;
 
+#[derive(Debug)]
 struct IoBufferPtr(*mut u8);
 
 // SAFETY: We gurantees no one besides `IoBufferPtr` itself has the raw pointer.
 unsafe impl Send for IoBufferPtr {}
 
 /// An aligned buffer type used for I/O.
+#[derive(Debug)]
 pub struct AlignedBufferMut<const ALIGN: usize> {
     ptr: IoBufferPtr,
     capacity: usize,
@@ -252,6 +254,24 @@ impl<const ALIGN: usize> DerefMut for AlignedBufferMut<ALIGN> {
     }
 }
 
+impl<const ALIGN: usize> AsRef<[u8]> for AlignedBufferMut<ALIGN> {
+    fn as_ref(&self) -> &[u8] {
+        self.as_slice()
+    }
+}
+
+impl<const ALIGN: usize> AsMut<[u8]> for AlignedBufferMut<ALIGN> {
+    fn as_mut(&mut self) -> &mut [u8] {
+        self.as_mut_slice()
+    }
+}
+
+impl<const ALIGN: usize> PartialEq<[u8]> for AlignedBufferMut<ALIGN> {
+    fn eq(&self, other: &[u8]) -> bool {
+        self.as_slice().eq(other)
+    }
+}
+
 /// SAFETY: When advancing the internal cursor, the caller needs to make sure the bytes advcanced past have been initialized.
 unsafe impl<const ALIGN: usize> bytes::BufMut for AlignedBufferMut<ALIGN> {
     #[inline]