Xen is a Type 1 hypervisor that enables multiple operating systems to run independently on a single physical computer. It operates directly on the underlying hardware, providing isolation between virtual machines while allocating processor time, memory and other resources.
The hypervisor uses a small privileged core and a system of domains. A privileged control domain, commonly called dom0, manages hardware access and administers other virtual machines. Guest domains run their own operating systems and can be configured with different levels of hardware access and isolation.
Xen supports several virtualization modes. Hardware virtual machines can run unmodified operating systems, while paravirtualized guests use interfaces designed specifically for virtualization. PVH combines hardware-assisted virtualization with a lightweight execution environment that avoids unnecessary device emulation.
The technology is used for cloud infrastructure, server consolidation, security-sensitive workloads and embedded systems. Its architecture allows administrators to separate device drivers from guest workloads, manage virtual machine resources and construct environments where isolation and predictable behaviour are important.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Type 1 hypervisor with a small core and isolated virtual machine domains.
- Support hardware-assisted virtualization using Intel VT-x and AMD-V.
- Run paravirtualized (PV), hardware virtual machine (HVM) and PVH guests.
- Run unmodified operating systems through hardware-assisted virtualization.
- Support lightweight PVH guests without conventional device emulation.
- Allocate virtual CPUs, memory and other resources independently to guests.
- CPU scheduling with configurable weights, resource pools and affinity.
- Memory ballooning and supported memory-sharing mechanisms.
- Live migration, suspension and restoration of virtual machines.
- PCI device passthrough for supported hardware.
- Isolate device drivers within dedicated domains to improve fault containment.
- Paravirtualized network and storage interfaces for more efficient guest I/O.
- Support virtual TPM devices and advanced virtual machine security configurations.
- Xen Security Modules (XSM) framework for mandatory access control.
- NUMA-aware resource placement for systems with multiple memory domains.
- Trace and diagnostic facilities for monitoring hypervisor activity.
- Support x86 and Arm virtualization environments.
- Cross-platform support – supports Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD control domains.
Website: www.xenproject.org
Support:
Developer: Xen Project community
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
Xen is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Hypervisors | |
|---|---|
| Proxmox | Virtualization management platform |
| Xen Hypervisor | Fastest and most secure infrastructure virtualization solution |
| KVM | Full virtualization solution for x86 hardware |
| oVirt | Virtualization solution for your entire enterprise |
| Firecracker | Create and run lightweight microVMs |
| XCP-ng | High performance enterprise level virtualization platform |
| Bao | Lightweight static partitioning for isolated embedded workloads |
| ACRN | Bare-metal virtualization for embedded and real-time systems |
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