1.3 Xen Virtualization Architecture

The following graphic depicts a virtual machine host with three virtual machines. The Xen hypervisor is shown as running directly on the physical hardware platform.

Above the Xen hypervisor layer, there are four virtual machines.

Figure 1-1 Virtualization Architecture

On the left, the virtual machine host’s desktop (domain 0) is shown running the SUSE Linux operating system. The two virtual machines in the middle are shown running paravirtualized operating systems. The virtual machine on the right shows a fully virtual machine running an unmodified operating system, such as Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP.