2.2.1.2 Xen™

Oracle VM makes use of Xen technology, when running on x86 servers, taking advantage of the Xen hypervisor. The Xen hypervisor is a small, lightweight bare metal hypervisor for x86-compatible computers. The Xen hypervisor securely executes multiple virtual machines on one host computer. Each virtual machine runs in its own domain and has its own guest operating system with almost native performance. A primary management domain, called dom0, also runs as a guest on top of the hypervisor. See Section 2.2.2, “What are Domains?” for more information on domains. The Xen hypervisor was originally created by researchers at Cambridge University, and derived from work done on the Linux kernel.

Figure 2.2 Oracle VM Server Hypervisor and Guest Domains

Oracle VM Server runs a hypervisor that communicates directly with the system hardware. Virtual machines run as domains on top of the hypervisor. Guest operating systems are installed within each domain. A primary domain called dom0 is created as a management domain, and is used to manage and provision the hypervisor.

Click to view larger image ovm_arch_hypervisor.png