Extending Xen* with Intel® Virtualization Technology


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Intel® Technology Journal

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Intel® Virtualization Technology

Volume 10 Issue 03 Published August 10, 2006
ISSN 1535-864X DOI: 10.1535/itj.1003.03

Section 1 of 10

Extending Xen* with Intel® Virtualization Technology

Yaozu Dong, Core Software Division, Intel Corporation
Shaofan Li, Core Software Division, Intel Corporation
Asit Mallick, Core Software Division, Intel Corporation
Jun Nakajima, Core Software Division, Intel Corporation
Kun Tian, Core Software Division, Intel Corporation
Xuefei Xu, Core Software Division, Intel Corporation
Fred Yang, Core Software Division, Intel Corporation
Wilfred Yu, Core Software Division, Intel Corporation

Index words: Xen, Virtualization, Hypervisor, Intel® VT, virtual machine monitor

Citation for this paper: Dong, Y.; Li, S.; Mallick, A.; Nakajima, J.; Tian, K.; Xu, X.; Yang, F.; Yu, W. "Extending Xen* with Intel® Virtualization Technology." Intel Technology Journal. http://www.intel.com/technology/itj/2006/v10i3/
(August 2006).

Abstract

Xen* is an open source virtual machine monitor (VMM) developed at the University of Cambridge to support operating systems (OSs) that have been modified to run on top of the monitor. Intel has extended the Xen VMM to use Intel® Virtualization TechnologyΔ (VT) to support unmodified guest OSs also. This was done for IA-32 Intel® Architecture processors as well as Itanium® architecture processors.

In this paper we describe the changes that have been made to Xen to enable this support. We also highlight the optimizations that have been made to date to deliver good virtualized performance.

Δ Intel® Virtualization Technology requires a computer system with an enabled Intel ® processor, BIOS, virtual machine monitor (VMM) and, for some uses, certain platform software enabled for it. Functionality, performance or other benefits will vary depending on hardware and software configurations and may require a BIOS update. Software applications may not be compatible with all operating systems. Please check with your application vendor.

Section 1 of 10

In this article


	Abstract

	Introduction

	Intel® Virtualization Technology

	Extending Xen* with Intel® VT

	Performance tuning VT-x guests

	Benchmark performance

	Current status

	Acknowledgments

	References

	Authors’ biographies