What is the difference between kvm and xen

Xen is an external hypervisor program Virtual Machine Manager ; It can control virtual machines and allocate resources to multiple clients.

After KVM is written to the Linux kernel, it is estimated that Xen is difficult to be written to the kernel; On the other hand, KVM is a part of Linux and can use the usual Linux scheduler and memory management. This means that KVM is smaller and easier to use.

In addition, Xen supports both full virtualization and quasi Virtualization the modified client operating system needs to be modified, and the modified client operating system can have better performance.

KVM currently does not support quasi virtualization. The disadvantage of Xen is that if you need to update the version of Xen, you need to recompile the whole kernel. Moreover, if you set it carelessly, the system will not start.

In contrast, KVM is much simpler. It does not need to recompile the kernel or make any changes to the current kernel. It is just a few. Ko modules that can be loaded dynamically. It has a more compact structure and less code. Therefore, the possibility of error is less. And in some ways, the performance is better than Xen. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Choosing a Virtualization Platform. News Topic System Administration.

There Can Be Only One? All rights reserved. The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Because each VM is running a full operating system, you can upgrade the kernel, use additional kernel modules or change low-level kernel settings. Running a virtualization setup carries more overhead since there is the overhead of emulating certain hardware features, as well as that of running the OS.

Here, the hypervisor exposes alternate ways to perform the same hardware operations, in a way that is more performant. To use Xen-HVM, hardware assisted virtualization should be provided by the host system. Since it is a kernel module, KVM reuses many functions of the Linux kernel for its purposes. From an end-user perspective, Xen is similar to KVM, in that it allows you to run any OS and tinker with low-level kernel settings.

KVM only runs on hardware that supports hardware-assisted virtualization. The platform that you choose ultimately depends upon your needs. A ballooning driver is installed in each VPS which aids in the process. When the hypervisor takes memory away from your VPS, from within your VPS it appears as if the ballooning driver is hogging your memory. My blog implied that we do include it for Xen — apologies for that. Hypervisor Choice.

Xen or KVM? Steve Higashi. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies I Understand.