DomU Support for Xen

DomU support in Linux distributions

This page describes the current status of support in Linux distributions for running as Xen guests; if you are looking for dom0 support go here.

You can also find instruction on how to build a mainline Linux kernel for DomU here.

PV is the regular domU support that has been present in most Linux distributions for years and it is required to run on Amazon EC2 for example.

PV on HVM is a new type of Xen guest support that exploits hardware nested paging while enabling PV interfaces for IO. Depending on the workload PV on HVM guests might be faster or slower than regular PV guests. See XenLinuxPVonHVMdrivers for more information.

Distribution	run as PV guest
Alpine Linux 2.3.6	yes
Debian Lenny	yes
Debian Squeeze	yes
Ubuntu 10.04	yes[1]
Ubuntu 11.04	yes[1]
Ubuntu 12.04	yes[1]
Fedora 14	yes
Fedora 16	yes
Oracle Linux 5	yes[2]
Oracle Linux 6	yes[2]
RHEL 5	yes [3]
RHEL 6	yes
SLES 10	yes
SLES 11	yes
OpenSUSE 11.4	yes

[1] EC2 kernel only
[2] Supported using the Red Hat-compatible Kernel as well as the Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel
[3] save/restore is known to have bugs
[4] see XenLinuxPVonHVMdrivers for resources about using optimized (paravirtualized) PV-on-HVM drivers

DomU support in BSDs and other Unix systems

This list is currently incomplete. We are in the process of verifying support for Unixes.

Distribution	run as PV guest
FreeBSD 8.2	yes[3]
NetBSD 5.1	yes[4]
OpenIndiana[5]	no[5]
Solaris 11	yes[6]

[3] See FreeBSD Xen page for more information
[4] See NetBSD Xen HowTo for more information
[5] There has not yet been a stable release of OpenIndiana and there is some unclarity on whether it will work as PV guest
[6] For SPARC systems as well as x86 systems (Oracle Solaris 11 OS already has the paravirtualized drivers installed as part of the OS).

DomU support for Windows

Windows falls into the category of an unmodified operating system (in other words an operating system that has not been altered specifically to run on the Xen hypervisor). Thus, paravirtualization is not an option. The best way, therefore, to virtualize Windows is to use as a HVM) guest. The Windows 7/XP/Vista/Server 2008 section of the Category:HowTo document points to instructions explaining how to do this.

However, James Harper maintains a set of PV drivers that allow Windows to make use of the network and block backend drivers in Dom0. This gives Windows on Xen a substantial performance boost. The table below shows the drivers available.

Distribution	run as PV guest
Windows Vista	no
Windows XP	no
Windows 2008	no
Windows 2003	no
Windows 2000	no
Windows 7	no

[6] GPLPV drivers can be downloaded from meadowcourt.org/downloads; further information can be found on XenWindowsGplPv
[7] Signed GPLPV drivers are available for download from Uninvention