Orchestrating with Xen

The distinction between Type 1 hypervisors (being minimal OSes designed only to host VMs) and those of Type 2 (which run VMs inside a regular operating system) can get a little muddy. , which userspace programs like and can use, might appear to be categorically of the second type. But that’s not really correct. The module actually transforms the whole Linux kernel into a ‘bare metal’ hypervisor, and any kernels you load in a VM sidestep the rest of your OS. Your userspace doesn’t become transformed into a VM (and indeed is untouched by the whole process), but it does add some convenient abstractions (networking and such) so that you can take to guests through it. does much the same thing in Windows.