Managing Guests

A guest virtual machine in Xen is called a domU (unprivileged domain). This section covers how to create, configure, and manage domUs.

Guest types

Before creating a guest, decide which virtualization mode to use. See Virtualization Concepts for an explanation of PV, HVM, and PVH.

For most purposes:

• Linux guests: Use PVH if supported, otherwise HVM with PV drivers.

• Windows guests: Use HVM.

• PV and PVH Guests
• HVM Guests

Common operations

These commands work for all guest types using the xl toolstack.

Start a guest:

xl create /etc/xen/myguest.cfg

List running guests:

xl list

Connect to a guest console:

xl console myguest

Shut down a guest:

xl shutdown myguest

Destroy a guest (immediate, without graceful shutdown):

xl destroy myguest