Xen is a free software virtual machine monitor for IA-32, x86, x86-64, IA-64 and PowerPC 970 architectures. It allows several guest operating systems to be executed on the same computer hardware at the same time.
A Xen system is structured with the Xen hypervisor as the lowest and most privileged layer.[1] Above this layer are one or more guest operating systems, which the hypervisor schedules across the physical CPUs. The first guest operating system, called in Xen terminology "domain 0" (dom0), is booted automatically when the hypervisor boots and given special management privileges and direct access to the physical hardware. The system administrator logs into dom0 in order to start any further guest operating systems, called "domain U" (domU) in Xen terminology.