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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Infrastructure as a Service
  4. Virtualization Platform
  5. VirtualBox vs Xen

VirtualBox vs Xen

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

VirtualBox
VirtualBox
Stacks31.1K
Followers25.6K
Votes1.1K
Xen
Xen
Stacks30
Followers43
Votes0
GitHub Stars744
Forks363

VirtualBox vs Xen: What are the differences?

Introduction

VirtualBox and Xen are both popular choices for virtualization solutions, allowing users to run multiple operating systems on a single physical machine. While they share the same purpose, there are key differences between the two. Below are the six main differences:

  1. Architecture: VirtualBox is a type 2 hypervisor, running on top of an existing operating system, while Xen is a type 1 hypervisor, running directly on the hardware, without the need for an underlying host OS. This architectural difference gives Xen a performance advantage, as it has direct access to hardware resources.

  2. Resource Allocation: VirtualBox allows for flexible resource allocation, enabling users to adjust CPU and memory allocation on-the-fly. On the other hand, Xen utilizes paravirtualization, which requires the guest operating system to be modified for optimal performance and resource allocation. This difference gives VirtualBox an advantage in terms of ease of use and adaptability.

  3. Versatility: VirtualBox supports a wide range of operating systems and offers seamless integration with host system components, making it suitable for desktop virtualization. Xen, on the other hand, is primarily focused on server virtualization and offers a more limited selection of supported guest operating systems.

  4. Live Migration: Xen provides live migration capabilities, allowing virtual machines to be moved between physical hosts without any downtime. This is a crucial feature for high-availability setups and is not directly supported by VirtualBox, which requires a manual process to transfer virtual machines between hosts.

  5. Management Interface: VirtualBox offers a graphical user interface that makes it user-friendly and easy to manage virtual machines. Xen, on the other hand, primarily relies on command-line interfaces and more advanced management tools, which may require a steeper learning curve for users who are not familiar with command-line operations.

  6. Community and Support: VirtualBox is developed and maintained by Oracle and has a large and active user community, providing a wealth of resources, documentation, and user support. Xen, on the other hand, is an open-source project and benefits from the support of the Linux community, offering a different type of support and development ecosystem.

In summary, VirtualBox is a user-friendly virtualization solution that excels in versatility and ease of use, while Xen offers superior performance, live migration capabilities, and a focus on server virtualization. Choosing between the two largely depends on specific requirements and intended usage scenarios.

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Detailed Comparison

VirtualBox
VirtualBox
Xen
Xen

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

It is a hypervisor using a microkernel design, providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently. It was developed by the Linux Foundation and is supported by Intel.

Portability;No hardware virtualization required;Guest Additions: shared folders, seamless windows, 3D virtualization;Great hardware support;Multigeneration branched snapshots;VM groups;Clean architecture; unprecedented modularity;Remote machine display
Xen 4.10 or Newer; Archive; Overview; Limits; Toolstack and Tools; Features; Interoperability / Hardware Support; Device Models and Virtual Firmware.
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
744
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
363
Stacks
31.1K
Stacks
30
Followers
25.6K
Followers
43
Votes
1.1K
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 358
    Free
  • 231
    Easy
  • 169
    Default for vagrant
  • 110
    Fast
  • 73
    Starts quickly
No community feedback yet
Integrations
No integrations available
AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda
Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure Kubernetes Service
Kubernetes
Kubernetes
Datadog
Datadog
Spring Data
Spring Data

What are some alternatives to VirtualBox, Xen?

Proxmox VE

Proxmox VE

It is a complete open-source platform for all-inclusive enterprise virtualization that tightly integrates KVM hypervisor and LXC containers, software-defined storage and networking functionality on a single platform, and easily manages high availability clusters and disaster recovery tools with the built-in web management interface.

VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere

vSphere is the world’s leading server virtualization platform. Run fewer servers and reduce capital and operating costs using VMware vSphere to build a cloud computing infrastructure.

KVM

KVM

KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).

Qemu

Qemu

When used as a machine emulator, it can run OSes and programs made for one machine (e.g. an ARM board) on a different machine (e.g. your own PC). By using dynamic translation, it achieves very good performance. When used as a virtualizer, it achieves near native performance by executing the guest code directly on the host CPU. it supports virtualization when executing under the Xen hypervisor or using the KVM kernel module in Linux. When using KVM, it can virtualize x86, server and embedded PowerPC, 64-bit POWER, S390, 32-bit and 64-bit ARM, and MIPS guests.

Parallels Desktop

Parallels Desktop

Parallels Desktop for Mac allows you to seamlessly run both Windows and MacOS applications side-by-side with speed, control and confidence.

Parallels

Parallels

It is an application and desktop virtualization software vendor that offers management and delivery platforms for Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows desktop deployments.

VMware Fusion

VMware Fusion

It gives Mac users the power to run Windows on Mac along with hundreds of other operating systems side by side with Mac applications, without rebooting. It is simple enough for home users and powerful enough for IT professionals, developers and businesses.

VMware vSAN

VMware vSAN

It is enterprise-class, storage virtualization software that, when combined with vSphere, allows you to manage compute and storage with a single platform. You can reduce the cost and complexity of traditional storage and take the easiest path to hyperconverged infrastructure and hybrid cloud. Evolve to an integrated hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution with vSAN to improve business agility, all while speeding operations and lowering costs.

Oracle VM Server

Oracle VM Server

It is a zero license cost server virtualization and management solution that makes enterprise applications easier to deploy, manage, and support. Backed worldwide by affordable enterprise-quality support for both Oracle and non-Oracle environments, it reduces operations and support costs while increasing IT efficiency and agility.

Virtuozzo

Virtuozzo

It is an operating system-level server virtualization solution designed to centralize server management and consolidate workloads, which reduces overhead by reducing the number of physical servers required. Organizations use it for server consolidation, disaster recovery, and server workload agility.

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