Governance
Open project model
Project roles, governance, and decision processes are available for review.
GovernanceA Linux Foundation Project
Open source virtualization for systems that demand isolation and control.
Xen is an open source hypervisor for infrastructure, embedded, security-sensitive, and virtualization platforms that need clear separation and long-term control.
Built in the Open
A project you can evaluate in the open.
Governance, security handling, and testing resources are published so technical teams can inspect how the project works.
Security
Published response process
Security reporting and response expectations are documented for users and vendors.
Security policy CI
Public testing resources
CI resources and status information are available for contributors and evaluators.
CI resourcesWhy Xen matters now
Modern platforms still need a strong virtualization layer.
For technical evaluators, Xen is most relevant where isolation, openness, long-term platform work, and security-sensitive engineering matter.
Isolation as a foundation
Xen is built around a hypervisor layer that separates guest systems from the underlying platform.
Open engineering model
Governance and contribution paths are visible to organizations and individual engineers.
Security-sensitive platforms
Security policy, vulnerability reporting, and related project work are part of the evaluation path.
Where Xen fits
Built for engineers working close to the platform.
Xen is strongest when teams need to reason carefully about virtual machines, hardware, operating systems, and trust boundaries.
Cloud and infrastructure
Xen projects include the hypervisor and toolstack work used to build virtualization platforms.
Embedded and automotive
The Embedded & Automotive project describes Xen for systems that need isolation, real-time support, and fault tolerance.
Introspection and security tooling
HVMI focuses on real-time monitoring and protection for virtualized environments.
Specialized operating systems
MirageOS and Unikraft show how Xen ecosystem projects support focused, lightweight systems work.
Architecture
A clear boundary for platform control.
Xen sits between hardware and guest systems. That position gives platform teams a place to make virtualization, isolation, and control decisions without treating the operating system as the whole boundary.
Guests
Virtualized systems stay above the hypervisor boundary.
Hardware
Platform integration stays visible to teams that need control.
Try Xen
Start a Xen guest
Install Xen, start a guest, and verify it is running.
sudo apt install xen-system-amd64# Reboot into Xen and prepare /etc/xen/guest.cfgsudo xl create /etc/xen/guest.cfgsudo xl listDebian AMD64 example.
Project areas
Explore the Xen project ecosystem.
Key project areas are available through direct links so teams can scan capabilities and go deeper where relevant.
Embedded & Automotive
Open source virtualization for embedded and automotive systems that need isolation, mixed workloads, hardware-aware boundaries, and long-term platform control.
HVMI
Explore Xen Project's Hypervisor Memory Introspection (HVMI). Learn how HVMI enhances security by providing real-time monitoring and protection for virtualized environments.
Hypervisor
Discover Xen Hypervisor, the open-source virtualization platform.
Mirage OS
MirageOS is a library operating system that constructs unikernels for secure, high-performance, low-energy footprint applications.
XAPI
The XAPI project is an enterprise-ready toolstack for use with the Xen Project hypervisor.
XCP-ng
XCP-ng (Xen Cloud Platform – new generation) is a turnkey virtualization platform built on the Xen Project Hypervisor and using the Xen API (XAPI). It is typically managed with Xen Orchestra, an agentless, multi-cluster web interface that provides management, monitoring, and backup capabilities.
New safety initiative
Open source safety engineering, built together.
The Xen Safety Committee gives Premier Plus members a maintained foundation of requirements, tests, tooling, evidence, and process documentation, giving their own certification-oriented programs a substantial head start.
Safety Committee
Coordinate certification-oriented engineering.
Shared foundation
Build on maintained requirements, tests, tooling, evidence, and process documentation.
Premier Plus participation
Help set priorities and give downstream safety programs a head start.
Members
Sustained by organizations with a stake in open virtualization.
Members help sustain shared project infrastructure, events, trademark stewardship, and ecosystem coordination.
Driving virtualization forward
Latest from the Xen Project
Recent releases, initiatives, events, and technical work from across the project.
Event
🛠️ Xen Summit 2025: Find Your Place in the Future of Virtualization
The annual Xen Summit is right around the corner, and there has never been a more exciting time to be part of the Xen Project. As enterprise and industrial needs shift…
Xen at FOSDEM: Real-World Conversations About Xen and KVM
We just wrapped up a weekend at FOSDEM 2026 where Xen and XCP-ng both had dedicated booths. This was my first time at FOSDEM and the legend lived up to the hype. It was…
OSS Japan 2025: A Breakthrough Year for Open Automotive Innovation
The Xen Project is back from Open Source Summit Japan and Automotive Linux Summit 2025. This year’s event felt like a true watershed moment for the automotive industry…
Open governance and community
Technical work happens in the open.
Xen contribution follows documented project processes. Engineers can find a practical starting point, and organizations can support the ecosystem through membership.
Next step
Support Xen's future, or help build it.
Organizations can support the project through membership. Engineers can start with the contributor resources.