What are two functions of hypervisors? (Choose two.)

What are two functions of hypervisors? (Choose two.)

• to partition the hard drive to run virtual machines
• to protect the host from malware infection from the virtual machines
• to manage virtual machines
• to allocate physical system resources to virtual machines
• to share the antivirus software across the virtual machines

For more Questions and Answers:

ITE 8 | IT Essentials 8 – IT Essentials A+ 220-1101 Certification Practice Exam Answers Full 100%

CCNA 3 v7 – ENSA v7.02 – Modules 13 – 14: Emerging Network Technologies Exam Answers Full 100%

✅ Correct Answers: To manage virtual machines and To allocate physical system resources to virtual machines

---

🔍 Introduction: What Is a Hypervisor?

A hypervisor is a specialized software or firmware layer that enables virtualization — allowing multiple virtual machines (VMs) to run simultaneously on a single physical host. It provides the abstraction necessary for operating systems to run as isolated guests, sharing the underlying hardware.

Hypervisors are central to modern IT infrastructure, especially in cloud computing, enterprise data centers, and virtual lab environments. Two of their most important functions are:

1. Managing virtual machines

2. Allocating physical system resources to each VM

Let’s explore these in detail, along with why the other options are incorrect.

---

✅ To Manage Virtual Machines

One of the primary functions of a hypervisor is to create, manage, and control virtual machines. This includes all aspects of VM lifecycle management such as:

• Creating and deleting virtual machines

• Starting, pausing, and shutting down VMs

• Assigning or modifying virtual hardware (CPU, memory, disk, NICs)

• Taking snapshots and restoring VMs

• Monitoring resource usage

Hypervisors act like control panels that allow administrators to orchestrate how virtual environments are configured, isolated, and maintained. This makes them crucial for efficient VM management in production and testing environments.

---

✅ To Allocate Physical System Resources to Virtual Machines

Hypervisors also act as resource managers. They assign real, physical system components to each virtual machine as needed, ensuring that resources are efficiently shared while keeping each VM isolated.

Examples of allocated resources include:

• CPU cores and cycles

• RAM (dedicated or shared)

• Storage (virtual disks)

• Network bandwidth and interfaces

The hypervisor ensures that each VM behaves as if it has its own hardware, even though it shares resources with others. Some hypervisors can even perform dynamic resource allocation to scale performance based on demand.

---

❌ Why the Other Options Are Incorrect

❌ To partition the hard drive to run virtual machines

Partitioning a hard drive is a storage setup task, not a function of a hypervisor. Hypervisors use virtual disk files, not actual partitions, to simulate hard drives for each VM.

❌ To protect the host from malware infection from the virtual machines

While hypervisors do isolate VMs from each other and from the host, they do not actively protect the host from malware. Security software and best practices are still required.

❌ To share the antivirus software across the virtual machines

Each VM operates independently and requires its own antivirus installation. Hypervisors do not allow software sharing between guest VMs.

---

🧾 Summary

---

✅ Conclusion

The two essential functions of a hypervisor are:

• Managing virtual machines

• Allocating physical system resources

These capabilities are what enable virtualization to support flexible, scalable, and cost-efficient IT operations.