Which component enables multiple virtual environments to run on a single physical host by abstracting hardware resources?

Which component enables multiple virtual environments to run on a single physical host by abstracting hardware resources?

• A. BIOS
• B. Kernel
• C. Hypervisor
• D. Virtual Machine

Answer: (C)

Virtualization relies on a layer that abstracts the physical hardware so multiple virtual environments can share a single host. This layer is the hypervisor, which sits between the hardware and the virtual machines and manages how CPU, memory, storage, and I/O are allocated and isolated for each VM. By presenting each virtual machine with its own virtualized hardware, the hypervisor enables independent operating systems to run concurrently on the same physical machine. BIOS is firmware that initializes hardware during boot and provides basic services; it doesn’t manage virtualized resources across multiple VMs. The kernel is the core part of an operating system that handles processes and resources for a single system, not the overarching mechanism for sharing hardware with multiple guests. A virtual machine is the isolated guest environment itself, not the tool that enables sharing hardware across several guests.

Virtualization relies on a layer that abstracts the physical hardware so multiple virtual environments can share a single host. This layer is the hypervisor, which sits between the hardware and the virtual machines and manages how CPU, memory, storage, and I/O are allocated and isolated for each VM. By presenting each virtual machine with its own virtualized hardware, the hypervisor enables independent operating systems to run concurrently on the same physical machine.

BIOS is firmware that initializes hardware during boot and provides basic services; it doesn’t manage virtualized resources across multiple VMs. The kernel is the core part of an operating system that handles processes and resources for a single system, not the overarching mechanism for sharing hardware with multiple guests. A virtual machine is the isolated guest environment itself, not the tool that enables sharing hardware across several guests.