220-1101 Question 366
Single answerType 2A technician is upgrading a small office workstation so it can run a test environment without affecting the user's primary operating system. The user wants to install virtualization software on top of the existing Windows installation and run a guest OS in a separate window. Which type of hypervisor best fits this requirement?
- A
Type 1 hypervisor installed directly on the hardware
- B
Type 2 hypervisor installed on the existing operating system
- C
Bare-metal cluster hypervisor managed by a SAN
- D
Hardware RAID controller with virtualization support
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The key phrase in the scenario is that the virtualization software must run on top of the existing Windows installation while allowing a guest OS to run separately. That describes a hosted hypervisor, also called a Type 2 hypervisor. In A+ Core 1, candidates should distinguish Type 1 hypervisors, which run directly on hardware, from Type 2 hypervisors, which run within a host operating system. Type 2 hypervisors are commonly used on end-user systems for software testing, training, and sandboxed application use. This aligns with common vendor documentation for products such as Oracle VirtualBox and VMware Workstation, which are installed within a host OS rather than replacing it.
- A. Incorrect.
This is incorrect because a Type 1 hypervisor runs directly on the host's hardware instead of on top of an existing operating system. Type 1 platforms are common in enterprise servers where maximum performance and isolation are needed, but they do not match the scenario of keeping the current Windows desktop installation as the primary environment for daily use.
- B. Correct.
This is correct because a Type 2 hypervisor runs as an application within an existing operating system, such as Windows. This matches the scenario exactly: the user wants to keep using the installed Windows OS while launching a guest operating system in a separate window for testing. Common examples include Oracle VirtualBox and VMware Workstation.
- C. Incorrect.
This is incorrect because the scenario does not mention enterprise clustering, shared storage, or centralized virtualization infrastructure. A bare-metal clustered solution managed by a SAN is far more complex than needed for a single office workstation and does not align with the requirement to run virtualization software on top of the existing Windows installation.
- D. Incorrect.
This is incorrect because a hardware RAID controller manages disk redundancy and storage performance, not desktop hypervisor functionality. Someone might choose this option by confusing general hardware support for virtualization with actual hypervisor types, but RAID hardware does not provide the hosted virtual machine environment described in the scenario.