What is an operating system running on a virtual machine called?

What is an operating system running on a virtual machine called?

• A. Guest OS
• B. Hypervisor
• C. Cloud Concepts
• D. IaaS

Answer: (A)

In a virtualized setup, each virtual machine behaves like its own computer. The operating system installed inside that virtual machine is known as the guest operating system. It runs on virtual hardware provided by the hypervisor, which sits between the VM and the actual physical hardware and allows multiple VMs to run on one host. The hypervisor itself, not the inside-VM OS, is the layer that enables virtualization. The other terms refer to cloud computing concepts and service models rather than the OS inside the VM, so they don’t describe what runs inside a virtual machine. So the OS inside a virtual machine is the guest operating system.

In a virtualized setup, each virtual machine behaves like its own computer. The operating system installed inside that virtual machine is known as the guest operating system. It runs on virtual hardware provided by the hypervisor, which sits between the VM and the actual physical hardware and allows multiple VMs to run on one host. The hypervisor itself, not the inside-VM OS, is the layer that enables virtualization. The other terms refer to cloud computing concepts and service models rather than the OS inside the VM, so they don’t describe what runs inside a virtual machine. So the OS inside a virtual machine is the guest operating system.