Cloud Computing

Hosted Hypervisor (Type 2)

Added: June 26, 2026

Definition

A Hosted Hypervisor (Type 2) is a hypervisor that is installed on top of an existing operating system, such as Windows or Linux. Its role is to create and manage Virtual Machines (VMs) while relying on the host operating system to access the hardware.

What Problem It Solves

Lets users run multiple operating systems on their existing computer without installing additional physical machines.
Ideal for learning, testing, and software development.

What Happens If Not Used

Users would need separate computers to test or run different operating systems.

Easy Wording

A Hosted Hypervisor lets your existing computer run other operating systems like regular applications.

Layman Example

Think of a building manager who first reports to a property manager (host operating system) before assigning apartments to tenants.

Technical Example

Flow:

Physical Hardware → Host Operating System (Windows) → Hosted Hypervisor → VM 1 (Ubuntu) → Web Server ↳ VM 2 (Kali Linux)

The host operating system controls the hardware first, and the hypervisor requests resources from it before allocating them to the virtual machines.