Which of the following is a characteristic of Type 2 hypervisors?

A key characteristic of Type 2 hypervisors is that they are installed on top of an existing operating system. This means that the hypervisor relies on the host OS for resource management and has to work within the constraints set by that OS. As a result, Type 2 hypervisors are often easier to set up and manage for personal use or development environments, particularly because users can leverage existing OS user interfaces and tools.

By being dependent on a host OS, Type 2 hypervisors can provide flexibility in running multiple virtual machines without needing dedicated hardware. However, this setup can introduce some overhead that may affect performance when compared to Type 1 hypervisors, which run directly on the hardware and are generally regarded as more efficient for enterprise-grade virtualization solutions.

Understanding the architecture differences between Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors is crucial for making informed decisions about virtualization in cloud environments.