CompTIA Cloud+ Practice Test

What action should an administrator take when tasked with creating a new guest VM requiring a single CPU on a host with one physical quad core CPU?

1. Assign 1 virtual CPU to the Host

2. Assign 1 physical CPU to the Guest

3. Assign 1 virtual CPU to the Guest

4. Assign 1 physical CPU to the Host

The correct answer is: Assign 1 virtual CPU to the Guest

The appropriate action in this scenario is to assign one virtual CPU to the guest VM. This approach ensures that the virtual machine (VM) can utilize the underlying physical quad-core CPU effectively while managing system resources efficiently. In virtualization environments, VMs operate on virtual CPUs that map to the physical cores available on the host. By assigning a virtual CPU to the guest, the administrator is effectively designating a portion of the physical CPU's processing power for that VM. Since the host machine has one physical quad-core CPU, it can support multiple VMs and their allocated virtual CPUs without overwhelming the physical resources. Allocating virtual CPUs allows for better management of workloads, including the ability to run multiple VMs on a single physical machine, without needing to assign entire physical CPUs directly to individual VMs. This dynamic allocation also offers the flexibility to scale resources as needed for different workloads. The other options do not align with standard virtualization practices. Assigning a physical CPU to the guest or the host is not necessary and would not be feasible in the context of virtual machines, as it overlooks the purpose of virtualization, which is to create an abstraction layer between physical hardware and virtual instances.