What are two primary responsibilities of the hypervisor?

The hypervisor plays a crucial role in virtualization environments, primarily centered on managing virtual machines and facilitating interaction between guest operating systems and the underlying hardware. One of its core responsibilities is to oversee the creation, execution, and management of virtual machines (VMs). This allows multiple virtual instances to run on a single physical machine, enabling better resource utilization and isolation.

Additionally, the hypervisor provides an interface that allows these guest operating systems to interact with the physical hardware on which they are running. This abstraction layer ensures that each VM perceives its own independent environment, even though multiple VMs may share the same underlying resources. The hypervisor manages the allocation of CPU, memory, and storage to these VMs, ensuring that they operate efficiently while maintaining security and stability.

While managing memory and storage is a part of the hypervisor's functions, the specific dual focus on creating virtual machines and providing hardware interface access highlights its primary responsibilities effectively. Other options such as optimizing network performance or handling user authentication do not directly encompass the primary duties attributed to hypervisors, focusing instead on other aspects of IT infrastructure management.