Network Defense Essentials (NDE) Practice Exam 2025 – Your All-in-One Resource to Exam Success!

Full virtualization is a technique that allows multiple guest operating systems to run concurrently on a host machine while remaining completely unaware of the virtualization layer. This is achieved by providing a complete simulation of the underlying hardware, allowing the operating systems to execute as if they were running directly on physical hardware.

In full virtualization, the hypervisor intercepts all the interactions between the guest OS and the hardware, ensuring that the guest operating system operates without any modifications. This means that the guest OS is not privy to the fact that it is being virtualized, making it possible to run unmodified versions of the operating systems in a virtual environment.

This approach is particularly beneficial when running different operating systems or applications that require full access to hardware resources and where modifications to the guest OS are not feasible. It also enhances compatibility, as the guest OS does not need to be specifically designed or altered for virtualization.

In contrast, other virtualization types, such as paravirtualization, require the guest operating systems to be modified to communicate with the hypervisor, which means these systems are somewhat aware that they are running in a virtual environment.