Mechanisms for dynamically configuring the resources of a virtual multiprocessor are provided. The invention contemplates provision of an apparatus to configure resources for one or more virtual processing elements in a virtual multiprocessor. The apparatus includes a virtual multiprocessor context, one or more virtual processing element contexts, and configuration logic. The virtual multiprocessor context, prescribes the resources, and controls a configuration state of the virtual multiprocessor. The one or more virtual processing element contexts each exclusively correspond to one of the one or more virtual processing elements. The one or more virtual processing element contexts each have first logic, for prescribing whether the one of the one or more virtual processing elements is permitted to configure the resources; and second logic, for prescribing a subset of the resources that is allocated to said one of the one or more virtual processing elements. The configuration logic is coupled to the virtual multiprocessor context and the one or more virtual processing element contexts. The configuration logic detects whether the one of the one or more virtual processing elements is permitted to configure the resources, updates the virtual multiprocessor context to direct that the virtual multiprocessor enter the configuration state, and configures the resources by updating a prescribed virtual processing element context.