220-1101 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Practice Test 9 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An organization runs a critical database server on a VM in a public cloud. The VM uses an attached persistent block storage volume. The database must be migrated to a new VM with more resources in a different availability zone within the same cloud provider, with minimal downtime. The cloud provider does not offer a live migration feature across availability zones. Which of the following strategies BEST achieves minimal downtime?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Set up database replication to a new VM in the target zone, then cut over traffic once replication is caught up.. Database replication (e.g., using native MySQL replication or PostgreSQL streaming replication) allows you to keep the new VM in the target zone synchronized with the source with minimal downtime. Once replication is caught up, you perform a brief cutover (seconds to minutes) by stopping writes on the source, applying any final changes, and redirecting traffic to the new VM. This avoids the hours of downtime required by snapshot-based or export/import methods.

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Take a snapshot of the current volume, create a new volume from the snapshot in the target zone, and attach it to the new VM.

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Use the cloud provider's live migration feature to move the VM to the target availability zone.

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Export the VM as an OVA file, copy it to the target zone, and import it as a new VM.

Question 2

A company hosts a critical web application on a virtual machine (VM) in a public cloud. The IT team needs to move the VM to a new physical host in the same datacenter to free up resources on the current host. The application must remain accessible via its existing private IP address, and downtime must be minimized. Which cloud feature BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Live migration. Live migration (also known as vMotion in VMware environments) allows a running virtual machine to be moved from one physical host to another with no downtime and without changing its network identity, including the private IP address. This meets the requirement to free up resources on the current host while keeping the application accessible via its existing IP and minimizing disruption.

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Elastic IP

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Virtual private cloud (VPC)

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Reserved instance

Question 3

A company must run a sensitive financial application that requires the application to be hosted on physical servers that are not shared with any other customer. The workload is highly variable and may require large amounts of resources for a few hours at a time. The company wants to minimize costs by paying only for the resources consumed. Which of the following cloud deployment models BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Public cloud with dedicated hosts. A public cloud with dedicated hosts meets the requirement for physical server isolation (no resource sharing with other customers) while allowing the company to pay only for the resources consumed. The dedicated host option ensures the sensitive application runs on a physical server dedicated solely to that customer, and the public cloud's pay-as-you-go model supports the highly variable workload without long-term commitments.

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Private cloud

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Hybrid cloud

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Community cloud

Question 4

A company needs to move a virtual machine (VM) from one physical host to another in the same datacenter. The VM must remain accessible via its current private IP address, and downtime must be kept to an absolute minimum. Which cloud feature BEST enables this migration?

Accepted Answer

Live migration. Live migration (also known as vMotion in VMware environments) allows a running virtual machine to be moved from one physical host to another with zero downtime and without changing its network identity. The VM's memory and CPU state are transferred over a dedicated network while the disk storage remains shared, ensuring the private IP address remains accessible throughout the process.

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Load balancing

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Auto-scaling

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Elasticity

Question 5

A company hosts a critical web application on a virtual machine (VM) in a public cloud. The application experiences sudden, unpredictable traffic spikes that require additional CPU and memory resources for a few hours at a time. The cloud provider automatically provisions and releases these resources based on real-time demand, without any manual intervention from the IT team. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario BEST describe?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. The scenario describes elasticity, which is the ability of a cloud system to automatically scale resources (CPU, memory) up or down in real-time based on demand, without manual intervention. This is a core characteristic of cloud computing, distinct from high availability or fault tolerance, as it focuses on dynamic resource provisioning to match workload spikes.

Answer

High availability

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Load balancing

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Fault tolerance

Question 6

A company hosts a web application on a virtual machine in a public cloud. During lunch hours, traffic increases dramatically, and the cloud provider automatically provisions additional compute resources to handle the load. When traffic subsides, the extra resources are automatically released. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario BEST describe?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. The scenario describes automatic scaling up and down of compute resources in response to demand, which is the defining behavior of rapid elasticity. This characteristic allows cloud resources to be provisioned and released quickly, often automatically, to match workload fluctuations. The key here is the dynamic, automated scaling triggered by traffic changes, not just the ability to request resources manually.

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Resource pooling

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Measured service

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On-demand self-service

Question 7

A company hosts a critical database on a virtual machine in a public cloud. The database requires persistent storage that must be retained even if the VM is terminated. The storage must also be accessible from multiple VMs simultaneously for a future high-availability configuration. Which type of cloud storage BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

File storage. File storage (C) is correct because it provides a shared, persistent file system that can be mounted by multiple VMs simultaneously, typically using NFS or SMB/CIFS protocols. This meets the requirement for persistent storage that survives VM termination and supports concurrent read/write access for a future high-availability configuration.

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Object storage

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Block storage

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Ephemeral storage

Question 8

A cloud administrator is migrating a virtual machine from a private cloud to a public cloud. The VM must retain its hostname and IP address. The public cloud provider does not support the same hypervisor as the private cloud. Which of the following migration methods is MOST appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Virtual-to-virtual (V2V). Virtual-to-virtual (V2V) migration is the correct method because it converts a virtual machine from one hypervisor format to another, allowing the VM to run on a public cloud provider that uses a different hypervisor than the private cloud. This process preserves the guest OS, applications, and configuration, including the hostname and IP address, by converting the virtual disk and metadata to the target hypervisor's format.

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Physical-to-virtual (P2V)

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Live migration

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Cloning

Question 9

A company uses a public cloud IaaS provider. They have a virtual machine that runs a legacy application requiring a static IP address. The VM needs to be migrated to a different physical host within the same datacenter due to scheduled maintenance. The application cannot tolerate more than a few seconds of downtime. Which feature should the cloud administrator use?

Accepted Answer

Live migration. Live migration (B) is correct because it allows a running virtual machine to be moved between physical hosts with virtually no downtime, typically under a second. This meets the requirement of a static IP address (the VM's network identity is preserved) and the sub-second tolerance for downtime during scheduled maintenance.

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Auto-scaling

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Snapshot and restore

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High availability

Question 10

A company has a legacy virtual machine running on a deprecated hypervisor (Hyper-V). They want to migrate this VM to a new hypervisor (VMware vSphere) hosted in a private cloud while preserving the VM's configuration, installed applications, and data. The migration must be performed with minimal downtime. Which of the following methods is MOST appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Export the VM as an OVF template and import it into the new hypervisor.. Exporting the VM as an OVF (Open Virtualization Format) template is the most appropriate method because OVF is a hypervisor-agnostic standard that encapsulates the VM's configuration, virtual disks, and metadata. This allows the VM to be imported into VMware vSphere while preserving its installed applications and data, and the export/import process can be performed with minimal downtime by shutting down the VM only during the export phase.

Answer

Perform a physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion using third-party tools.

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Use live migration (vMotion) to move the VM between hypervisors.

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Rebuild the VM from scratch on the new hypervisor and restore data from backup.

Question 11

A company hosts a web application on a virtual machine in a public cloud. The application requires a storage solution that can be accessed from multiple VMs simultaneously and will persist even if the VM hosting the application is terminated. Which of the following storage types BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Network-attached storage (NAS). Network-attached storage (NAS) provides file-level access over a network (typically using NFS or SMB/CIFS protocols), allowing multiple VMs to read and write to the same storage concurrently. Because the storage is independent of any single VM, it persists even after the VM hosting the application is terminated, making it the ideal choice for shared, persistent storage in a cloud environment.

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Object storage

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Block storage

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Direct-attached storage (DAS)

Question 12

A company operates a private cloud environment with a cluster of physical hosts running virtual machines. The IT administrator wants to ensure that if a physical host fails unexpectedly, the virtual machines running on that host will be automatically restarted on another healthy host in the cluster without manual intervention. Which feature should the administrator configure?

Accepted Answer

High availability (HA). High Availability (HA) is the correct feature because it is designed to automatically restart virtual machines on another healthy host within a cluster when a physical host fails. HA uses heartbeat monitoring between hosts and the vCenter Server (or equivalent management platform) to detect failures, then triggers VM restarts on surviving hosts without manual intervention. This directly matches the requirement for automatic recovery from an unexpected host failure.

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Fault tolerance (FT)

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Load balancing

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Live migration

Question 13

A small business uses a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) system that is accessed entirely through a web browser. The business does not manage the underlying operating system, middleware, or hardware. Which cloud computing service model does this scenario BEST describe?

Accepted Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS). This scenario describes Software as a Service (SaaS) because the business consumes a fully functional CRM application delivered over the web, with no control over the underlying operating system, middleware, or hardware. The provider manages the entire stack, and the customer only accesses the software via a browser, which is the defining characteristic of SaaS.

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 14

A database virtual machine in a private cloud is experiencing slow performance. The VM's virtual disk is stored on a network-attached storage (NAS) device accessed over a 1 GbE connection. The database requires very high input/output operations per second (IOPS) and low latency. Which of the following would provide the BEST improvement in storage performance?

Accepted Answer

Store the virtual disk on a local SSD within the host server.. Storing the virtual disk on a local SSD within the host server eliminates network latency and contention from the 1 GbE connection, providing the low latency and high IOPS required by the database. Local SSDs offer orders of magnitude lower latency than NAS over Ethernet, directly addressing the performance bottleneck.

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Move the virtual disk to an object storage bucket.

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Increase the allocated RAM of the VM.

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Use thin provisioning to reduce the disk size.

Question 15

A company runs a critical web application on a virtual machine in a public cloud. To ensure high availability during traffic spikes and hardware failures, the administrator wants to distribute incoming traffic across multiple identical VMs. Which of the following cloud solutions BEST meets this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Deploy a load balancer to distribute traffic across the VM instances.. A load balancer (Option B) is the correct solution because it actively distributes incoming traffic across multiple identical VM instances, providing high availability by automatically rerouting traffic away from failed instances. Unlike DNS-based methods, a load balancer performs health checks and can handle traffic spikes without relying on client-side caching or TTL propagation delays.

Answer

Configure an auto-scaling group to add more VMs during high demand.

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Set up DNS round-robin with multiple A records pointing to each VM.

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Establish a site-to-site VPN connection to the cloud provider's network.