20+ practice questions focused on Virtual Machines and Hypervisors — one of the most tested topics on the ENCOR 350-401 exam. Each question includes a detailed explanation so you learn why the right answer is correct.
Start Virtual Machines and Hypervisors PracticeA network engineer is deploying a new virtualized application on a VMware vSphere cluster. The application requires dedicated CPU cores to meet licensing requirements, and the engineer must ensure that no other virtual machine can use those cores. The cluster uses VMware ESXi 7.0. Which configuration should the engineer apply to the virtual machine?
Explanation: CPU affinity (option A) is the correct configuration because it explicitly binds a virtual machine's vCPUs to specific physical cores, ensuring that no other VM can use those cores. This meets the licensing requirement for dedicated CPU cores by preventing co-scheduling or sharing of those physical cores with other workloads, which CPU reservation alone does not guarantee.
An enterprise is migrating a legacy application from a physical server to a virtual machine on a KVM-based hypervisor. The application requires direct access to a PCIe network interface card for performance reasons. The engineer needs to provide the VM with dedicated hardware access while maintaining isolation from other VMs. Which technology should the engineer use?
Explanation: PCI passthrough (Option A) is correct because it assigns the entire physical PCIe NIC directly to the VM, giving it exclusive, dedicated hardware access with full performance and no hypervisor overhead. This meets the requirement for direct access while maintaining isolation, as other VMs cannot use the same device.
A network engineer is troubleshooting performance issues on a VMware ESXi host running multiple VMs. The host has two physical CPUs, each with 8 cores (16 logical processors with Hyper-Threading enabled). One VM, configured with 8 vCPUs, experiences high CPU ready time. Other VMs on the host are idle. What is the most likely cause of the high CPU ready time?
Explanation: The VM has 8 vCPUs, but each physical CPU has only 8 cores (16 logical processors with Hyper-Threading). Since a single NUMA node typically corresponds to one physical CPU socket, an 8-vCPU VM cannot fit entirely within one NUMA node if the VM's vCPUs exceed the number of physical cores on that socket (8 cores). The hypervisor must span the VM across both NUMA nodes, causing remote memory access and increasing CPU ready time due to NUMA latency.
A company is deploying a virtualized firewall on a VMware ESXi host. The firewall VM requires high network throughput and low latency. The engineer decides to use SR-IOV to assign a virtual function (VF) from a physical NIC to the VM. After configuration, the VM can communicate, but the host's management network becomes unreachable. What is the most likely cause?
Explanation: When SR-IOV is enabled on a physical NIC, the Physical Function (PF) is shared between the host management network and the Virtual Functions (VFs). If the PF is used for the host management network, enabling SR-IOV can disrupt the PF's driver or configuration, causing the management network to become unreachable. This is a common misconfiguration where the same NIC is used for both management and SR-IOV VFs.
A network engineer is designing a disaster recovery solution using VMware vSphere. The engineer needs to replicate virtual machines from the primary site to a secondary site with minimal downtime. The application VMs are running on NFS datastores. The engineer plans to use vSphere Replication. What prerequisite must be met for vSphere Replication to work with NFS datastores?
Explanation: vSphere Replication operates at the hypervisor level, replicating VM data from the source ESXi host to the target ESXi host. For NFS datastores, the source and target hosts must each have the NFS datastore mounted because vSphere Replication reads the VM files from the source NFS mount and writes them to the target NFS mount. Without both mounts, the replication engine cannot access the source data or place the replica on the target storage.
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Practice all Virtual Machines and Hypervisors questions1. Baseline your knowledge
Start with 10 questions to gauge your current understanding of Virtual Machines and Hypervisors. This tells you whether you need a concept refresher or just practice.
2. Review every explanation
For each question — right or wrong — read the full explanation. Understanding why an answer is correct is more valuable than knowing the answer itself.
3. Focus on exam traps
Virtual Machines and Hypervisors questions on the 350-401 frequently use trap wording. Look for subtle differences in answers that test your precision, not just general knowledge.
4. Reach 80% consistently
Do repeated sessions until you score 80%+ three times in a row. Then move to mixed-mode practice to test cross-topic recall under realistic conditions.
The exact number varies per candidate. Virtual Machines and Hypervisors is tested as part of the ENCOR 350-401 blueprint. Practicing with targeted Virtual Machines and Hypervisors questions ensures you can handle any format or difficulty that appears.
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Difficulty is subjective, but Virtual Machines and Hypervisors is a high-priority exam concept tested in multiple ways — direct recall, scenario analysis, and command-output interpretation. Consistent practice is the best way to build confidence.
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