350-601 Compute Practice Question
A network engineer is designing a Cisco HyperFlex cluster for a virtualized environment. The cluster will run VDI workloads. Which storage policy should be selected to ensure that all VMs have the highest possible performance while maintaining data redundancy?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the misconception that erasure coding or RAID parity is always better for space efficiency, but in VDI scenarios, the write penalty of these methods makes dual replication the correct choice for performance-sensitive workloads.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Dual replication with deduplication and compression
For VDI workloads in a Cisco HyperFlex cluster, the storage policy must balance performance and data redundancy. Dual replication with deduplication and compression provides the highest performance by using two copies of data (mirroring) for redundancy, while deduplication and compression reduce storage overhead without the write penalty of parity-based schemes. This avoids the performance degradation of RAID 5 parity or erasure coding, which are unsuitable for latency-sensitive VDI.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Triple replication with RAID 5 parity
Why it's wrong here
Triple replication uses more capacity and RAID 5 can have performance overhead.
- ✗
Erasure coding with deduplication
Why it's wrong here
Erasure coding has higher CPU overhead and lower performance than replication for VDI.
- ✓
Dual replication with deduplication and compression
Why this is correct
Dual replication provides redundancy, and deduplication/compression reduce capacity, while caching maintains performance.
- ✗
No replication with compression
Why it's wrong here
No replication means no redundancy, which is unacceptable for VDI.
Quick reference
RAID Level Comparison
| RAID Level | Min Disks | Fault Tolerance | Read | Write | Usable Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAID 0 | 2 | None | Excellent | Excellent | 100% |
| RAID 1 | 2 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 50% |
| RAID 5 | 3 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 67–94% |
| RAID 6 | 4 | 2 disks | Good | Lower | 50–88% |
| RAID 10 | 4 | 1 disk per mirror | Excellent | Good | 50% |
RAID is not a backup strategy — it protects against disk failure but not against accidental deletion, ransomware, or site-level events.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 350-601 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 350-601 exam.