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350-401 Practice Question: An enterprise is deploying a virtual router…
An enterprise is deploying a virtual router (vRouter) as part of its NFV infrastructure. The engineer needs to ensure that the vRouter can handle a sudden spike in traffic without dropping packets. The vRouter is running on a KVM hypervisor. What should the engineer configure to guarantee CPU resources for the vRouter during peak demand?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between resource optimization (DPDK, NUMA) and resource guarantee (pinning, reservation), leading candidates to pick DPDK because it is associated with high performance, even though it does not guarantee CPU availability under contention.
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
✓
Configure CPU pinning and CPU reservation for the vRouter VM.
CPU pinning binds the vRouter's virtual CPUs to specific physical cores, preventing other processes from using them, while CPU reservation guarantees a minimum amount of CPU capacity. Together, they ensure deterministic CPU availability during traffic spikes, preventing packet drops due to resource contention on the KVM hypervisor.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable memory ballooning on the vRouter VM.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect because memory ballooning adjusts memory allocation, not CPU resources.
- ✓
Configure CPU pinning and CPU reservation for the vRouter VM.
Why this is correct
Correct because CPU pinning dedicates specific cores to the VM and reservation guarantees minimum CPU, preventing contention.
- ✗
Enable DPDK on the vRouter's virtual NICs.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect because DPDK accelerates packet processing but does not reserve CPU resources.
- ✗
Set the vRouter VM to use NUMA node pinning.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect because NUMA pinning improves memory locality, not CPU availability.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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