A company hosts a web application on a single virtual machine in a public cloud IaaS environment. The application experiences intermittent slowdowns. The administrator checks the VM's performance metrics and notices that CPU and memory usage are low, but disk I/O latency spikes during the slowdowns. The cloud provider uses a shared storage system with multiple tenants. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
Distractor review
VM throttling due to burstable CPU
Burstable CPU instances can be throttled if credits are exhausted, but the CPU usage is reported as low. Therefore, throttling is unlikely to be the cause of the application slowdowns.
Best answer
Storage performance variability due to the noisy neighbor effect
Shared storage means I/O from other tenants can create contention, leading to high latency for disk operations. This explains the I/O latency spikes and intermittent slowdowns despite low VM resource usage.
Distractor review
Insufficient virtual RAM allocation
Memory usage is low, so insufficient RAM is not the cause. The symptom is disk I/O latency, not memory swapping or high memory usage.
Distractor review
Network bandwidth contention
Network bandwidth contention would manifest as network latency or packet loss, not disk I/O latency. The reported metrics focus on disk I/O, so the issue is likely at the storage layer.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: OSPF can fail even when IP connectivity looks correct
OSPF neighbour formation depends on matching areas, timers, network type, authentication and passive-interface behaviour. Do not choose an answer only because the devices can ping.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
OSPF questions usually test the details that control adjacency and route selection. Read the neighbour state, area, router ID and interface configuration before deciding what is wrong.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- OSPF neighbours must agree on key parameters.
- Router ID selection can affect neighbour relationships and LSDB output.
- OSPF cost influences the preferred path.
- A route can appear in OSPF information but not become the installed route.
TExam Day Tips
- Check area mismatch first when OSPF adjacency fails.
- Review passive interfaces when a network is advertised but no neighbour forms.
- Use show ip ospf neighbor and show ip route clues carefully.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A user reports intermittent network connectivity on a desktop computer. The technician observes that the Ethernet link light on the NIC turns off for a few seconds and then turns back on. The cable passes a wiremap test, the switch port is verified good with another device, and the NIC driver is updated. The issue occurs more frequently when the computer's case fan runs at high speed. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
Question 2
A workstation is unable to connect to the internet. The technician runs the 'ipconfig' command and sees the IPv4 address is 169.254.15.200 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. The workstation can ping other devices on the local subnet but cannot ping the default gateway or any external addresses. Which TWO actions should the technician take to resolve this issue? (Select two.)
Question 3
A workstation is connected to a managed switch. It obtains a valid IP address (192.168.10.50) from the DHCP server, but it cannot ping the default gateway (192.168.10.1). The link light on both the workstation NIC and the switch port are solid green. Other workstations on the same switch CAN ping the default gateway successfully. The technician accesses the switch management interface and finds that the workstation's port is configured as an access port on VLAN 10. The default gateway is located on VLAN 20. An inter-VLAN router is configured but not explicitly allowing VLAN 10 access to VLAN 20. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the problem?
Question 4
A company develops a web application that relies on a custom library available only for a specific Linux distribution. They want to deploy the application in the cloud with minimal administrative overhead, but they need full control over the software stack, including the ability to install the custom library and configure the web server. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?
Question 5
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?
Question 6
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?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this 220-1101 question test?
OSPF neighbours must agree on key parameters.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Storage performance variability due to the noisy neighbor effect — In a multi-tenant cloud environment, storage resources are shared among many VMs. When neighboring VMs generate heavy I/O, the shared storage array may become congested, causing latency spikes for other VMs. This is known as the 'noisy neighbor' effect. Since the VM's CPU and memory are low, the issue is not resource exhaustion on the VM itself, pointing to contention at the storage level.
What should I do if I get this 220-1101 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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