220-1101 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Practice Question
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?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the misconception that increasing RAM or using thin provisioning can solve storage performance issues, when the real bottleneck is the network link or storage protocol latency.
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
✓
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.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Move the virtual disk to an object storage bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Object storage operates through HTTP APIs with inherently high latency and is designed for durable, scalable archival data, not for the block-level, low-latency random I/O that a database virtual machine requires. Moving the virtual disk there would dramatically increase response times, as each I/O operation goes across the network and incurs protocol overhead, making the performance problem even worse.
- ✓
Store the virtual disk on a local SSD within the host server.
Why this is correct
Placing the virtual disk on a local SSD within the host server directly addresses the bottleneck by eliminating network round trips and providing the extremely low latency and high IOPS that databases need. Local SSDs are attached to the physical host, so every read and write goes straight to the NVMe or SATA controller without competing with other tenants on a shared storage network. This is the classic performance tuning step for a database VM suffering from storage latency.
- ✗
Increase the allocated RAM of the VM.
Why it's wrong here
While allocating more RAM can enlarge the database buffer cache and improve cache hit rates, it does nothing to change the underlying storage path or the latency of each I/O operation that must reach the network-attached disk. The reported issue is likely a storage performance problem, not a memory shortage, and unless the database is swapping, additional RAM will not alleviate the high-latency reading or writing of data pages to disk.
- ✗
Use thin provisioning to reduce the disk size.
Why it's wrong here
Thin provisioning allocates storage blocks on demand rather than pre-allocating them, which can actually increase write latency because the storage system must perform extra metadata updates and allocate new blocks during active I/O. It can also lead to fragmentation over time, further degrading sequential access patterns. Since the problem is network storage latency, reducing the disk's logical size or enabling thin provisioning will not shorten the physical distance or protocol overhead that is causing the slowdown.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Storage Devices: HDD, SSD, NVMe
Key term
IOPS
IOPS measures how many input/output operations a storage device can perform per second, indicating its speed and responsiveness.
Key term
NAS
NAS is a dedicated file-level storage device connected to a network, providing centralized data access to multiple clients.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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