CV0-004 Troubleshooting Practice Question
A cloud administrator notices that a virtual machine is consuming excessive CPU resources with no apparent workload. Which of the following should the administrator investigate FIRST to determine the cause?
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
✓
A runaway process inside the VM
A runaway process inside the VM is the most likely cause when a VM exhibits high CPU utilization without an apparent workload. This could be due to a background service, malware, or an application stuck in an infinite loop. Option A is incorrect because a misconfigured load balancer would direct traffic to the VM, which would result in network and CPU activity associated with processing that traffic, not idle high CPU. Option B is incorrect; CPU hotplug settings affect the ability to add CPUs but do not themselves cause high CPU usage. Option D is incorrect; memory overcommitment affects memory availability, not CPU utilization.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A misconfigured load balancer sending traffic to the VM
Why it's wrong here
Traffic from load balancer would appear as workload, but the question says no apparent workload.
- ✗
CPU hotplug settings on the hypervisor
Why it's wrong here
CPU hotplug adds CPUs dynamically but does not cause high usage.
- ✓
A runaway process inside the VM
Why this is correct
A runaway process (e.g., infinite loop) can consume 100% CPU even with no intended workload.
- ✗
Memory overcommitment ratio
Why it's wrong here
Memory overcommitment does not directly cause high CPU.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CV0-004 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 CV0-004 exam.