CV0-004 Troubleshooting Practice Question
A cloud administrator notices that a virtual machine (VM) is running slowly. The hypervisor shows high CPU ready time for that VM. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the distinction between CPU ready time and other performance metrics, trapping candidates who confuse high CPU ready time with memory pressure or storage 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
✓
Overcommitted physical CPU resources on the host
High CPU ready time indicates that the VM is ready to execute instructions but is waiting for the physical CPU to become available. This is a classic symptom of CPU overcommitment, where the host has more virtual CPUs (vCPUs) assigned to VMs than physical cores, causing contention. Option C correctly identifies this as the most likely cause.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
High disk I/O latency on the datastore
Why it's wrong here
CPU ready time reflects vCPUs queued for physical cores, so storage latency cannot cause it; disk contention shows as elevated read/write latency or queue depth. Datastore latency is the correct diagnosis when the VM reports slow I/O with normal CPU ready values.
- ✗
Insufficient memory allocated to the VM
Why it's wrong here
High CPU ready time measures time a vCPU waits for a physical core, so the constraint is processor scheduling, not memory. Insufficient memory produces swapping or ballooning, visible as high memory utilisation or disk paging. Adding RAM would be right when the VM shows memory pressure, not scheduling delay.
- ✓
Overcommitted physical CPU resources on the host
Why this is correct
High CPU ready time means the VM waited for physical cores while the scheduler ran other vCPUs. That occurs when the host's physical CPU is overcommitted, so the hypervisor cannot grant cycles promptly, directly explaining the slow VM.
- ✗
Misconfigured virtual switch
Why it's wrong here
A misconfigured virtual switch affects network throughput and connectivity, not CPU scheduling, so it cannot raise CPU ready time. It is tempting because virtual switches are common VM configuration faults, and would be correct if the symptom were packet loss or degraded network performance.
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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.