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CV0-004 Practice Question: A cloud administrator receives an alert that the…
A cloud administrator receives an alert that the CPU usage on a virtual machine has spiked to 100% for 10 minutes. The VM hosts a critical application. What is the best first step?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often jump to immediate remediation actions like rebooting or migrating the VM, overlooking the fundamental troubleshooting principle of gathering diagnostic data first to avoid recurring issues and unnecessary downtime.
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
✓
Check the VM's performance metrics for the last hour to identify the process causing the spike.
Checking the VM's performance metrics for the last hour is the best first step because it allows the administrator to identify the specific process or application causing the CPU spike without disrupting service. This diagnostic approach aligns with the ITIL problem management framework, which emphasizes root cause analysis before taking corrective action. In a virtualized environment, tools like vCenter Performance Charts or Hyper-V Performance Monitor can pinpoint whether the spike is due to a runaway process, a memory leak, or a scheduled task, enabling a targeted resolution.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Check the VM's performance metrics for the last hour to identify the process causing the spike.
Why this is correct
Reviewing the VM's performance metrics for the preceding hour establishes whether the 100% CPU spike is sustained, transient, or recurring, and identifies the offending process. This evidence-based diagnosis precedes remediation, avoiding disruptive actions on a critical application.
- ✗
Immediately reboot the VM.
Why it's wrong here
Rebooting discards volatile evidence such as running processes and memory state, and the spike may simply recur once the workload restarts. Restarting suits a hung or unresponsive service, not an unexplained utilisation alert where the cause must first be established before remediation.
- ✗
Move the VM to a different host.
Why it's wrong here
Migration relocates the workload but the offending process continues consuming CPU on the destination host, and live migration itself adds overhead. Host selection addresses noisy-neighbour contention, which would be the correct diagnosis only after metrics show other tenants on the same host causing the saturation.
- ✗
Increase the VM's CPU limits.
Why it's wrong here
Raising CPU limits treats the symptom without identifying which process consumed the resource, and may mask a runaway workload or malicious activity. Resource scaling is the right response once analysis confirms genuine sustained demand, not as the immediate action during an unexplained ten-minute spike on a critical application.
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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.