XK0-006 Troubleshooting Practice Question
A system is experiencing high load average. The administrator runs 'vmstat 1 5' and sees a high 'wa' value. What does this indicate?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'wa' with memory swapping or CPU usage, but vmstat columns are distinct: 'wa' is specifically I/O wait, while swapping is shown in 'si' and 'so', and CPU usage in 'us' and 'sy'.
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
✓
High disk I/O wait
The 'wa' column in vmstat output indicates the percentage of time the CPU is waiting for I/O operations to complete. A high 'wa' value means the CPU is idle because it is blocked waiting for disk I/O, which directly points to high disk I/O wait. This is a classic indicator of a storage 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.
- ✓
High disk I/O wait
Why this is correct
The wa column in vmstat reports the percentage of CPU time spent idle while waiting for I/O operations to complete. A persistently high value therefore indicates processes blocked on disk I/O, identifying storage as the bottleneck causing the elevated load average.
- ✗
High memory swapping activity
Why it's wrong here
The wa column reports time CPUs idle while waiting on I/O completion, not swap activity; swapping appears in the si and so columns. It is tempting because heavy paging does inflate wait time, but confirming swap requires reading si/so, making this the right answer only when those counters are elevated.
- ✗
High CPU usage by user processes
Why it's wrong here
User-process CPU consumption is reported in the us column; wa measures idle time blocked on I/O, so high wa with low us indicates the CPUs are starved of data, not busy. It is tempting because load average rises in both cases, but us is the correct indicator when user processes genuinely saturate the CPU.
- ✗
High network I/O
Why it's wrong here
Network I/O is not represented by wa; that column aggregates idle time waiting on any block-device I/O, typically disk. It is tempting because network stalls can inflate load average, but confirming network throughput requires interface counters such as those from sar or iftop, not vmstat's wa field.
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Managing Storage and File Systems
Key term
Value
Value is the perceived worth, benefit, or usefulness that a service, product, or activity delivers to stakeholders, especially customers and the business.
Key term
Output
In IT service management, output is the result or deliverable produced by a process, system, or component, such as data, reports, or services delivered to a customer.
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