VCP-DCV Configure and Manage vSphere Storage Practice Question
A company has a vSphere cluster consisting of 8 ESXi hosts connected to a single Fibre Channel SAN array. They use VMFS6 datastores to store virtual machine files. The storage administrator has scheduled a firmware upgrade for the SAN array that requires a controller reboot. This will cause a temporary loss of connectivity to one LUN (datastore) for approximately 5 minutes. The datastore hosts 15 production VMs, including critical database servers. The cluster has sufficient spare capacity on other datastores, but the VMs are large (each about 200 GB). The vSphere administrator must ensure that these VMs remain available during the upgrade. The cluster has vSphere HA enabled with default settings. What should the administrator do to meet the requirement?
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
✓
Use Storage vMotion to migrate all VMs on the affected datastores to a healthy datastore before the upgrade.
Storage vMotion (option A) allows live migration of virtual machines to a different datastore with zero downtime. Since the cluster has sufficient spare capacity on other datastores, migrating the VMs before the firmware upgrade ensures they remain available during the temporary LUN disconnection. Option B (HA admission control) is designed to reserve resources for host failures, not storage disruptions. Option C (placing hosts into maintenance mode) would evacuate VMs to other hosts, but the VMs would still be on the affected datastore and would lose access during the upgrade. Option D (Storage I/O Control) manages I/O congestion but does not prevent VM downtime from a LUN disconnect.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use Storage vMotion to migrate all VMs on the affected datastores to a healthy datastore before the upgrade.
Why this is correct
Storage vMotion allows live migration of VM files without downtime, keeping VMs available during the storage upgrade.
- ✗
Configure a vSphere HA admission control policy to reserve resources in case of host failure.
Why it's wrong here
HA admission control is for host failures, not for planned storage maintenance.
- ✗
Place all ESXi hosts into maintenance mode.
Why it's wrong here
Host maintenance mode will power off VMs, causing downtime, which is not acceptable.
- ✗
Enable Storage I/O Control on the affected datastore to manage I/O during the upgrade.
Why it's wrong here
SIOC manages I/O shares but does not provide availability during a storage path loss.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This VCP-DCV question is part of Courseiva's 498-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This VCP-DCV practice question is part of Courseiva's free VMware 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 VCP-DCV exam.