Quick Answer
The answer is to review the NIC teaming failover order and ensure active uplinks are up. This is correct because when troubleshooting intermittent VM connectivity on a vDS, a healthy vDS health check and clean physical switch logs often mask a teaming misconfiguration: if the failover order designates a standby or unused uplink as active, or if a primary uplink is down, traffic can silently fail over to a degraded path, causing packet loss during failover events. On the VMware Certified Professional Data Center Virtualization VCP-DCV exam, this scenario tests your ability to distinguish between Layer 1/2 errors and logical teaming issues—a common trap is chasing phantom VLAN or MTU problems when the real culprit is an incorrect active/standby assignment. Remember the memory tip: “Active uplinks must be alive—if the order is off, the packets take a dive.”
This VCP-DCV practice question tests your understanding of configure and manage vsphere networking. Examine the command output carefully: the correct answer depends on what the output actually shows, not on general recall alone. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A VM on a vSphere Distributed Switch is experiencing intermittent connectivity drops. The administrator checks the vDS health check and sees no errors. The physical switch logs show no issues. The VM is on a port group with VLAN 200. The administrator runs a ping from the VM to the gateway and notices packet loss. What should the administrator investigate next?
Verify the VMkernel port configuration
Why wrong: VMkernel is for host management, not VM traffic.
Check the VM's firewall settings
Why wrong: Firewall would cause consistent drop, not intermittent.
Check DNS resolution for the gateway
Why wrong: Ping uses IP, not DNS.
Review the NIC teaming failover order and ensure active uplinks are up.
Intermittent drops can be caused by failover events.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Review the NIC teaming failover order and ensure active uplinks are up.
Option D is correct because intermittent connectivity drops on a VM connected to a vDS, despite no errors on the vDS health check or physical switch logs, often point to a NIC teaming misconfiguration. If the active uplinks are not properly set or one uplink is down, the VM traffic may fail over to a standby or unused uplink, causing packet loss. Verifying the teaming failover order and ensuring all active uplinks are operational directly addresses this common cause of intermittent drops.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Verify the VMkernel port configuration
Why it's wrong here
VMkernel is for host management, not VM traffic.
Check the VM's firewall settings
Why it's wrong here
Firewall would cause consistent drop, not intermittent.
Check DNS resolution for the gateway
Why it's wrong here
Ping uses IP, not DNS.
Review the NIC teaming failover order and ensure active uplinks are up.
Why this is correct
Intermittent drops can be caused by failover events.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often assume intermittent connectivity must be a VM firewall or DNS issue, overlooking the NIC teaming failover order as a primary cause of packet loss on a vDS when physical and vDS health checks show no errors.
Detailed technical explanation
In a vSphere Distributed Switch, NIC teaming policies (e.g., Route based on originating virtual port) determine how VM traffic is distributed across uplinks. If the active uplink list includes a failed or degraded physical NIC, or if the failover order is misconfigured (e.g., an uplink in standby when it should be active), the VM's traffic may be sent to a non-functional path, causing drops. The vDS health check only validates basic connectivity and configuration, not the real-time state of each uplink's link status or teaming policy, which is why it showed no errors.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A help-desk technician troubleshoots why a newly connected PC cannot reach shared printers on the same floor. The cable is good, the switch port is active, but the PC is in VLAN 20 and the printers are in VLAN 10. The uplink trunk only allows VLAN 10. A trunk being up does not mean every VLAN crosses it.
What to study next
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Configure and Manage vSphere Networking — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Configure and Manage vSphere Networking — This question tests Configure and Manage vSphere Networking — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Review the NIC teaming failover order and ensure active uplinks are up. — Option D is correct because intermittent connectivity drops on a VM connected to a vDS, despite no errors on the vDS health check or physical switch logs, often point to a NIC teaming misconfiguration. If the active uplinks are not properly set or one uplink is down, the VM traffic may fail over to a standby or unused uplink, causing packet loss. Verifying the teaming failover order and ensuring all active uplinks are operational directly addresses this common cause of intermittent drops.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Same concept, more angles
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A network administrator notices that all traffic from two VMs connected to the same standard switch port group is going through the same physical uplink, causing congestion. The teaming policy is set to Route based on originating virtual port. What change should the administrator make to distribute traffic more evenly?
easyWhy A: Option A is correct because IP hash uses source and destination IP to distribute traffic, providing better load distribution. Option B is wrong because LACP is not supported on standard vSwitches. Option C is wrong because adding uplinks without changing policy still ties port to same uplink. Option D does not distribute traffic.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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