VCP-DCV vSphere Performance and Scaling Practice Question
A vSphere administrator is planning the storage configuration for a new cluster of 10 hosts running VDI workloads. Each VM requires approximately 100 IOPS for typical operation. Which storage design best balances performance and scalability?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume VDI requires shared storage for features like vMotion or HA, but vSphere Local Storage with host-based replication or vSAN can provide those capabilities, and for pure performance/scalability, local flash is superior to any shared HDD or SAN design.
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
✓
Configure each host with local NVMe or SSD drives and use vSphere Local Storage.
VDI workloads are highly I/O-intensive and latency-sensitive, and local NVMe or SSD drives provide the lowest possible latency by eliminating network and SAN controller overhead. vSphere Local Storage allows each host to independently serve its VMs, which scales linearly with the number of hosts and avoids the contention and cost of a shared storage fabric. This design balances performance and scalability for a 10-host cluster where each VM requires only 100 IOPS, as local flash easily meets that demand without the complexity of a SAN or vSAN.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Implement vSAN using HDDs with a flash cache tier.
Why it's wrong here
HDDs still have higher latency than all-flash VDI requirements.
- ✗
Deploy a centralized all-flash FC SAN with multiple paths.
Why it's wrong here
Centralized SAN may become a bottleneck as VDI scales.
- ✓
Configure each host with local NVMe or SSD drives and use vSphere Local Storage.
Why this is correct
Local flash storage provides high IOPS per host and scales with hosts.
- ✗
Use a single NFS datastore on a large spinning-disk array.
Why it's wrong here
Single datastore creates a bottleneck and lacks IOPS.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every VCP-DCV question from scratch — 498 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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.