Configure and Manage vSphere Networking →easyMultiple Choice

VCP-DCV Configure and Manage vSphere Networking Practice Question

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

<config>
  <vswitch name="vSwitch0">
    <portgroup name="VM Network">
      <vlan>0</vlan>
      <nicteaming>
        <policy>
          <failover>yes</failover>
          <loadbalance>srcmac</loadbalance>
          <active>vmnic0,vmnic1</active>
        </policy>
      </nicteaming>
    </portgroup>
  </vswitch>
</config>

An administrator is reviewing the network configuration of a standard switch. The exhibit shows the current settings for a port group. Which change would improve load distribution for VM traffic?

⚠ Common exam trap

Candidates often confuse 'failover' with 'load balancing' and assume enabling failover (Option B) will distribute traffic, but failover only provides redundancy, not active load sharing, while Route based on IP hash (Option C) is the correct method for distributing VM traffic across multiple uplinks.

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

✓

Change the load balancing policy to Route based on IP hash.

Route based on IP hash uses a hash of source and destination IP addresses to determine which uplink to use for each traffic flow, ensuring that all packets in a given flow use the same uplink while distributing different flows across multiple uplinks. This improves load distribution for VM traffic compared to the default Route based on the originating virtual port, which only considers the vNIC port ID and can lead to uneven distribution when multiple VMs share the same port group.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
Change the VLAN ID to 100.
Why it's wrong here
Changing the VLAN ID alters Layer 2 segmentation and broadcast domain membership; it has no bearing on how uplinks are selected or balanced. It tempts because VLAN misconfiguration causes connectivity faults, so it would be the correct change when traffic must be isolated onto a separate network segment.
✗
Enable failover on the port group.
Why it's wrong here
Failover governs what happens when an uplink fails, not how traffic is distributed while all uplinks are healthy. It tempts because failover settings sit beside load-balancing settings in the same NIC teaming policy, and would be the right change when the requirement is link redundancy rather than distribution.
✓
Change the load balancing policy to Route based on IP hash.
Why this is correct
Route based on IP hash distributes traffic across physical uplinks by hashing source and destination IP addresses, spreading VM flows over multiple NICs. The default port-based policy pins each VM to one uplink, so this change directly improves load distribution for the port group's traffic.
✗
Set one NIC as active and the other as standby.
Why it's wrong here
Active/standby uses only one uplink at a time, leaving the second idle, so it reduces aggregate throughput instead of distributing load. It tempts because it is a valid teaming policy for redundancy, and would be correct where resilience matters and the physical uplinks cannot share traffic.

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VCP-DCV Configure and Manage vSphere Networking Practice Question

Exhibit

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

Related to this question