VCP-DCV vSphere Performance and Scaling Practice Question
An administrator notices that a critical virtual machine is running slowly. The VM has 8 vCPUs and 32GB memory. The host is an ESXi 7.0 server with two Intel Xeon Gold 6248 sockets (20 cores each, hyperthreading enabled). The VM's CPU ready time is consistently above 10%. What is the most likely cause?
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
✓
The host has too many VMs running and CPU oversubscription is too high.
High CPU ready time indicates the VM is ready to run but the hypervisor cannot schedule it. This is typically due to excessive CPU oversubscription. Option B correctly identifies that having too many VMs on the host leads to high CPU contention, causing ready time. Option A is incorrect because pinning vCPUs to a single NUMA node can increase ready time if other nodes are idle, but with only 8 vCPUs on a 40-logical-CPU node, contention is unlikely unless many other VMs are also pinned. Option C is incorrect because over-provisioning refers to total vCPUs exceeding physical CPUs, not individual VM vCPU count; the host has 80 logical CPUs, so 8 vCPUs is not over-provisioned. Option D is incorrect because disk I/O does not cause CPU ready time; it causes disk latency.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The VM's vCPUs are pinned to a single NUMA node causing contention.
Why it's wrong here
NUMA pinning can cause memory access issues but not directly high ready time.
- ✓
The host has too many VMs running and CPU oversubscription is too high.
Why this is correct
High CPU ready time is commonly caused by excessive CPU oversubscription.
- ✗
The VM is over-provisioned on vCPUs relative to the host's physical cores.
Why it's wrong here
The host has 80 logical CPUs, so 8 vCPUs is not over-provisioned.
- ✗
The VM is using Eager Zero Thick disks causing high I/O latency.
Why it's wrong here
Disk I/O latency does not affect CPU ready time.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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