VCP-DCV vSphere Architecture, Products and Solutions Practice Question
An administrator notices that a virtual machine on an NFS datastore is experiencing intermittent performance degradation. The ESXi hosts are connected to the NFS server via a 10 GbE network. The administrator uses esxtop and sees high average latency on the storage device, but the NFS server reports low latency. 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
✓
Network congestion is causing TCP retransmissions
When ESXi reports high latency but the NFS server reports low latency, it suggests that the latency is occurring on the network between them. TCP retransmissions caused by network congestion or packet loss can increase latency as seen by ESXi, while the NFS server may complete requests quickly and not observe the delay. Option A is incorrect because jumbo frame misconfiguration would likely cause connectivity issues, not intermittent performance degradation with low server-side latency. Option C is incorrect because deduplication on the server would affect server-side latency, not cause a discrepancy between ESXi and server latency. Option D is incorrect because read-only permissions would result in write failures, not high 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.
- ✗
Jumbo frames are enabled on the ESXi hosts but not on the NFS server
Why it's wrong here
MTU mismatch can cause packet drops, but it would likely cause total connectivity issues, not intermittent performance.
- ✓
Network congestion is causing TCP retransmissions
Why this is correct
Network issues cause retransmissions increasing latency on the client side, while server reports low latency.
- ✗
The NFS server is performing data deduplication on the datastore
Why it's wrong here
Deduplication is a storage feature that does not directly cause latency seen by ESXi.
- ✗
The NFS datastore is mounted with read-only permissions
Why it's wrong here
Read-only would cause write failures, not performance degradation.
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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.