VCP-DCV Configure and Manage vSphere Storage Practice Question
An ESXi host has an NFS datastore mounted from a NAS array. The administrator wants to enable hardware acceleration (VAAI) for the datastore. Which requirement must be met?
⚠ Common exam trap
VCP-DCV often tests the confusion between block VAAI (which requires VMFS and array support for primitives like ATS, XCOPY, WRITE SAME) and NFS VAAI (which requires NFSv3 and array support for Full File Clone, Reserve Space, etc.) — candidates pick VMFS6 or iSCSI answers that apply to block storage, not NFS.
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 NAS array must support NFSv3 and VAAI primitives
VAAI (vStorage APIs for Array Integration) for NFS requires the NAS array to support NFSv3 and the specific VAAI primitives for NFS, such as Full File Clone, Fast File Clone, Reserve Space, and Extended Statistics. ESXi detects these primitives via the array's NFSv3 protocol extensions and enables hardware acceleration for operations like clone and snapshot. Without array support for these primitives, VAAI cannot be enabled.
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 NAS array must present the LUN as an iSCSI target
Why it's wrong here
Presenting the LUN as an iSCSI target converts the array into block storage, so ESXi would mount a VMFS datastore instead of NFS; NFS VAAI requires the array to advertise NFS primitives. iSCSI is the correct transport when VAAI block primitives such as ATS and XCOPY are needed on a block datastore.
- ✗
The datastore must be formatted as VMFS6
Why it's wrong here
VMFS6 is VMware's clustered block filesystem, used on block-backed datastores; an NFS datastore is mounted directly from the NAS and never formatted with VMFS. Formatting would only apply if the array presented a block LUN, which is not the scenario described.
- ✗
The ESXi host must have a software FCoE adapter configured
Why it's wrong here
Software FCoE is a block storage transport for Fibre Channel over Ethernet, unrelated to NFS VAAI, which operates through NFSv3/v4.1 primitives such as reserve, allocate and copy offload. FCoE adapters matter when presenting block LUNs to ESXi, not for accelerating a NAS-mounted NFS datastore.
- ✓
The NAS array must support NFSv3 and VAAI primitives
Why this is correct
NFS VAAI hardware acceleration relies on the NAS array implementing the NFSv3 primitives, specifically `SEXCL` (space reservation), `FILESIZE`, and `FULLFILE`, which ESXi offloads to the array. The datastore must be mounted over NFSv3, since these primitives are not defined for NFSv4.1, satisfying the stem's hardware acceleration requirement.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official VMware exam blueprint
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.