VCP-DCV Configure and Manage vSphere Networking Practice Question
An organization is using Network I/O Control (NIOC) on a distributed switch to manage bandwidth for different traffic types. The current configuration assigns 50 shares to management traffic, 50 shares to vMotion traffic, and 100 shares to NFS storage traffic. During peak hours, management traffic is suffering from high latency. The administrator must prioritize management traffic over all others while still ensuring minimum bandwidth for storage. Which action would best address the issue?
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
✓
Set a reservation of 1 Gbps for management traffic and keep shares as they are.
Setting a reservation for management traffic guarantees a minimum bandwidth, ensuring it is not starved. Option A increases shares but does not guarantee minimum bandwidth. Option C is wrong because limit would cap traffic, making it worse. Option D still lacks guarantee. Option E is not a feature of NIOC.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the shares for management traffic to 200 and reduce vMotion to 25.
Why it's wrong here
Shares only affect proportional allocation, not guaranteed bandwidth.
- ✓
Set a reservation of 1 Gbps for management traffic and keep shares as they are.
Why this is correct
Reservation provides a guaranteed minimum bandwidth for management traffic.
- ✗
Reduce NFS shares to 50 and increase management shares to 100.
Why it's wrong here
Still no guarantee; management could be starved if NFS bursts.
- ✗
Enable the 'Limit' setting on management traffic to cap it.
Why it's wrong here
Limiting would reduce available bandwidth, exacerbating the issue.
- ✗
Create a network resource pool for management traffic with a guaranteed share value.
Why it's wrong here
NIOC does not use resource pools; it uses shares, reservation, and limit per traffic type.
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Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on VCP-DCV
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. An organization uses a VDS with 4 hosts. They want to use Network I/O Control (NIOC) to prioritize vMotion traffic over management traffic. After configuring NIOC, the administrator notices that vMotion performance is not improved. What could be the cause?
medium- ✓ A.The vMotion VMkernel adapter is not assigned to the correct network resource pool
- B.The physical uplinks are oversubscribed
- C.The vMotion traffic is not marked with the appropriate CoS tag
- D.NIOC is not enabled on the VDS
Why A: NIOC uses network resource pools to apply QoS policies. If the vMotion VMkernel adapter is not assigned to the appropriate network resource pool (e.g., vMotion pool), NIOC will not prioritize vMotion traffic. Option B is incorrect because oversubscribed uplinks can cause congestion but do not prevent NIOC from working; NIOC would still apply its shares to the traffic. Option C is incorrect because NIOC does not rely on CoS tags; it uses shares and limits defined in resource pools. Option D is incorrect because the administrator configured NIOC, implying it is enabled; if it were not enabled, no NIOC functionality would be available.
Variation 2. A vSphere environment uses a vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) with 10G uplinks and Network I/O Control (NIOC) enabled. Administrators report that during peak traffic, NFS storage traffic is experiencing high latency, while other traffic types remain unaffected. The vDS has default NIOC shares and limits. Which action should be taken to prioritize NFS traffic without completely starving other traffic?
hard- A.Set a low bandwidth limit for the NFS traffic class.
- ✓ B.Increase the shares for the NFS traffic class.
- C.Set a high bandwidth reservation for the NFS traffic class.
- D.Disable Network I/O Control on the vDS.
Why B: Increasing the shares for the NFS traffic class gives it a higher proportion of bandwidth during contention, without imposing a hard limit. Option A is incorrect because setting a low bandwidth limit would cap NFS traffic, potentially worsening performance. Option C is incorrect because setting a high bandwidth reservation could reserve bandwidth for NFS even when not needed, potentially wasting resources, and does not prioritize dynamically like shares do. Option D is incorrect because disabling NIOC removes all traffic prioritization, eliminating the ability to differentiate NFS traffic.
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.