VCP-DCV vSphere Performance and Scaling Practice Question
Exhibit
esxtop -b memory
MEM(cpu) %USED %SYS %WAIT %RDY %MLMTD %CSTP %SWPWT
CPU0 0.5 0.0 99.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
CPU1 1.0 0.5 98.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Global: %MLMTD: 0.0 %SWPWT: 0.0
VM 'AppSrv' %USEDRDY: 0.2 %MLMTD: 8.5 %SWPWT: 0.0 %CSTP: 0.0 MCTLSZ: 2.0GBRefer to the exhibit. Based on the esxtop output, what is the likely cause of performance degradation for VM 'AppSrv'?
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
✓
Memory contention
High %MLMTD (memory load management) in esxtop indicates that the VM is experiencing memory contention, causing it to wait for memory resources to be reclaimed. This degrades performance. CPU metrics are low, so CPU contention is not the issue. No storage or network latency metrics are shown, so storage I/O latency and network congestion are not indicated. Therefore, memory contention is the correct answer.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
CPU contention
Why it's wrong here
CPU %RDY is 0.0, indicating no CPU contention.
- ✗
Network congestion
Why it's wrong here
No network metrics are shown in the exhibit.
- ✓
Memory contention
Why this is correct
%MLMTD of 8.5 indicates memory resource contention.
- ✗
Storage I/O latency
Why it's wrong here
No storage metrics are shown in the exhibit.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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