The host is over-committed on memory, causing ballooning and swapping. MEMCTL at 5% means the vmmemctl balloon driver is actively reclaiming memory from VMs, while SWPOUT at 2% indicates the hypervisor is swapping guest memory to disk—together, these metrics confirm the host has exhausted its physical memory and is using both techniques to compensate. On the VCP-DCV exam, this scenario tests your ability to distinguish between ballooning (a cooperative, driver-based reclaim) and swapping (a last-resort, performance-impacting mechanism); a common trap is assuming low percentages are harmless, but any non-zero SWPOUT signals memory pressure. For the exam, remember the mnemonic: “Balloon before swap, swap means stop”—ballooning is the first line of defense, but swapping always indicates critical overcommitment.
VCP-DCV vSphere Performance and Scaling Practice Question
This VCP-DCV practice question tests your understanding of vsphere performance and scaling. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The host is over-committed on memory, causing ballooning and swapping.
MEMCTL at 5% indicates the ESXi host's memory balloon driver (vmmemctl) is actively reclaiming memory from virtual machines, while SWPOUT at 2% shows the host is swapping guest memory to disk. Together, these values confirm the host is over-committed on memory, forcing the hypervisor to use both ballooning and swapping to free up memory for VMs.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 host is over-committed on memory, causing ballooning and swapping.
Why this is correct
MEMCTL and SWPOUT indicate memory pressure.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The host is experiencing CPU contention.
Why it's wrong here
CPU% is moderate, no sign of contention.
✗
The host has network congestion.
Why it's wrong here
No network metrics are shown.
✗
The host has high storage latency.
Why it's wrong here
No storage metrics are shown.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse memory over-commitment indicators (MEMCTL, SWPOUT) with CPU or storage performance metrics, leading them to select CPU contention or storage latency options instead of recognizing the specific memory reclamation counters.
Trap categories for this question
Command / output trap
No network metrics are shown.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Ballooning (MEMCTL) is a cooperative memory reclamation technique where the balloon driver inside the guest OS allocates memory, forcing the guest to page out, while the hypervisor reclaims that memory for other VMs. Swapping (SWPOUT) is a more aggressive, non-cooperative method where ESXi directly moves guest memory pages to the swap file on disk, causing severe performance degradation. In a real-world scenario, if MEMCTL exceeds 10% or SWPOUT is non-zero, it often signals that the host is severely over-committed and requires immediate attention to avoid VM performance issues.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A practitioner preparing for the VCP-DCV exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
vSphere Performance and Scaling — This question tests vSphere Performance and Scaling — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The host is over-committed on memory, causing ballooning and swapping. — MEMCTL at 5% indicates the ESXi host's memory balloon driver (vmmemctl) is actively reclaiming memory from virtual machines, while SWPOUT at 2% shows the host is swapping guest memory to disk. Together, these values confirm the host is over-committed on memory, forcing the hypervisor to use both ballooning and swapping to free up memory for VMs.
What should I do if I get this VCP-DCV question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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. Which THREE memory-related metrics in esxtop indicate that a virtual machine is experiencing memory pressure? (Choose three.)
medium
✓ A.SWCUR
B.%SYS
C.ACTV
✓ D.MCTLSZ
E.%RDY
Why A: ACTV shows active memory; SWCUR indicates current swapped memory; MCTLSZ shows memory balloon driver size. These directly indicate pressure. %SYS is CPU-related, %RDY is CPU ready.
Variation 2. A VM with a large memory footprint is experiencing high swap rates. The host has free memory but the swap rate is still high. What is the most likely cause?
medium
A.The VM's virtual machine swap file is on a slow datastore.
✓ B.The VM's memory limit is set too low.
C.The host is using software iSCSI causing high latency.
D.The VM's memory reservation is set too high.
Why B: If the VM's memory limit is set lower than its active memory, the guest OS may be forced to swap even if host memory is available. Option B is correct. Option A (high reservation) would not cause swapping. Option C is unrelated to memory swapping. Option D involves the swap file location but the host has free memory, so swapping should not occur.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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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.
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