VCP-DCV vSphere Performance and Scaling Practice Question
Exhibit
esxtop output: VM CPU% %RDY %CSTP %MLMTD %SWPWT %LCLM %VMWAIT vm1 95.2 20.5 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.2 vm2 30.1 5.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.5 vm3 12.3 3.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2
Refer to the exhibit. The vSphere administrator observes that vm1 has a %RDY value of 20.5. What is the most likely cause of this high ready time?
⚠ Common exam trap
VCP-DCV often tests whether candidates can distinguish CPU ready time (%RDY) from memory, network, and storage performance counters — the trap is picking a resource that 'feels' related to slowness but is measured by a completely different metric.
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 host's physical CPUs are overcommitted
%RDY (ready time) measures the percentage of time a VM's virtual CPUs are ready to run but cannot be scheduled onto a physical CPU because the host's pCPUs are busy. A sustained value of 20.5% indicates significant CPU contention, meaning the host's physical cores are overcommitted relative to the total vCPU demand of all powered-on VMs. This is a classic symptom of CPU over-subscription on the ESXi host.
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 VM is experiencing network packet loss
Why it's wrong here
Network packet loss affects throughput and retransmits, not CPU scheduling, so it cannot raise %RDY; that counter reflects vCPU wait time on the physical processor. It is tempting because network faults also degrade application performance, and would be correct when the exhibit shows dropped packets or elevated network latency.
- ✗
The VM's virtual disk is causing I/O latency
Why it's wrong here
%RDY measures the time a virtual CPU waits for a physical core, so storage latency cannot inflate it; disk contention instead raises latency metrics such as DAVG. It is tempting because storage bottlenecks do degrade VM performance, and would be correct when the exhibit shows elevated virtual disk latency rather than CPU scheduling delay.
- ✓
The host's physical CPUs are overcommitted
Why this is correct
%RDY measures the percentage of time a virtual machine's vCPUs are ready but waiting for physical CPU scheduling. A sustained 20.5 percent indicates CPU contention, meaning the host's physical cores are overcommitted relative to the running virtual machines' demand.
- ✗
Insufficient memory is allocated to vm1
Why it's wrong here
High %RDY measures CPU scheduler contention, not memory pressure; memory shortfalls surface as ballooning, swapping or high %SWPWT. It tempts because memory overcommitment does degrade performance, and memory limits would be the answer if the exhibit showed active swap activity rather than ready time.
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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
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