CompTIA Cloud+ Practice Test

Increasing what resource can help with high swap file usage in a cloud environment?

1. Processors

2. Memory

3. Storage

4. Network bandwidth

The correct answer is: Memory

Increasing memory in a cloud environment can significantly assist in alleviating high swap file usage. Swap files, or paging files, are used by the operating system to extend physical memory by temporarily transferring portions of data from RAM to disk storage when the physical memory is full. This process slows down application performance because accessing data from disk storage is much slower than retrieving it from memory. When memory is increased, there is more physical RAM available for the operating system and applications to utilize, reducing the reliance on swap files. This means that data can be processed directly in memory rather than being offloaded to disk, thus enhancing overall system performance and responsiveness. While expanding processors might help with computational capacity, it does not directly reduce swap file usage. Similarly, increasing storage could provide more space for the swap file, but it does not solve the problem of high usage itself. Enhancing network bandwidth could improve data transfer rates between services, but it would have no impact on memory allocation and swap file management. Therefore, increasing memory is the most effective solution for addressing high swap file usage in this context.