An administrator is sizing the CPU requirements of a new application. The application requires 12 guest VMs to run concurrently on the host. If each guest requires 500MHz of CPU and the server has…

1.6 GHz x 2 sockets = 3,200 MHz total, which covers only about 53% of the 6,000 MHz required, leaving VMs severely resource-starved.

2.0 GHz x 2 sockets = 4,000 MHz total, which is 2,000 MHz short of the 6,000 MHz needed for all 12 concurrent VMs.

2.5 GHz x 2 sockets = 5,000 MHz total, which is still 1,000 MHz below the 6,000 MHz required and provides no headroom for hypervisor overhead.

A 3.2 GHz CPU in each of the two sockets yields 6,400 MHz of total host CPU capacity, which exceeds the 6,000 MHz needed for all 12 guest VMs (12 x 500 MHz). The other options all fall below the 6,000 MHz threshold and would cause CPU contention and degraded VM performance. Sufficient headroom above the minimum is also important for hypervisor overhead, making 3.2 GHz the only safe choice.