NSE7 Practice Test 1 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A FortiGate cluster (A-P) has a session that is not synchronizing to the secondary unit. The administrator runs 'diagnose sys ha session-sync status' and sees that the session count is different between primary and secondary. Which is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The session was created by a local-in traffic (e.g., management traffic) which is not synchronized.. FortiGate A-P clusters synchronize sessions via the HA heartbeat interface, but local-in traffic (e.g., management sessions like HTTPS, SSH, or SNMP) is never synchronized because it is destined to the cluster IP itself and is inherently unit-specific. The 'diagnose sys ha session-sync status' command shows a session count mismatch because the primary unit has local-in sessions that the secondary does not replicate, making D the correct answer.

Answer

The session is using a custom application control profile that prevents synchronization.

Answer

The HA heartbeat interface is down.

Answer

The secondary unit has insufficient memory to accept new sessions.

Question 2

An administrator is troubleshooting a scenario where IPSec VPN tunnels between two FortiGates are flapping. The logs show Phase 1 is up but Phase 2 fails with 'no proposal chosen'. The remote FortiGate has multiple Phase 2 selectors configured. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Mismatched Phase 2 proxy IDs (local/remote subnets).. The 'no proposal chosen' error during Phase 2, despite Phase 1 being up, indicates a mismatch in the IPsec security association (SA) parameters. Since the remote FortiGate has multiple Phase 2 selectors configured, the most likely cause is that the local and remote proxy IDs (local and remote subnets) do not match any of the configured selectors. Phase 2 negotiation uses these proxy IDs to define which traffic should be encrypted; if they don't align, the IKE SA cannot be established.

Answer

Mismatched pre-shared keys.

Answer

Dead Peer Detection (DPD) settings are too aggressive.

Answer

Certificate validation failure.

Question 3

Match each FortiGate interface type to its usage.

Question 4

A company is deploying FortiGate with Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) and wants to block advanced malware that uses encrypted C2 communications. Which security profile should be configured to perform SSL inspection and detect malicious traffic?

Accepted Answer

Antivirus profile with SSL inspection. Option B is correct because an Antivirus profile with SSL inspection enabled is required to decrypt encrypted C2 (command-and-control) traffic so that FortiGate can inspect the payload for malware signatures, heuristics, and behavioral patterns. Without SSL inspection, the ATP engine cannot see inside the encrypted tunnel, rendering the antivirus and other security profiles ineffective against encrypted C2 communications.

Answer

Data Leak Prevention profile

Answer

Web Filtering profile

Answer

Intrusion Prevention profile

Question 5

Drag and drop the steps to configure a FortiGate to send logs to a FortiAnalyzer into the correct order.

Question 6

Drag and drop the steps to configure an HA cluster on FortiGate into the correct order.

Question 7

Drag and drop the steps to troubleshoot a FortiGate SSL VPN connection failure into the correct order.

Question 8

Drag and drop the steps to configure a FortiGate as a DHCP server into the correct order.

Question 9

A customer reports intermittent connectivity issues between two internal subnets separated by a FortiGate firewall. The traffic is allowed by the policy, but users experience timeouts during peak hours. Which troubleshooting step should you take first?

Accepted Answer

Check the session table for session limits and session congestion.. Option B is correct because intermittent connectivity during peak hours strongly suggests session table exhaustion or session congestion. The FortiGate's session table has a finite capacity, and when it fills up, new sessions are dropped, causing timeouts. Checking the session table for limits and congestion is the fastest, least intrusive first step to confirm whether the firewall is running out of session resources before performing more complex diagnostics.

Answer

Run a packet sniffer on the FortiGate to capture traffic between the subnets.

Answer

Disable hardware acceleration on the FortiGate.

Answer

Configure SNAT on the policy to translate the source IP.

Question 10

An administrator is troubleshooting a VPN tunnel that is not coming up. The remote peer is a third-party device. Which THREE actions should be taken to diagnose the issue?

Accepted Answer

Ensure that the pre-shared key matches on both sides.. Option A is correct because IPsec IKE (Internet Key Exchange) uses the pre-shared key (PSK) during authentication phase 1 (Main Mode or Aggressive Mode). If the PSK does not match on both peers, the IKE SA will fail to establish, and the VPN tunnel will not come up. This is a fundamental prerequisite for any IPsec VPN, and mismatched PSKs are a common misconfiguration.

Answer

Confirm that UDP ports 500 and 4500 are not blocked by any firewall.

Answer

Review the routing table to ensure the remote subnet is reachable through the tunnel interface.