156-215.81.20 Identity Awareness Practice Question
An administrator configures Identity Awareness with Active Directory Query on an R81.20 Security Gateway. Users are authenticated via Kerberos, and the gateway has been joined to the domain. However, after login, some users are not being identified. The administrator notices that the gateway's AD Query service account password has expired. What is the most likely cause of the identification failure?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that a gateway reboot or reinstallation resolves authentication issues, when the real cause is an expired service account password that must be updated.
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 AD Query service account password must be updated in the Identity Awareness configuration, and the service restarted.
The AD Query method relies on a service account to read login events from Active Directory. If that account's password expires or is changed, the gateway loses access and cannot identify users. The fix is to update the password in the Identity Awareness configuration and restart the service. This ensures continuous identification.
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 AD Query service account password must be updated in the Identity Awareness configuration, and the service restarted.
Why this is correct
When the AD Query service account password expires, the gateway cannot query Active Directory for user login events. Updating the password in the Identity Awareness configuration and restarting the service restores the connection. This is a common operational issue in AD Query deployments.
- ✗
The Security Gateway must be rebooted to re-establish the Kerberos trust with the domain controller.
Why it's wrong here
Rebooting the gateway does not resolve an expired service account password. The Kerberos trust relies on the service account credentials; if they are invalid, a reboot will not help. The password must be updated in the Identity Awareness configuration.
- ✗
The users must log in again because their Kerberos tickets have expired due to the service account issue.
Why it's wrong here
User Kerberos tickets are independent of the gateway's service account. The failure is on the gateway side when querying AD, not on the user side. Users logging in again would not help if the gateway cannot query AD due to invalid credentials.
- ✗
The Identity Awareness blade must be reinstalled because the expired password corrupted its database.
Why it's wrong here
An expired password does not corrupt the Identity Awareness database. Reinstalling the blade is unnecessary and disruptive. The issue is simply that the gateway cannot authenticate to AD to retrieve login events; updating the password is sufficient.
About these practice questions
This 156-215.81.20 question is part of Courseiva's 210-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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 Check Point exam blueprint
This 156-215.81.20 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Check Point 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 156-215.81.20 exam.