156-215.81.20 Monitoring and Logging Practice Question
During an investigation, an administrator must find all connections that were dropped by the Security Gateway in the last 24 hours for a specific source IP. Which SmartConsole tool provides the most efficient way to search and filter these logs?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse SmartEvent, which correlates and reports on events, with SmartView Logs, which is the tool for direct filtering and searching of individual log records.
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
✓
SmartView Logs with a filter on the source IP and Action equal to Drop.
SmartView Logs provides field-based filtering in SmartConsole, allowing an administrator to combine conditions such as source IP and action to narrow millions of records down to the relevant dropped connections. It queries indexed logs efficiently and displays results immediately. Other tools focus on correlation, real-time performance, or administrative auditing and cannot perform this targeted historical search.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
SmartConsole Audit Logs filtered by administrator name.
Why it's wrong here
Audit Logs record administrative actions such as policy installs and object changes, not traffic connections. Filtering by administrator name would return management activity, which is unrelated to dropped user traffic. This tool addresses configuration accountability rather than security event investigation.
- ✓
SmartView Logs with a filter on the source IP and Action equal to Drop.
Why this is correct
SmartView Logs is the modern log analysis interface in SmartConsole, and it supports filtering by fields such as source IP and action. Applying a filter for the specific source and Drop action returns exactly the dropped connections for that host, making it the most efficient and accurate way to investigate this scenario.
- ✗
SmartEvent with a predefined report on network activity.
Why it's wrong here
SmartEvent is designed for correlating events and generating reports on trends, not for ad hoc filtering of individual connection records by source IP and action. A predefined network activity report would not isolate dropped connections for one host, so it is far less efficient than direct log filtering.
- ✗
cpview on the Security Gateway with the connections view.
Why it's wrong here
cpview shows real-time performance and connection statistics, not historical log records. It cannot retrieve events from the previous 24 hours or filter by drop action, so it cannot satisfy the investigation requirement. It is useful for live troubleshooting but not for historical log searches.
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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 Check Point exam blueprint
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