156-215.81.20 Monitoring and Logging Practice Question
What is the consequence of setting the 'Log Severity' threshold too high on a Security Gateway?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume that high severity thresholds only impact performance, failing to recognize that this configuration directly results in the loss of visibility into critical security events.
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
✓
Important security events may not be logged.
Setting a high severity threshold limits the volume of logs generated, which improves performance but risks missing lower-priority security events. Administrators must balance log detail with system performance. Finding the right balance is essential for maintaining a clean log environment that facilitates effective threat detection without overloading the storage systems or creating a bottleneck in the log indexing process on the Management Server.
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 gateway stops processing traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Log severity settings affect what is recorded, not the packet forwarding capability of the firewall. The gateway will continue to process traffic according to the security policy regardless of the logging level. The only impact is on the volume and content of the logs produced for the traffic.
- ✗
The management server becomes overloaded.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the severity threshold actually decreases the number of logs generated, which reduces the load on the management server. An overloaded management server is typically caused by too many logs, not by setting a high severity threshold that filters out less important log data.
- ✓
Important security events may not be logged.
Why this is correct
If the severity threshold is set too high (e.g., only logging critical events), lower-severity events like 'Information' or 'Warning' logs will be discarded. This can lead to missing subtle indicators of a compromise or reconnaissance activities that do not trigger a 'Critical' status but are vital for security analysis.
- ✗
The CPU usage on the gateway increases significantly.
Why it's wrong here
Logging requires CPU resources, so reducing the number of logs produced by increasing the severity threshold will actually lower CPU usage, not increase it. Logging is a post-processing step for the packet flow, and capturing fewer logs results in less overhead for the gateway's logging subsystem.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every 156-215.81.20 question from scratch — 210 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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.