156-315.81.20 Gateway Deployment and Upgrades Practice Question
Exhibit
cphaprob stat Cluster Mode: High Availability (Active/Standby) Member 1: Active Member 2: Standby
Refer to the exhibit. You are performing a cluster upgrade. You have successfully upgraded Member 2. What is the next logical step?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume that once the standby member is upgraded, it automatically takes over traffic. They fail to realize that a manual intervention is required to switch roles and verify stability.
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
✓
Perform a failover to make Member 2 active.
After upgrading the standby member, the next step is to perform a controlled failover. By switching the active status to the newly upgraded member, you can test its stability under load while the original primary member is prepared for its own upgrade. This ensures that any issues are detected before both members are on the new version, providing a crucial fail-safe for the production environment.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Immediately reboot the active member.
Why it's wrong here
Rebooting the active member without transitioning the traffic will cause an unnecessary service outage. A controlled switchover should be performed first, allowing the newly upgraded standby member to take over the traffic processing duty. This ensures that the services remain available for the duration of the entire cluster maintenance.
- ✓
Perform a failover to make Member 2 active.
Why this is correct
Switching the traffic to the upgraded member is the standard procedure. It validates that the new version is handling traffic correctly while the old member remains available to take over if a problem occurs. This phased approach minimizes risk and verifies the upgrade success in a live traffic environment.
- ✗
Push the policy to both members simultaneously.
Why it's wrong here
Pushing policies to both members simultaneously when they are running different versions can lead to unpredictable behavior or policy compilation errors. Policies should be managed carefully during the transition period, ensuring compatibility with the specific version of each gateway until both are fully upgraded to the same version.
- ✗
Disable the synchronization interface.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling the synchronization interface is counterproductive and dangerous during a maintenance window. The cluster needs synchronization to maintain state information. Disabling it would break the HA functionality, leading to potential traffic loss and splitting the cluster state, which is exactly what you want to avoid during an upgrade.
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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
This 156-315.81.20 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 156-315.81.20 exam.