CCSM Advanced VPN Troubleshooting Practice Question
Exhibit
IKE_DEBUG: [VPN] IKE Phase 1: No proposal chosen.
Refer to the exhibit. What is the most effective way to troubleshoot this IKE Phase 1 failure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates waste time checking routing tables or certificate expiration dates instead of comparing the encryption and hashing proposal settings within the VPN community configuration.
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
✓
Check the IKE proposal settings in the VPN Community configuration.
This error means that the gateway offered a set of proposals, but none of them matched the remote peer's configured requirements. To troubleshoot, you must compare the 'Proposal' list on both gateways. Using 'vpn debug ikeon' allows you to see the exact proposals offered by both sides, enabling you to align them correctly in the VPN community settings for a successful handshake.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Check the IKE proposal settings in the VPN Community configuration.
Why this is correct
The 'No proposal chosen' error is a direct result of incompatible settings. Reviewing the community configuration is the most direct way to ensure that both sides share at least one common encryption algorithm, hash algorithm, and Diffie-Hellman group, which is required for a successful Phase 1 handshake.
- ✗
Verify the connectivity to the peer using 'ping'.
Why it's wrong here
If Phase 1 has reached the proposal exchange stage, connectivity is already verified. The issue is cryptographic, not network-level. Ping tests will only confirm that the peer is reachable, which you already know because the IKE negotiation has begun, making this step redundant and ineffective.
- ✗
Restart the Security Gateway OS.
Why it's wrong here
A full system reboot is an excessive and unnecessary action. It clears all states and processes but does not modify the configuration settings that are causing the proposal mismatch. After the reboot, the same mismatch will persist, and the tunnel will continue to fail to negotiate.
- ✗
Increase the timeout for the IKE process in the kernel.
Why it's wrong here
The 'No proposal chosen' error is not a timeout; it is a rejection of the proposed algorithms. Increasing the timeout will not allow the gateways to agree on an algorithm that they do not both support, so the error will recur regardless of how long the gateway waits.
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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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