hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
350-701 Practice Question: An administrator is troubleshooting an issue…
An administrator is troubleshooting an issue where emails sent to a specific external domain are being delayed by up to 30 minutes. The Cisco ESA is configured with multiple mail exchangers (MX) for delivery. The logs show that the ESA is attempting delivery to the primary MX, which is unresponsive, and failing over to the secondary MX after 30 minutes. What change should be made to reduce the delivery delay?
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
✓
Reduce the delivery queue retry interval in the ESA settings
The delay is caused by the ESA waiting too long before failing over to the secondary MX. Reducing the delivery queue retry interval will cause the ESA to attempt failover sooner, reducing the delay. Option A is incorrect because SMTP over TLS (ESMTP) does not affect timeout or failover behavior. Option C is incorrect because increasing the number of MX records does not change the timeout or retry interval. Option D is incorrect because removing the primary MX record is not a best practice and does not address the root cause; the issue is the timeout, not the existence of the primary MX.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable SMTP over TLS (ESMTP) for the delivery
Why it's wrong here
Enabling SMTP over TLS (ESMTP) affects encryption, not delivery timeout or failover behavior.
- ✓
Reduce the delivery queue retry interval in the ESA settings
Why this is correct
Reducing the delivery queue retry interval causes the ESA to attempt failover to the next MX more quickly, reducing the delay.
- ✗
Increase the number of MX records for that domain
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the number of MX records does not change the timeout or retry interval; it only adds more potential delivery targets.
- ✗
Remove the primary MX record from DNS
Why it's wrong here
Removing the primary MX record is not a recommended practice and does not solve the timeout issue; it could cause delivery failures.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 350-701 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco 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 350-701 exam.