300-710 SNCF Deployment Practice Question
An administrator is troubleshooting a Stateful High Availability (HA) pair of Cisco Secure Firewall 4100 series devices managed by FMC. The units are failing to form an HA state, and logs indicate a state mismatch on the control link. Which underlying cause is most likely preventing the HA synchronization?
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
✓
One unit is running a slightly different maintenance patch release of FTD than its peer.
Firewall High Availability requires identical hardware models, identical interface counts/types, matching deployment modes (routed/transparent), and identical software/patch versions.
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 MTU on the data interfaces differs by 4 bytes.
Why it's wrong here
Data interface MTU differences do not prevent the control link from forming, though they can affect packet passing later.
- ✗
The stateful HA control link is configured across a routed switch interface instead of a direct cross-over cable.
Why it's wrong here
While direct connection is recommended, routed switched paths are supported provided latency and MTU requirements are met.
- ✗
The management IP addresses on the active and standby units are identical.
Why it's wrong here
Active and standby units must have unique management IP addresses assigned to their respective management interfaces.
- ✓
One unit is running a slightly different maintenance patch release of FTD than its peer.
Why this is correct
FMC enforces strict version matching; even a minor patch level mismatch between primary and secondary units will cause HA initialization to fail.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official Cisco exam blueprint
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