F5-CTS-LTM BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager Practice Question
What happens when a health monitor fails for a pool member?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume that a failed health monitor drops existing established connections immediately, ignoring the persistence and connection timeout settings.
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
✓
The BIG-IP marks the member as 'down' and stops sending new connections.
When a health monitor fails, the BIG-IP marks the pool member as 'down' and immediately stops sending new traffic to it. Depending on the virtual server configuration, existing connections may be maintained or terminated. This automated process ensures that only healthy, verified backend servers receive traffic, which is critical for maintaining overall application availability and preventing user exposure to non-functional server components.
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 BIG-IP sends an alert to the administrator and keeps the member active.
Why it's wrong here
If the health monitor fails, the BIG-IP cannot 'keep the member active' in a load-balancing capacity. The system must stop routing traffic to the member to prevent the user from receiving errors. While it will alert the administrator, the primary action is to remove the member from service.
- ✓
The BIG-IP marks the member as 'down' and stops sending new connections.
Why this is correct
This is the primary function of the health monitor. By marking the member 'down', the BIG-IP effectively removes it from the pool, preventing new requests from being routed to a server that is not responding correctly. This provides automated, proactive failover and ensures high availability for the application.
- ✗
The BIG-IP automatically attempts to reboot the backend server.
Why it's wrong here
The BIG-IP LTM does not have the authority or the capability to reboot backend servers. It can only manage the traffic flow to them. Rebooting servers is a server-side administrative task that must be handled by server management platforms or physical access to the backend infrastructure.
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The BIG-IP automatically removes the member from the pool configuration.
Why it's wrong here
The member is marked as 'down' in the pool's status but is not removed from the configuration. The BIG-IP will continue to monitor the member, and if it recovers and passes the health checks again, it will automatically transition back to an 'up' state without any configuration changes.
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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 F5 exam blueprint
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