NSE4 High Availability and Diagnostics Practice Question
A FortiGate receives log messages with severity 'warning'. What is the log severity level number for 'warning' according to FortiGate's log severity levels?
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
✓
4
FortiGate severity levels: Emergency=0, Alert=1, Critical=2, Error=3, Warning=4, Notification=5, Information=6, Debug=7.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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3
Why it's wrong here
In Fortinet's logging severity scale, level 3 (Error) is more severe than Warning, indicating a failed operation or a critical error that requires immediate intervention. Since a Warning is defined as severity 4, a message labeled 'warning' cannot be level 3, because the lower numeric value represents a higher urgency. Thus, an Error log would be logged and handled differently from a Warning, making 3 an incorrect choice.
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6
Why it's wrong here
Severity 6 corresponds to Information, the lowest rank among regularly logged events, used for routine operational messages such as successful configuration backups or session starts. Information logs contain no alarm condition, whereas a Warning is a proactive alert about a potential problem, so the two levels are mutually exclusive in practice. Since Warning is numeric level 4 and Information is level 6, selecting 6 would incorrectly ignore the warning severity mapping.
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4
Why this is correct
In FortiGate's syslog-compatible severity numbering, 4 is exactly Warning, which signals that an abnormal condition has been detected that may require action before a failure occurs. Examples include a VPN tunnel flapping or a security policy denying traffic; these are logged and displayed with the warning icon. Determining that a received log has severity 'warning' therefore maps to the numeric value 4, making this the correct answer.
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5
Why it's wrong here
Severity 5 is designated as Notification, covering normal but notable events like a successful user login or a system reboot, without implying any risk or abnormality. A Warning, by contrast, is deliberately one step more severe (level 4) and is intended to draw the administrator's attention to an emerging issue. Choosing 5 would confuse these separate categories, as notification messages are not considered warnings in FortiOS event logging.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This NSE4 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Fortinet 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 NSE4 exam.