NSE7 Enterprise Firewall and VDOMs Practice Question
A FortiGate administrator is troubleshooting an issue where certain traffic is not being logged despite having a firewall policy with logging enabled. The administrator checks the policy and confirms logging is set to 'All Sessions'. Which THREE reasons could explain why the traffic is not being logged?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume a full disk or unreachable log server will always cause log loss, but FortiGate's behavior depends on specific configuration settings like log rotation and reliable logging mode, which are explicitly tested in the NSE7 exam.
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 log device (FortiAnalyzer or syslog) is not reachable and the FortiGate is configured to drop logs when the remote server is unavailable
When a FortiGate is configured to drop logs when the remote logging server (FortiAnalyzer or syslog) is unreachable, the logs are discarded locally rather than queued or buffered. This behavior is controlled by the 'log-drop-packet' setting or the 'reliable' vs 'unreliable' logging mode, and if the remote server is down, the logs never leave the FortiGate, resulting in no logging despite the policy being set to log all sessions.
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 log disk is full
Why it's wrong here
Full disk would cause logs to be overwritten or dropped, but not necessarily explain why no logs at all.
- ✗
The traffic is denied by a local-in policy
Why it's wrong here
If denied, it might still be logged if logging is enabled on the local-in policy; but the stem implies policy has logging enabled.
- ✓
The log device (FortiAnalyzer or syslog) is not reachable and the FortiGate is configured to drop logs when the remote server is unavailable
Why this is correct
If the log destination is unreachable, the FortiGate may discard logs if configured to do so.
- ✓
The traffic is hardware-accelerated and not sent to the CPU for logging
Why this is correct
Offloaded traffic may not generate logs unless specific settings are enabled.
- ✓
The FortiGate is experiencing high session rate and logging is rate-limited
Why this is correct
High session rates can cause logging to be throttled or dropped.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This NSE7 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 NSE7 exam.