NSE7 Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Practice Question
A FortiGate administrator wants to quickly identify which process is consuming the most CPU on the device. Which CLI command should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse 'get system performance status' (which shows aggregate CPU percentage) with the process-level detail needed, leading them to choose option D instead of the correct process-specific command.
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
✓
diagnose sys top
'diagnose sys top' displays a real-time list of running processes sorted by CPU usage, allowing the administrator to quickly identify the most CPU-intensive process. This command is the standard FortiGate CLI tool for live process-level CPU monitoring, similar to the Linux 'top' command.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
diagnose hardware sysinfo memory
Why it's wrong here
This command displays memory statistics, not per-process CPU usage.
- ✓
diagnose sys top
Why this is correct
This command shows real-time process CPU and memory usage, allowing identification of high CPU consumers.
- ✗
diagnose debug application crashlog read
Why it's wrong here
This shows crash logs, not real-time CPU usage.
- ✗
get system performance status
Why it's wrong here
This shows overall system performance, not individual process CPU usage.
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JA
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.