NSE7 Advanced Networking and SD-WAN Practice Question
A FortiGate has two equal-cost paths to a destination network. ECMP is enabled. The administrator notices that all traffic uses the first path. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume ECMP always distributes traffic evenly across all paths, but they overlook that the hash algorithm's behavior depends on the diversity of source-destination pairs; when all sessions share the same IP pair, the hash produces the same result, causing all traffic to follow one path.
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
✓
ECMP is configured to use 'source-dest-ip' hash and all sessions are from same source to same destination
When ECMP is configured with the 'source-dest-ip' hash algorithm, traffic is load-balanced based on a hash of both source and destination IP addresses. If all sessions originate from the same source IP and go to the same destination IP, the hash value is identical for every session, causing all traffic to be forwarded over the same path. This is the most likely cause because the administrator sees all traffic using the first path despite ECMP being enabled.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
ECMP is configured with 'spillover' mode
Why it's wrong here
Spillover is for SD-WAN, not ECMP.
- ✗
The second path is administratively down
Why it's wrong here
Would not show as equal-cost.
- ✓
ECMP is configured to use 'source-dest-ip' hash and all sessions are from same source to same destination
Why this is correct
That hash would send all to same path.
- ✗
The route metric is not equal
Why it's wrong here
If equal-cost, they should be used.
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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.