NSE7 Advanced Networking and SD-WAN Practice Question
A network administrator is troubleshooting a BGP session between a FortiGate and an ISP router. The administrator runs 'get router info bgp summary' and sees that the BGP state is 'Active'. What does this state indicate?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse 'Active' with a session that is actively exchanging routes, but 'Active' specifically refers to the TCP connection phase, not the routing update phase, which only occurs after the session reaches the 'Established' state.
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 BGP speaker is trying to establish a TCP connection with the peer
The 'Active' state in BGP indicates that the router is actively trying to initiate a TCP connection to the configured peer. This means the BGP process has moved past the 'Connect' state (where it passively waits) and is now actively sending TCP SYN packets to the peer's port 179, but the three-way handshake has not yet completed. This state is normal during initial session establishment but becomes problematic if it persists, as it typically points to a Layer 3 reachability issue or a firewall blocking TCP/179.
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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.