NSE7 Advanced Networking and SD-WAN Practice Question
A network administrator needs to configure SD-WAN on a FortiGate to distribute traffic across two WAN links based on session count. Which load balancing algorithm should be selected in the SD-WAN rule?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse 'Sessions' with 'Volume' or 'Spillover', as candidates often assume bandwidth-based algorithms (like Volume) are the default for session distribution, but FortiGate's SD-WAN explicitly separates session count from byte volume in its load balancing options.
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
✓
Sessions
The 'Sessions' load balancing algorithm distributes new sessions across SD-WAN members based on the current session count, ensuring an even distribution of sessions. This directly matches the requirement to distribute traffic based on session count, as it selects the member with the fewest active sessions for each new session.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Volume
Why it's wrong here
Volume balances by bytes or packets transferred, so a few large sessions dominate link selection rather than session counts. It is tempting because it distributes traffic, but session-count balancing requires the source-ip or session-based algorithm instead.
- ✗
Lowest-cost
Why it's wrong here
Lowest-cost selects the link with the lowest configured cost value, not the one with the fewest active sessions, so session-count distribution never occurs. It suits scenarios where link preference is driven by monetary or metric cost rather than load.
- ✗
Spillover
Why it's wrong here
Spillover only diverts new sessions to the secondary link once the primary link reaches a configured bandwidth or session threshold, so traffic is not distributed across both links by session count. It suits failover-style overflow when one link should carry load until saturated.
- ✓
Sessions
Why this is correct
The Sessions algorithm distributes traffic according to the number of active sessions on each member, directly matching the session-count requirement. Source-IP, volume and spillover balance on different metrics, so they would not satisfy the stated constraint.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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