NSE7 Enterprise Firewall and VDOMs Practice Question
A network engineer is designing a FortiGate HA cluster with two units operating in active-active mode. The cluster will be placed in a VDOM-enabled environment. The engineer wants to ensure that traffic from a specific VDOM is load-balanced across both units based on source IP address. Which setting must be configured on the cluster to achieve this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse 'vdom-load-balance' with a real command, or assume that session pickup alone can distribute traffic, when in fact virtual clusters with an explicit load-balance method are required for per-VDOM source IP-based load balancing.
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
✓
Configure a virtual cluster with load-balance method source IP
In a VDOM-enabled active-active HA cluster, per-VDOM load balancing is achieved by configuring a virtual cluster and setting the load-balance method to source IP. This allows the cluster to distribute traffic for that specific VDOM across both units based on the source IP hash, ensuring session persistence while balancing the load.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure randomize-vip under config system ha
Why it's wrong here
randomize-vip randomizes VIP traffic, not general forwarding.
- ✓
Configure a virtual cluster with load-balance method source IP
Why this is correct
Virtual cluster with load-balance method distributes traffic per source IP.
- ✗
Configure vdom-load-balance under config system ha
Why it's wrong here
vdom-load-balance assigns VDOMs to cluster members, not per-packet load balancing.
- ✗
Enable session pickup and set session-pickup-delay to 0
Why it's wrong here
Session pickup affects session synchronization, not load balancing.
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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.