NSE7 Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Practice Question
An administrator notices that SD-WAN rule-based traffic is not failing over as expected when the primary link goes down. The SLA targets are configured correctly, and the interface health check is showing 'dead' for the primary link. What is the MOST likely reason for the failover not occurring?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume a 'dead' SLA health check will automatically trigger failover in all SD-WAN rules, but they overlook that the rule's strategy must be dynamic (e.g., 'optimal') for automatic failover to occur; a 'manual' strategy explicitly prevents this behavior.
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 SD-WAN rule's 'set strategy' is 'manual' and the preferred member is still set to the primary interface
When an SD-WAN rule's strategy is set to 'manual', the rule uses a static preferred member list and will not automatically fail over to another member, even if the primary link's SLA health check status is 'dead'. The SLA targets are correctly configured and the health check is detecting the failure, but the manual strategy overrides dynamic path selection, so traffic continues to be sent to the dead primary interface. To enable failover, the strategy must be set to 'optimal' or 'maximize-bandwidth' (or similar dynamic strategy), or the preferred member must be manually updated.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The SD-WAN rule's 'set strategy' is 'manual' and the preferred member is still set to the primary interface
Why this is correct
When strategy is 'manual', the rule will not failover automatically; traffic continues to be sent to the preferred member even if the SLA is dead.
- ✗
The SD-WAN rule's 'set status' is set to 'disable'
Why it's wrong here
Disabled rules would not match traffic, but failover would still occur for enabled rules.
- ✗
The secondary interface has a higher cost than the primary interface
Why it's wrong here
Cost does not affect SD-WAN rule failover; it affects routing table selection.
- ✗
The 'set update-static-route' is not enabled on the SD-WAN
Why it's wrong here
This setting updates routing tables but is not required for SD-WAN rule failover.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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