NSE7 Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Practice Question
An administrator observes that after a failover in an HA cluster, some established sessions are dropped. The cluster is configured with session pickup enabled. What is the most likely reason for the dropped sessions?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume session pickup covers all session types equally, but Fortinet specifically limits default synchronization to TCP sessions, and the question tests awareness of this protocol-specific 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
✓
Session pickup only synchronizes TCP sessions, and the dropped sessions are UDP
Session pickup in FortiGate HA synchronizes state information for TCP sessions by default, but UDP sessions are not synchronized because they are connectionless and do not have a stateful handshake. When a failover occurs, the new primary unit does not have the UDP session state, causing those sessions to be dropped. This is a known limitation of session pickup, which only covers TCP sessions unless specifically configured for UDP via session-ttl or other mechanisms.
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 failover occurred during a configuration synchronization
Why it's wrong here
Configuration sync is separate from session sync. Session pickup operates independently.
- ✗
The HA uptime is less than the session TTL
Why it's wrong here
This is not directly relevant; session pickup should still work if configured correctly.
- ✓
Session pickup only synchronizes TCP sessions, and the dropped sessions are UDP
Why this is correct
Session pickup by default only synchronizes TCP sessions. UDP and other protocols are not preserved during failover.
- ✗
The session helper for the protocol is not enabled
Why it's wrong here
Session helpers are for ALG handling, not for session synchronization.
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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.