NSE7 Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Practice Question
An administrator wants to monitor the session count on a FortiGate in real time. Which CLI command provides this information?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse general performance monitoring commands (like 'get system performance status') with session-specific diagnostics, leading candidates to select options that show system health but not the exact session count required.
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
✓
diagnose sys session stat
'diagnose sys session stat' is the specific FortiGate CLI command that displays real-time session statistics, including the total number of sessions currently tracked by the firewall. This command provides a live count of active sessions, which is exactly what the administrator needs for real-time monitoring.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
diagnose sys top
Why it's wrong here
diagnose sys top lists running processes with CPU and memory usage, not session totals, so it cannot report the session count. It is tempting because it refreshes in real time and shows live system activity, making it the correct choice when identifying which process is consuming excessive CPU on the FortiGate.
- ✗
get system performance status
Why it's wrong here
get system performance status reports CPU, memory, uptime and bandwidth statistics, but no session count, so it fails the requirement. It is tempting because it is the standard real-time health snapshot command, and it would be correct when checking overall resource utilisation rather than session table size.
- ✓
diagnose sys session stat
Why this is correct
diagnose sys session stat returns real-time session counts and memory usage for the session table, giving the administrator an immediate snapshot. It reads current session statistics directly, unlike log or policy commands that do not expose live session totals.
- ✗
diagnose debug enable
Why it's wrong here
diagnose debug enable merely turns on debug output globally; it does not itself display session counts, so no real-time session figure appears. It is tempting because debug commands do surface live traffic detail, and it would be the right starting point when troubleshooting a specific daemon's packet handling rather than reading counters.
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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.