NSE7 Enterprise Firewall and VDOMs Practice Question
During a failover test in an HA cluster, the administrator observes that the secondary unit becomes primary but does not have the latest configuration. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse session-pickup (which handles session state) with config sync (which handles configuration replication), leading them to incorrectly select option D when the actual issue is the missing config sync mechanism.
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
✓
Config sync is not enabled
Config sync is the mechanism that replicates configuration changes from the primary unit to the secondary unit in a FortiGate HA cluster. If config sync is not enabled, the secondary unit will not receive configuration updates, so when it becomes primary after a failover, it will operate with an outdated or default configuration. This directly explains why the secondary unit lacks the latest configuration after the failover.
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 password encryption is mismatched
Why it's wrong here
Password encryption mismatch affects whether the peer can authenticate and form the HA link, so the cluster would not reach an active-passive state at all. Here failover succeeded, proving the HA connection works. Matching encryption settings matter when initially establishing HA peering between two firewalls.
- ✓
Config sync is not enabled
Why this is correct
Without configuration synchronisation enabled, the secondary device never receives configuration updates from the primary, so its stored configuration diverges. On failover it assumes the primary role using that stale configuration, exactly matching the stem's observation that the newly promoted unit lacks the latest configuration.
- ✗
The HA priority is set too low
Why it's wrong here
HA priority determines which unit becomes primary during election, not configuration synchronisation; a low priority only delays or prevents that unit taking over. Configuration is kept current by HA synchronisation, so the stale config points to sync failure, not priority. Priority would matter when deliberately forcing a preferred unit to be active.
- ✗
session-pickup is disabled
Why it's wrong here
Session-pickup synchronises active session tables for seamless failover, not configuration. A disabled setting leaves sessions unsynchronised, so existing flows drop after takeover, but the configuration itself would still be current. Session-pickup is the right concern when preserving established sessions across a failover.
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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.