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unit will not receive configuration updates, so when it becomes primary after a failover, it will operate with an outdated or default configuration.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 would cause authentication issues, not config sync failure.
- ✓
Config sync is not enabled
Why this is correct
Config sync must be enabled to replicate configuration changes.
- ✗
The HA priority is set too low
Why it's wrong here
Priority determines which unit becomes primary but does not affect config sync.
- ✗
session-pickup is disabled
Why it's wrong here
session-pickup is for session failover, not config sync.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 940 original NSE7 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.