NSE7 Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Practice Question
You run 'diagnose sys session filter dport 443' and see sessions with a duration of 7200 seconds and expire time of 3600 seconds. What does this indicate?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'duration' with 'idle time' — candidates often assume duration measures inactivity, but FortiGate's session table uses separate fields for idle time and total session age.
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 session has been alive for 7200 seconds and will expire in 3600 seconds
The 'duration' field in the 'diagnose sys session filter' output shows how long the session has been active (7200 seconds), while the 'expire' field indicates the remaining time before the session times out (3600 seconds). Option C correctly interprets both values. This is standard FortiGate session table behavior, where each session has a configurable timeout (e.g., default TCP timeout is 3600 seconds for established sessions).
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 session has been idle for 7200 seconds
Why it's wrong here
Idle timeout is not shown in this output.
- ✗
The session helper is interfering with the session
Why it's wrong here
No session helper information is provided.
- ✓
The session has been alive for 7200 seconds and will expire in 3600 seconds
Why this is correct
Duration is time alive; expire is remaining lifetime.
- ✗
The session has already expired
Why it's wrong here
The session is still listed, so it is not expired.
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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.