Cybersecurity-Practitioner Network Security Practice Question
A network engineer has deployed an active/passive HA pair of PA-5220 firewalls. During a routine failover test, the engineer notices that existing TCP sessions are dropped and must be re-established. Which feature should be enabled to prevent session disruption during failover?
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
✓
HA Session Synchronization
Session synchronization ensures that active stateful session information is mirrored to the passive firewall so traffic continues seamlessly after 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.
- ✓
HA Session Synchronization
Why this is correct
Correct. Enabling session sync synchronizes active connection states to the peer firewall.
- ✗
Route Monitoring
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Route monitoring triggers failovers based on virtual router reachability.
- ✗
HEC (High Availability Encryption)
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. HEC secures control and data traffic passing between the HA peer firewalls.
- ✗
Preemption
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Preemption controls whether a higher-priority device reclaims its active role after recovering.
About these practice questions
One of 206 original Cybersecurity-Practitioner 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 and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official Palo Alto Networks exam blueprint
This Cybersecurity-Practitioner practice question is part of Courseiva's free Palo Alto Networks 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 Cybersecurity-Practitioner exam.