XDR-Engineer Ingestion And Automation Practice Question
An administrator has deployed a Broker VM and enabled the Active Directory (AD) collector to ingest user and group mapping data. The connection test fails with a 'Kerberos Authentication Failed' error. What is the most likely cause of this failure?
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 Broker VM system clock is out of sync with the Domain Controller by more than five minutes
Active Directory collectors communicating via Kerberos require accurate time synchronization and correct domain/SPN configurations.
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 Broker VM firewall is blocking ICMP ping requests
Why it's wrong here
ICMP blocking does not cause Kerberos authentication failures.
- ✗
The Cortex XDR agent on the domain controller has been uninstalled
Why it's wrong here
AD collectors use LDAP/Kerberos queries over the network and do not require an XDR agent on the DC.
- ✗
The Broker VM has exceeded its maximum disk storage allocation
Why it's wrong here
Disk storage limits do not cause Kerberos protocol handshake failures.
- ✓
The Broker VM system clock is out of sync with the Domain Controller by more than five minutes
Why this is correct
Kerberos authentication strictly relies on time synchronization between the client (Broker VM) and the KDC (Domain Controller).
About these practice questions
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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 XDR-Engineer 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 XDR-Engineer exam.