hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PCNSA Practice Question: A PA-5250 firewall is experiencing high CPU usage…
A PA-5250 firewall is experiencing high CPU usage on the dataplane. Analysis shows that a large amount of traffic is being processed by the application identification engine. What can be done to reduce the CPU load?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates think disabling application identification or increasing logging will help, but Palo Alto Networks tests the understanding that application-based allow rules reduce CPU by leveraging the identification result rather than disabling the engine or adding overhead.
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
✓
Create security rules that use application-based policies to allow trusted applications without additional inspection.
Creating security rules that use application-based policies to allow trusted applications without additional inspection reduces CPU load because the firewall can skip deep packet inspection for those applications once identified. This offloads processing from the application identification engine by allowing traffic based on application signatures rather than performing full identification on every packet. In contrast, disabling application identification globally would break security policy enforcement, and increasing logging or changing the default rule would not reduce the CPU burden from application identification.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Disable application identification globally.
Why it's wrong here
This would reduce functionality significantly.
- ✗
Increase logging to debug which applications are being processed.
Why it's wrong here
More logging increases CPU usage.
- ✗
Change the default rule to allow all traffic based on port only.
Why it's wrong here
This would not reduce App-ID processing for allowed sessions.
- ✓
Create security rules that use application-based policies to allow trusted applications without additional inspection.
Why this is correct
Explicit application allow rules bypass further App-ID processing.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCNSA 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 PCNSA exam.