PCNSE Practice Question: Managing Troubleshooting and High Availability
A company has two Palo Alto Networks firewalls configured in active/passive HA. During a failover test, the passive firewall becomes active but traffic is not passing. The active firewall shows the correct configuration and licenses. Which action is most likely to resolve the issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume a failover automatically includes full configuration synchronization, but in reality, config sync must be explicitly enabled and successfully completed beforehand, and a stale passive device will not pass traffic until a manual sync is performed.
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
✓
Perform a configuration synchronization from the original active firewall.
The most likely cause of traffic failure after a failover is that the configuration on the newly active firewall is out of sync with the original active firewall. In active/passive HA, configuration synchronization (config sync) is typically enabled, but if it was not performed before the failover or if the passive device had a stale configuration, critical settings such as interface IPs, security policies, or routing entries may be missing or incorrect. Performing a configuration synchronization from the original active firewall ensures the new active device has the exact same configuration, restoring traffic flow.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable preemption on the HA configuration.
Why it's wrong here
Preemption controls which firewall becomes active after recovery, but does not address missing configuration.
- ✗
Re-apply the licenses on the newly active firewall.
Why it's wrong here
Licenses are synchronized automatically; re-applying them is not necessary for traffic.
- ✓
Perform a configuration synchronization from the original active firewall.
Why this is correct
The passive may have an outdated or incomplete config; sync ensures it matches the active.
- ✗
Disable the HA2 link to force stateful failover.
Why it's wrong here
HA2 is for session synchronization; disabling it would not fix configuration issues.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCNSE 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 PCNSE exam.