PCNSE Practice Question: Managing Troubleshooting and High Availability
A firewall in an HA pair is being upgraded. The administrator wants to minimize traffic loss. What is the recommended procedure for upgrading the passive firewall in an active/passive pair?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume upgrading the active firewall first is safer because it is the primary device, but this ignores the fact that the passive firewall must be upgraded and ready to take over before the active firewall is touched to avoid traffic loss.
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
✓
Upgrade the passive firewall, failover to it, then upgrade the original active
In an active/passive HA pair, the passive firewall is upgraded first while the active firewall continues to handle traffic. After the passive firewall is upgraded and rebooted, an administrative failover is performed to make it the new active firewall, minimizing traffic loss. The original active firewall is then upgraded, ensuring there is always a firewall processing traffic during the upgrade process.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Upgrade the active firewall first, then failover to the passive
Why it's wrong here
Active upgrade causes traffic loss.
- ✓
Upgrade the passive firewall, failover to it, then upgrade the original active
Why this is correct
This ensures minimal traffic loss.
- ✗
Suspend HA, upgrade both, then re-enable HA
Why it's wrong here
Unnecessary and causes loss.
- ✗
Upgrade both firewalls simultaneously after disconnecting HA links
Why it's wrong here
Causes outage.
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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.