PCNSE Troubleshoot Practice Question
A large organization uses GlobalProtect for remote access. Users report that they can connect to the portal and download the client, but the client fails to establish a tunnel after connecting. The firewall's GlobalProtect gateway is configured with an authentication profile that uses LDAP. The gateway is configured to use an internal IP pool. The administrator checks the GlobalProtect logs and sees that the user authenticates successfully, but the gateway fails to assign an IP address. The IP pool is configured with a range of 10.10.10.100-10.10.10.200. The administrator verifies that there are no other devices using those IPs. The gateway is on a different subnet than the IP pool. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume IP pool assignment is independent of the gateway's interface subnet, but the gateway must have a directly connected route to the pool range for the tunnel to establish.
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 gateway's interface is not in the same subnet as the IP pool
The GlobalProtect gateway must have an interface in the same subnet as the IP pool to successfully assign an IP address to the client. When the gateway is on a different subnet, it cannot route or respond to ARP requests for the assigned IP, causing the IP assignment to fail even though authentication succeeds. This is a common misconfiguration because the IP pool is used for tunnel interface addressing, and the gateway's egress interface must be able to directly communicate with the pool range.
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 gateway's interface is not in the same subnet as the IP pool
Why this is correct
GlobalProtect gateway requires the IP pool to be on the same subnet as the gateway's interface for proper routing.
- ✗
The GlobalProtect client is outdated
Why it's wrong here
An outdated client may cause other issues, but not specifically IP assignment failure.
- ✗
The LDAP authentication profile is misconfigured
Why it's wrong here
Authentication works; the issue is after authentication.
- ✗
The client certificate is not trusted by the gateway
Why it's wrong here
Certificate issues would prevent authentication, not IP assignment.
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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.