PCNSE Practice Question: Managing Troubleshooting and High Availability
An administrator is troubleshooting a Palo Alto Networks firewall and needs to view the current sessions that are active on the firewall. The administrator wants to see details such as source and destination IP addresses, application, and security policy applied. Which CLI command should the administrator use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse similar-sounding commands like 'show session info' with 'show session all', where the former only provides summary statistics and not detailed session listings.
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
✓
show session all
The 'show session all' command is the correct CLI command to display all active sessions on a Palo Alto Networks firewall, including source and destination IP addresses, application, and the security policy applied. It provides the detailed session information the administrator needs to troubleshoot or monitor current traffic.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
show running session all
Why it's wrong here
'show running session all' is not a valid PAN-OS CLI command. The correct syntax for viewing sessions is 'show session all'. Using an invalid command will result in an error. Therefore, this option is incorrect and would not provide the desired information.
- ✗
show session info
Why it's wrong here
'show session info' displays summary statistics about the session table, such as the number of active sessions, maximum sessions, and utilization. It does not list individual session details like source/destination IPs or applications. To view detailed session information, 'show session all' is required. Thus, this command does not fulfill the requirement.
- ✓
show session all
Why this is correct
The 'show session all' command displays all active sessions on the firewall, including source and destination IP addresses, application, security policy, and other details. It is the primary command for viewing the session table. This command provides a comprehensive list, which can be filtered further if needed. Therefore, it meets the administrator's requirement to view current sessions with the specified details.
- ✗
show session table
Why it's wrong here
'show session table' is not a valid PAN-OS command. The correct command is 'show session all'. Attempting to use this command will produce an error. Therefore, it is incorrect and would not provide the needed session details.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Palo Alto Networks exam blueprint
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.