PCNSE Manage, Monitor and Operate Practice Question
An administrator is troubleshooting high CPU usage on a PA-5250 firewall. The CPU usage spikes every 5 minutes. Which CLI command should be used to identify the process causing the spike?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse 'show system resources' (overall utilization) with 'show running resource-monitor' (per-process breakdown), assuming the former is sufficient for process-level diagnosis when it only shows aggregate CPU and memory percentages.
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 running resource-monitor
The 'show running resource-monitor' command displays real-time CPU and memory usage per process on Palo Alto Networks firewalls. Since the CPU spikes every 5 minutes, this command can identify which specific process (e.g., management-plane daemon, dataplane task) is consuming the most CPU during those intervals, enabling targeted troubleshooting.
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 session all
Why it's wrong here
show session all lists current sessions and their details, revealing nothing about which process consumes CPU. It is tempting because session counts can correlate with load, but identifying the spiking process requires per-process CPU data from show system resources or a top-style view.
- ✗
show dataplane
Why it's wrong here
show dataplane reports dataplane statistics and counters, not control-plane process CPU consumption. It is tempting because dataplane load often drives high CPU, but the five-minute spike points to a scheduled management-plane process, which show system resources exposes.
- ✓
show running resource-monitor
Why this is correct
The resource-monitor command samples per-process CPU and memory usage at intervals, so it captures the five-minute spike and names the offending process. Plain 'show system resources' gives only a point-in-time snapshot, which would likely miss the periodic spike.
- ✗
show system resources
Why it's wrong here
show system resources reports aggregate CPU, memory, and load averages, which shows the spike exists but not which process causes it. It would be the right command for a broad health check. Identifying the offending process requires the per-process view, such as show system processes.
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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.