PCNSE Manage, Monitor and Operate Practice Question
An administrator wants to receive SNMP traps from the firewall for critical events such as failed login attempts and high CPU usage. Which configuration step is required?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse SNMP polling (which requires read-only community strings and interface monitoring) with SNMP trap generation (which requires a separate trap destination configuration), leading them to select options A or C instead of D.
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
✓
Configure an SNMP trap destination under Device > Setup > SNMP Trap.
To receive SNMP traps from a Palo Alto Networks firewall, you must configure the trap destination under Device > Setup > SNMP Trap. This step defines where the firewall sends SNMP notifications (traps) for events like failed login attempts and high CPU usage. Without a configured trap destination, the firewall will not transmit any SNMP traps, even if other SNMP settings are enabled.
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 SNMP monitoring on the interface.
Why it's wrong here
SNMP traps are pushed by the firewall to a manager; enabling monitoring on an interface only permits inbound polling queries and does not generate trap traffic. The tempting part is that interface monitoring is genuinely required for a manager to poll counters, which suits performance-graphing deployments rather than event-driven alerting.
- ✗
Set up a log forwarding profile with SNMP action.
Why it's wrong here
SNMP traps are generated by the firewall's SNMP agent, configured under Device > Setup > Operations, not through log forwarding profiles. Log forwarding profiles route traffic, threat, and system logs to external destinations such as syslog servers, email, or HTTP. A log forwarding profile with SNMP action would be the right choice only if the requirement were forwarding specific log types to an SNMP manager.
- ✗
Create an SNMP read-only community string.
Why it's wrong here
A read-only community string authenticates inbound SNMP polling requests, not outbound trap delivery. Traps are pushed to a manager without any request, so no community string is needed for the trap itself. Read-only strings are configured when a monitoring server polls the firewall for interface counters or session statistics.
- ✓
Configure an SNMP trap destination under Device > Setup > SNMP Trap.
Why this is correct
SNMP traps are outbound notifications, so the firewall needs a defined trap destination to know where to send them. Configuring this under Device > Setup > SNMP Trap enables critical events such as failed logins and high CPU usage to reach the monitoring server.
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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.