PCNSE Manage, Monitor and Operate Practice Question
An administrator wants to view real-time CPU and memory usage on the firewall. Which CLI command should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse 'show system info' (static system details) with 'show system resources' (dynamic resource usage), as both commands start with 'show system' and seem related to system health.
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 system resources
The 'show system resources' command displays real-time CPU and memory utilization on a Palo Alto Networks firewall, including load averages, memory usage, and process-level details. This is the correct command for monitoring live resource consumption, as opposed to static system information or logs.
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 system info
Why it's wrong here
'show system info' returns static platform details such as model, serial number, software version and uptime, captured at a point in time rather than live counters. It suits asset inventory or version checks before an upgrade, not monitoring fluctuating CPU and memory load.
- ✗
show routing route
Why it's wrong here
'show routing route' dumps the routing table, listing destination prefixes, next hops and metrics; it reports no CPU or memory counters. It is the right command when verifying route installation or troubleshooting forwarding paths, not for real-time resource utilisation.
- ✗
show log system
Why it's wrong here
'show log system' displays historical system log entries, so any CPU or memory figures are past events, not current utilisation. It is the correct choice when investigating what happened previously, such as a reboot cause or daemon restart, rather than real-time resource monitoring.
- ✓
show system resources
Why this is correct
show system resources displays real-time CPU utilisation, memory usage and load averages for the firewall's dataplane and management plane. It satisfies the administrator's requirement to view live CPU and memory consumption directly from the CLI.
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About these practice questions
This PCNSE question is part of Courseiva's 319-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.