PCNSE Practice Question: Managing Troubleshooting and High Availability
Exhibit
Refer to the exhibit. admin@PA-5050> show high-availability state HA state: active peer HA state: passive link status: up HA1 link status: up HA2 link status: up last failure reason: peer HA1 keepalive lost
Based on the exhibit, what caused the last failover?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the HA1 link (control link for keepalives) with the HA2 link (data link for session sync), leading them to incorrectly select Option A when the actual failover trigger is loss of HA1 keepalive, not HA2 link failure.
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 HA1 keepalive from the peer was lost.
The exhibit shows 'HA1 keepalive from the peer was lost' as the last failover reason. In an active/passive HA pair, the passive firewall monitors HA1 keepalive messages from the active peer. When these keepalives are not received within the configured hello interval (default 1 second) and hold timer (default 3 seconds), the passive firewall assumes the active peer has failed and initiates a failover to become active.
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 HA2 link went down.
Why it's wrong here
The HA2 link status is up.
- ✗
A preemption event occurred.
Why it's wrong here
No preemption is indicated.
- ✗
The peer firewall was rebooted.
Why it's wrong here
The output does not mention reboot; it specifically says keepalive lost.
- ✓
The HA1 keepalive from the peer was lost.
Why this is correct
The output shows 'last failure reason: peer HA1 keepalive lost'.
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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.