PCNSE Practice Question: Managing Troubleshooting and High Availability
Exhibit
Refer to the exhibit.
config shared {
high-availability {
mode active-passive;
group-id 10;
state-synchronization enable;
link-monitoring {
interfaces [ ethernet1/1 ethernet1/2 ];
failure-condition any;
}
path-monitoring {
enable yes;
groups {
group1 {
source-ip 10.0.0.1;
destination-ip [ 10.0.0.254 ];
interval 5;
threshold 10;
}
}
}
}
}Refer to the exhibit. An engineer configures HA with link monitoring and path monitoring. However, failover does not occur when ethernet1/2 goes down. What is the likely reason?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often assume that simply adding the 'link-monitoring' configuration stanza under the HA hierarchy automatically enables link monitoring, when in fact the 'enabled yes' parameter is required to activate it.
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
✓
'link-monitoring' is configured under the high-availability hierarchy but not explicitly enabled
In Palo Alto Networks HA configuration, link monitoring is not enabled by default even when the 'link-monitoring' block is present under the 'high-availability' hierarchy. The engineer must explicitly set 'enabled yes' within the 'link-monitoring' configuration to activate it. Without this explicit enable, the firewall will not monitor the specified interfaces for link state changes, so a failure on ethernet1/2 will not trigger a failover.
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 HA group-id is not unique in the network
Why it's wrong here
Group-id uniqueness does not affect link monitoring.
- ✗
HA2 link is down preventing failover
Why it's wrong here
HA2 down does not prevent failover; session sync may be affected.
- ✗
Path monitoring interval is set too high, causing delayed failover
Why it's wrong here
Path monitoring does not affect link monitoring failover.
- ✓
'link-monitoring' is configured under the high-availability hierarchy but not explicitly enabled
Why this is correct
In PAN-OS, link monitoring must be enabled with 'enable yes' under high-availability; interfaces alone do not enable it.
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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.