PCNSE Practice Question: Managing Troubleshooting and High Availability
Which THREE steps should be taken to verify that an HA pair is ready for a scheduled failover?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse preemption or logging adjustments with verification steps, but the PCNSE exam expects you to know that only configuration sync, HA2 link status, and session sync are direct checks for HA readiness before a scheduled failover.
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
✓
Perform a 'show high-availability sync-status' to confirm config synchronization
The 'show high-availability sync-status' command directly verifies that the configuration is synchronized between the HA pair, which is essential for a consistent state during failover. Without config sync, the passive firewall may not have the same policies or objects, leading to traffic drops or security gaps after 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.
- ✗
Stop all logging to reduce CPU load
Why it's wrong here
Logging does not interfere with failover.
- ✓
Perform a 'show high-availability sync-status' to confirm config synchronization
Why this is correct
Config sync must be complete for consistency.
- ✓
Verify HA2 link status is up
Why this is correct
HA2 is used for session sync; must be operational.
- ✓
Confirm that session synchronization is enabled
Why this is correct
Session sync is needed to maintain state after failover.
- ✗
Disable preemption on the active firewall
Why it's wrong here
Preemption does not affect readiness.
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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.