EX200 Manage security Practice Question
Network Topology
Refer to the exhibit. An administrator wants to add the HTTP service (port 80) to the internal zone permanently. Which sequence of commands should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse --reload with restarting the service, or they think runtime changes persist without the --permanent flag, leading them to choose options that either lose the change (A) or unnecessarily restart firewalld (B).
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
✓
firewall-cmd --zone=internal --add-service=http --permanent; firewall-cmd --reload
It uses the --permanent flag to make the rule persistent across reboots, and then runs firewall-cmd --reload to apply the permanent configuration to the running runtime environment without restarting the firewalld service. This sequence ensures the HTTP service is added to the internal zone permanently while maintaining active connections.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
firewall-cmd --add-service=http --zone=internal; firewall-cmd --reload
Why it's wrong here
Adding the service without --permanent creates a runtime-only rule that disappears the moment firewalld reloads or restarts. The subsequent --reload actually erases your change, leaving the internal zone without http access. To persist across reboots and activate the rule cleanly, the permanent configuration must be modified explicitly, not assumed by the runtime command.
- ✗
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http --zone=internal; systemctl restart firewalld
Why it's wrong here
Using --permanent alone writes the rule to disk, but systemctl restart firewalld is overly disruptive and unnecessary for this scenario. Restarting tears down all firewall rules, active connections, and can interrupt existing traffic, whereas firewalld supports a lightweight reload that applies configuration changes atomically. The Red Hat recommended practice is to use firewall-cmd --reload, which re-reads the permanent config and activates the new service rule without dropping established connections.
- ✗
firewall-cmd --zone=internal --add-service=http; firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent
Why it's wrong here
The runtime command adds http to the active zone, and --runtime-to-permanent saves the entire current runtime state, including any other temporary modifications made earlier. This approach is imprecise and can inadvertently persist unintended runtime-only rules that were never meant to be permanent. The standard and safer method is to use --permanent directly on the add-service command, which targets exactly that rule for persistence and avoids capturing unrelated transient state.
- ✓
firewall-cmd --zone=internal --add-service=http --permanent; firewall-cmd --reload
Why this is correct
This command correctly combines --permanent to write the http service rule for the internal zone into the active firewalld configuration, then --reload to apply that persisted configuration to the running firewall. Unlike a restart, reload preserves current connections while seamlessly activating the new permanent rule. This two-step sequence is the canonical, exam-accepted method for adding a service and making it effective immediately and after reboot.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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