NSE4_FGT_AD-7.6 Fortinet NSE 4 - FortiOS 7.6 Administrator Questions and Answers

In FortiOS 7.6, the predefined deep-inspection and custom-deep-inspection SSL inspection profiles intentionally exclude certain web categories (such as Finance and Banking and Health and Wellness) and well-known domains (for example, Apple, Google, Adobe). This behavior is documented and intentional.

The two correct reasons are:

B. The legal regulation aims to prioritize user privacy and protect sensitive information for these websites.

Correct

Categories like Finance and Banking and Health and Wellness commonly handle highly sensitive personal data.

Many privacy and compliance regulations (for example, GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA-like requirements) discourage or restrict SSL interception for such traffic.

To reduce legal and compliance risks, FortiOS exempts these categories from deep SSL inspection by default.

This is explicitly stated in FortiOS SSL/SSH Inspection documentation.

C. These websites are in an allowlist of reputable domain names maintained by FortiGuard.

Correct

FortiGuard maintains a reputable/trusted domain list for well-known services and platforms.

These domains are excluded from deep inspection by default to:

Prevent application breakage

Avoid certificate pinning and compatibility issues

Maintain user experience

This is why domains such as Apple, Google, Adobe, and app stores appear under SSL inspection exemptions.

Why the other options are incorrect

A. Resource utilization optimization

Incorrect.

While reduced inspection can save resources, this is not the primary documented reason for exempting these categories.

D. FortiGate temporary certificate denies access to HSTS websites

Incorrect.

Although HSTS and certificate pinning can cause issues with SSL inspection, this option describes a side effect, not the reason for exemption.

The exemption exists to avoid such problems, not because the certificate denies access.

From the HA configuration shown for HQ-NGFW-1:

set memory-based-failover enable

set memory-failover-threshold 70

set memory-failover-monitor-period 50

set memory-failover-sample-rate 10

set memory-failover-flip-timeout 60

set override disable

set priority 200

From the performance status outputs:

HQ-NGFW-1 memory used is 90% (well above the configured threshold of 70%)

HQ-NGFW-2 memory used is about 48.7% (well below the threshold)

What happens in FortiOS 7.6 with memory-based failover

When memory-based failover is enabled, FortiGate monitors memory utilization. If the unit’s memory usage stays above the configured memory-failover-threshold for the configured memory-failover-monitor-period, the cluster triggers a failover away from the unit under memory pressure.

Threshold = 70%

HQ-NGFW-1 is at 90%, so it violates the threshold.

Monitor period = 50 seconds.

The administrator observed for 55 seconds, which is longer than 50 seconds, so the condition is met for long enough to trigger failover.

The memory-failover-flip-timeout 60 is used to prevent rapid back-and-forth role changes (flapping) after a failover decision; it does not prevent the initial failover from occurring once the threshold breach persists for the monitor period.

NetAPI: Polls temporary sessions created on the DC when a user logs on or logs off and calls the NetSessionEnum function on Windows. It’s faster than the WinSec and WMI methods; however, it can miss some logon events if a DC is under heavy system load. This is because sessions can be quickly created and purged form RAM, before the agent has a chance to poll and notify FG.

Based on the diagnose debug rating output provided in the exhibit and the standard behavior of the FortiGuard connection mechanism in FortiOS 7.6:

Weight Calculation (Statement A is True):

In FortiOS, the rating server selection process uses a weight-based system.

According to official documentation, the weight increases with failed packets (lost responses) and decreases with successful packets.

This mechanism ensures that servers with poor reliability are penalized by having higher weights, effectively pushing them to the bottom of the preference list.

Default Port Communication (Statement D is True):

The exhibit explicitly shows the communication is using HTTPS on port 8888.

In FortiOS 7.6 (and legacy versions like 6.2/6.4), FortiGuard filtering supports specific protocols and ports: HTTPS on ports 443, 53, and 8888, where 8888 is considered a default port for FortiGuard queries.

Ports 53 and 8888 are standard for both UDP and TCP/HTTPS FortiGuard communications to avoid common firewall blocks on standard web ports.

Why other options are incorrect:

Statement B (Unreliable protocols): While you can configure UDP (which is unreliable), the exhibit specifically shows HTTPS is being used, which is a reliable (TCP-based) protocol.

Statement C (DNS lookup): In the "Flags" column of the server list, a server found via DNS lookup would be marked with the "D" flag. The exhibit shows the flag as "I" (indicating the last INIT request was sent to this server) and a numeric "2," but the "D" flag is absent. Additionally, the IP 10.0.1.241 is a private address, suggesting it is a manually configured FortiManager or local override server rather than a public server found via global DNS lookup.

According to the FortiOS 7.6 High Availability (HA) Administration Guide and FGCP (FortiGate Clustering Protocol) requirements, the correct answers are B and D.

FGCP HA Cluster Mandatory Requirements (FortiOS 7.6)

When forming an HA cluster using FGCP, FortiGate devices must meet several strict compatibility and configuration requirements. Among the options given, the following two are mandatory:

✅ B. They must have the same number of configured VDOMs

In FortiOS HA, all cluster members must have the same VDOM configuration.

This includes:

Same number of VDOMs

Same VDOM names

This is required so configuration synchronization can occur correctly between members.

If VDOM counts differ, HA formation will fail.

✔ This is explicitly required and documented.

✅ D. They must have the same HA group ID

The HA group ID uniquely identifies an HA cluster on the network.

All FortiGate units intended to join the same cluster must share the same HA group ID.

If the group IDs differ, devices will not recognize each other as cluster peers.

✔ This is a fundamental FGCP requirement.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect

❌ A. They must have the same hard drive configuration

Hard drive presence or size does not have to match for FGCP HA to function.

Disk differences may affect logging behavior, but they do not prevent HA cluster formation.

Therefore, this is not a required condition.

❌ C. They must have the heartbeat interfaces in the same subnet

Heartbeat interfaces must be:

Directly connected

In the same Layer 2 broadcast domain

They do not require IP addressing or being in the same IP subnet.

In many deployments, heartbeat interfaces have no IP addresses at all.

Therefore, “same subnet” is not a documented requirement.

From the exhibits:

System performance output

Memory used: 90%

Free memory: ~5%

Default memory thresholds (FortiOS 7.6)

memory-use-threshold-green 82%

memory-use-threshold-red 88%

memory-use-threshold-extreme 89%

Because memory usage (90%) exceeds the extreme threshold (89%), the FortiGate enters conserve mode.

Effects of conserve mode (FortiOS 7.6 – verified)

B. FortiGate has entered conserve mode.

Correct

When memory usage exceeds the red/extreme threshold, FortiGate automatically enters conserve mode.

This is exactly the condition shown in the system performance output.

D. Administrators can change the configuration.

Correct

Even in conserve mode:

Administrators can still log in (GUI, SSH, console)

Configuration changes are allowed

FortiGate does not lock configuration access during conserve mode.

This behavior is explicitly documented in the FortiOS 7.6 Conserve Mode section.

Why the other options are incorrect

A. Administrators can access FortiGate only through the console port.

Incorrect

Network access (GUI/SSH) is still available in conserve mode unless otherwise restricted.

Console-only access is not a conserve-mode requirement.

C. FortiGate drops new sessions.

Incorrect (as a general statement)

FortiGate may drop or bypass new inspection-required sessions depending on fail-open/fail-close settings.

It does not universally drop all new sessions, so this statement is not always true.

In FortiOS 7.6, GUI session inactivity timeout behavior for administrators is controlled by admin profiles, not by general access permissions or profile ordering.

How GUI idle timeout works in FortiOS 7.6

FortiGate has a global admin timeout (admintimeout), but

Admin profiles can override this value using the Override idle timeout setting.

When Override idle timeout is enabled in an admin profile, the timeout value defined inside that profile takes precedence over the global setting.

The exhibit shows that the NOC team logs in using the NOC_Access admin profile. Therefore, to prevent their GUI sessions from disconnecting too quickly during inactivity, the timeout must be adjusted within that specific admin profile.

Why option B is correct

B. Increase the value of the Override Idle Timeout parameter in the NOC_Access admin profile.

This directly controls how long GUI sessions remain active when users assigned to NOC_Access are idle.

It affects only the NOC team, which matches the requirement precisely.

This is the recommended and documented approach in FortiOS 7.6.

Why the other options are incorrect

A. Increase admintimeout under config system accprofileIncorrect. admintimeout is a global admin setting, not configured under accprofile, and it would affect all administrators, not just NOC users.

C. Move NOC_Access to the top of the listIncorrect. Admin profile order has no impact on session timeout behavior.

D. Assign super_admin roleIncorrect and insecure. Super_admin does not control idle timeout and would unnecessarily grant full privileges.

According to the FortiOS 7.6 Study Guide and technical documentation, conserve mode is a protective state triggered when memory utilization reaches the Extreme Threshold (typically 95% by default). When this occurs, the FortiGate implements several measures to prioritize system stability over new functionality. One of the primary restrictions is that the FortiGate refuses to accept configuration changes (Statement B). This prevents the system from initiating new processes or allocating additional memory that could lead to a total system crash.

Regarding traffic handling, the behavior is determined by specific "fail-open" settings. For the IPS engine, if the fail-open global setting is enabled, the FortiGate continues to transmit packets without IPS inspection (Statement D). This ensures that network connectivity is maintained even when the system lacks the memory resources to perform deep packet inspection. In contrast, Statement A is incorrect because the system may skip non-essential actions to save memory. Statement C is incorrect because conserve mode is designed to avoid a system halt; the device remains operational and will automatically exit conserve mode once memory usage drops below the Release Threshold (typically 82%).

According to the FortiOS 7.6 Administration Guide and Fortinet hardware acceleration (NTurbo) documentation, the correct answer is A.

What NTurbo Is (FortiOS 7.6 – Verified)

NTurbo is a hardware-based acceleration feature available on specific FortiGate models. It is designed to improve antivirus and IPS performance when operating in flow-based inspection mode.

NTurbo works by creating a fast, optimized data path between:

FortiGate ingress interface

IPS/AV engine

FortiGate egress interface

This minimizes CPU involvement and reduces packet traversal overhead.

Why Option A Is Correct

A. For flow-based inspection, NTurbo establishes a dedicated data path to redirect traffic between the IPS engine and FortiGate ingress and egress interfaces.

This is exactly how NTurbo works, as documented:

NTurbo applies to flow-based inspection only

It accelerates IPS and antivirus scanning

It creates a dedicated fast path that bypasses unnecessary processing steps

This significantly improves throughput and lowers latency

This description matches Fortinet’s official explanation of NTurbo.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect

B. NTurbo creates two inspection sessions

Incorrect. NTurbo does not duplicate sessions; it optimizes the packet path.

C. NTurbo offloads traffic to the content processor (proxy-based)

Incorrect. NTurbo does not apply to proxy-based inspection and does not offload to content processors.

D. NTurbo buffers the whole file and then sends it to the antivirus engine

Incorrect. Buffering entire files is a proxy-based behavior, not NTurbo.

"Also, advanced mode supports nested or inherited groups; that is, users can be members of subgroups that belong to monitored parent groups." "In advanced mode, you can configure FortiGate as an LDAP client and configure the group filters on FortiGate. You can also configure group filters on the collector agent."

Collector Agent Advanced Mode provides deeper integration between FortiGate, LDAP, and Active Directory, compared to standard mode.

Key features of Collector Agent Advanced Mode

B. FortiGate can be configured as an LDAP client and group filters can be configured on FortiGate.

Correct

In advanced mode:

FortiGate directly queries LDAP/AD

User group filters are configured on FortiGate, not only on the Collector Agent

This allows more flexible and scalable user/group-based policies

D. Advanced mode supports nested or inherited groups.

Correct

Advanced mode supports:

Nested AD groups

Inherited group memberships

This is one of the primary reasons advanced mode is used in complex AD environments

Why the other options are incorrect

A. Security profiles only to user groups

Incorrect.

Security profiles can be applied to users or groups, depending on policy configuration.

C. Uses NetBIOS Domain\Username format

Incorrect.

NetBIOS naming is associated with standard mode

Advanced mode typically uses LDAP DN-based identification

In the FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (CNF) for AWS architecture, traffic from workloads (such as an EC2 instance) in the customer VPC is redirected to the security service (FortiGate CNF) using AWS Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB) technology.

The key AWS component that must exist inside the customer VPC to steer workload traffic to the GWLB is the:

Gateway Load Balancer Endpoint (GWLBe)

This endpoint is what the customer VPC routes point to (for example, default route or subnet route entries), enabling transparent insertion of the FortiGate CNF inspection path for EC2 traffic.

Why the other options are not correct:

A: CNF does not “create the customer VPC” (that is customer-owned), and “GWLBe” is the only relevant created item here, not the whole VPC.

C: Customer VPC is not created by CNF, and GWLB is typically part of the CNF service side; the question specifically asks what must be created to handle traffic from the EC2 instance (that requires GWLBe in the customer VPC).

D: CNF does not create the Internet Gateway (IGW) in the customer VPC, and IGW is not the required CNF-created component for steering traffic to FortiGate CNF.

From the routing table in the exhibit, there is already a static route for 172.20.1.0/24 pointing out port3 with:

Distance = 9

Priority = 2

Type = Static

In FortiOS, route selection prefers (in order) the route with the lowest administrative distance to a destination. Therefore, to make traffic to 172.20.1.0/24 go through port2 only, the administrator must ensure the port2 static route is more preferred than the existing port3 route.

Why C is correct

C. The existing static route through port3 must have the distance set to 11.

If the existing port3 route distance is increased to 11, then a new port2 route with distance 9 will be preferred (9 < 11). This makes the port3 route a backup route instead of the active one.

Why D is correct

D. The new static route must have the distance set to 9

Setting the new port2 route distance to 9 (and increasing the port3 route to 11 as in option C) ensures FortiGate selects the port2 route as the best route for 172.20.1.0/24.

Why A and B are not correct

A (priority 3): By itself it does not guarantee selection over the existing route, and FortiOS route choice is driven primarily by distance.

B (metric 1): Metric is not the primary selector for static route preference compared to administrative distance in this scenario.

So the two criteria that achieve the objective are:

Make the existing port3 route less preferred by increasing its distance (C)

Ensure the new port2 route uses the preferred distance (D)

According to the FortiOS 7.6 Study Guide and Parallel Path Processing documentation, flow-based antivirus inspection is designed to provide security with minimal impact on performance.

First, a defining characteristic of modern flow-based AV (specifically in its "hybrid" mode) is that FortiGate buffers the whole file but transmits to the client at the same time (Statement A). This behavior allows the client to start receiving data immediately to prevent session timeouts, while the FortiGate reassembles the file in memory to perform a signature check before the final packet is released.

Second, starting with recent FortiOS versions including 7.6, flow-based inspection uses a hybrid of the scanning modes (Statement B). Previously, flow mode offered "Quick" or "Full" scans; now, it combines these techniques to offer a balance between the speed of stream-based scanning and the thoroughness of archive inspection.

Third, the primary motivation for selecting this mode is that flow-based inspection optimizes performance compared to proxy-based inspection (Statement D). It processes traffic in a single pass using the IPS engine, avoiding the overhead associated with the WAD (proxy) process. Statement C is incorrect because if a virus is detected, the last packet is withheld and the connection is reset to prevent the file from being completed. Statement E is less accurate as the IPS engine loads the AV engine to perform the task rather than acting as a "standalone" entity in the context of file scanning.

From the current HA status, HQ-NGFW-1 is the primary and HQ-NGFW-2 is the secondary.

The administrator then changes these HA parameters:

HQ-NGFW-1: set override disable, set priority 90

HQ-NGFW-2: set override enable, set priority 110

In FGCP (A-P mode), the override (preemption) feature controls whether a higher-priority unit is allowed to take over the primary role.

When override is enabled, the cluster will prefer (and can re-elect) the unit with the highest device priority to become primary (preempting a lower-priority primary when conditions trigger re-election behavior as defined by FGCP).

Here, HQ-NGFW-2 has:

override enabled

higher priority (110) than HQ-NGFW-1 (90)

Therefore, the expected result is that HQ-NGFW-2 becomes the primary.

Why the other options are incorrect:

B is incorrect because it claims HQ-NGFW-2 has lower priority (it is higher: 110 > 90).

C is incorrect because a mismatch in the override setting is not what causes the “configuration out of sync” condition shown in get system ha status (that is about synchronized configuration databases, not a requirement that override values must match to remain in-sync).

D is incorrect because HA settings like override/priority are not synchronized in the way regular configuration objects are; they are device-level HA parameters.