Fortinet NSE7_SDW-7.2 Practice Test Questions, Exam Dumps

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NSE7_SDW-7.2 Fortinet Practice Test Questions and Exam Dumps

Question No 1:

A network engineer is configuring BGP on a hub device in a hub-and-spoke topology using IPsec overlays. The goal is to allow spoke sites to learn not only the routes from the hub but also routes from other spoke sites via the BGP control plane. Additionally, the administrator wants the spokes to be able to receive multiple paths (i.e., additional paths) for a given prefix to support path diversity and enhanced routing decisions.

The exhibit (not shown here) displays the current BGP configuration applied to the hub router. However, during testing, the administrator notices that while the hub advertises its routes successfully, each spoke does not see routes from other spokes in its routing table. Furthermore, the spokes are not receiving multiple BGP paths (additional paths) for the same prefix.

To enable spokes to receive routes from other spokes and to allow BGP to advertise multiple paths,

Which three BGP neighbor settings must be correctly configured within each BGP neighbor group for the spokes?

A. Enable soft-reconfiguration
B. Enable route-reflector-client
C. Set additional-path to send
D. Set adv-additional-path to the number of additional paths to advertise
E. Set advertisement-interval to the number of additional paths to advertise

Correct Answers:

B. Enable route-reflector-client
C. Set additional-path to send
D. Set adv-additional-path to the number of additional paths to advertise

Explanation:

In a hub-and-spoke topology using BGP, it is common to use a Route Reflector (RR) configuration on the hub to enable spoke-to-spoke route propagation. Without it, traditional iBGP rules (such as not advertising iBGP-learned routes to other iBGP peers) will prevent spokes from learning about other spoke routes through the hub. Additionally, to support multiple path advertisements for enhanced routing (known as BGP Add-Paths), several settings must be explicitly configured.

Let’s break down each concept and relate it to the question:

1. Route Reflector and Route Reflector Clients (Answer B):

In iBGP, routers do not forward iBGP-learned routes to other iBGP peers by default. This causes a problem in hub-and-spoke topologies where all spokes form iBGP sessions only with the hub.

To resolve this, the hub must act as a Route Reflector (RR), and the spokes must be configured as route-reflector clients. This allows the hub to reflect routes learned from one spoke to other spokes. Without the route-reflector-client setting enabled for each spoke peer group on the hub, the hub won't reflect the routes, and spokes won't learn each other's prefixes.

2. BGP Add-Path Capability (Answers C and D):

BGP Add-Path is an enhancement to standard BGP behavior, allowing a router to advertise multiple paths for the same prefix to a peer. This is particularly useful in scenarios like this, where multiple overlay tunnels or equal-cost paths exist.

C. Set additional-path to send: This configuration allows the hub to send more than one BGP path for a single prefix to its peers (in this case, the spokes). Without this, only the best path is advertised.
D. Set adv-additional-path to the number of additional paths to advertise: This setting determines how many additional paths the router is allowed to advertise. For example, adv-additional-path 2 allows the router to advertise two additional paths (in total, possibly three paths including the best).

Both C and D must be set together: one enables the feature, and the other defines how many paths can be sent.

3. Incorrect Options:

A. Enable soft-reconfiguration: This allows routers to store received routes from peers for policy changes without resetting the BGP session. It is not required for route reflection or additional paths.
E. Set advertisement-interval to the number of additional paths to advertise: This is a misinterpretation of what advertisement-interval does. This setting controls the minimum time between sending updates to a peer—not the number of paths. It does not influence BGP Add-Path or route reflection.

Summary:

To achieve the desired behavior where spokes learn routes from other spokes and receive additional BGP paths, you must:

Configure the hub as a route reflector, and mark each spoke as a route-reflector client (Answer B).
Enable the hub to send multiple paths using additional-path send (Answer C).
Specify the number of additional paths to send using adv-additional-path (Answer D).

Would you like a sample BGP configuration snippet for this setup?

Question No 2:

What are the benefits of utilizing the IPsec recommended template provided by Fortinet when configuring IPsec VPN tunnels in a hub-and-spoke topology using FortiManager?

Select two correct options and explain how this template enhances the deployment and management of VPN tunnels.

A. It ensures consistent settings between phase 1 and phase 2 of the IPsec configuration.
B. It guides the administrator to apply Fortinet’s recommended best-practice settings for IPsec.
C. The VPN monitor tool displays more detailed analytics and statistics for tunnels configured using the recommended template.
D. It automates the installation of IPsec tunnels to all spokes when they are added to the FortiManager Administrative Domain (ADOM).

Correct Answers:

A. It ensures consistent settings between phase 1 and phase 2.
B. It guides the administrator to use Fortinet recommended settings.

Explanation:

When configuring a hub-and-spoke VPN topology using FortiManager and FortiGate devices, administrators are often required to build and manage multiple IPsec tunnels. This process can be complex and error-prone due to the variety of parameters involved—especially across different devices and phases of the tunnel. Fortinet offers an IPsec recommended template as a solution to streamline this task, particularly in large-scale or enterprise deployments.

Understanding Hub-and-Spoke Topology with FortiManager

In a hub-and-spoke VPN topology, the hub (often a data center or main office) acts as the central point, while spokes represent remote sites or branch offices. Each spoke typically communicates with the hub but not directly with other spokes unless additional configuration (such as dynamic routing or full mesh) is implemented.

Managing IPsec VPNs across this kind of setup can be labor-intensive. That’s where Fortinet’s recommended IPsec template comes in—it provides a standardized configuration framework.

Advantage 1: Ensures Consistent Settings Between Phase 1 and Phase 2

One of the most significant benefits of using the IPsec recommended template is that it maintains consistency between the two major negotiation stages of an IPsec tunnel: Phase 1 (IKE negotiation) and Phase 2 (IPsec tunnel configuration). These two stages must align in terms of encryption algorithms, authentication methods, key lifetimes, and other security settings.

In manual configurations, administrators may inadvertently introduce mismatches between the two phases, leading to failed tunnel negotiations or unstable connections. The template enforces consistency by predefining matched settings that are tested and validated by Fortinet. This reduces errors and ensures that the tunnel comes up reliably every time.

Advantage 2: Guides the Administrator with Best Practices

The template is built on Fortinet’s best practices for security, compatibility, and performance. These templates include pre-selected encryption and hashing algorithms (such as AES256 and SHA256), key lifetimes, and Dead Peer Detection (DPD) settings that are optimized for secure and efficient communication.

For example, it may use IKEv2 (the newer version of the IKE protocol) by default, which is generally preferred for its improved security and performance. Fortinet tests these settings rigorously to ensure interoperability across a wide variety of FortiGate models and firmware versions. By using the template, administrators avoid having to research and decide on each setting individually, which speeds up deployment and reduces human error.

What About the Other Options?

Option C, suggesting that the VPN monitor tool provides more statistics for tunnels configured via the template, is incorrect. The VPN monitor displays statistics based on tunnel activity regardless of how the tunnel was created. Using a recommended template doesn’t grant additional monitoring features.

Option D, stating that IPsec tunnels are automatically installed to all spokes when added to the ADOM, is also incorrect. While FortiManager facilitates bulk deployment through central VPN configurations and templates, it still requires manual triggering or policy/package installation to push configuration to new spokes.

Conclusion

Using Fortinet's IPsec recommended template is a smart approach for organizations deploying hub-and-spoke VPN architectures. It ensures uniformity across tunnels, enhances security, and simplifies management. By incorporating Fortinet’s vetted best practices, network administrators can deploy VPNs with confidence, knowing that their configuration is both optimized and aligned with industry standards.

Question No 3:

An enterprise network is deployed using a traditional hub-and-spoke topology for secure communication between remote branch sites (spokes) and a central data center (hub), connected via IPsec tunnels. While this setup ensures centralized control and simplified management, it introduces inefficiencies for spoke-to-spoke traffic since all communication must traverse the hub, even when two spokes are geographically closer to each other.

To optimize performance and improve scalability, the network administrator is considering enabling ADVPN (Auto-Discovery VPN) on the existing IPsec overlay configuration.

Given this scenario, which two benefits does enabling ADVPN offer within the hub-and-spoke topology?

A. It provides the benefits of a full-mesh topology in a hub-and-spoke network.
B. It enables spokes to establish shortcuts to third-party gateways.
C. It provides direct connectivity between spokes by creating shortcuts.
D. It enables spokes to bypass the hub during shortcut negotiation.

Correct Answers:

A. It provides the benefits of a full-mesh topology in a hub-and-spoke network.
C. It provides direct connectivity between spokes by creating shortcuts.

Explanation:

Auto-Discovery VPN (ADVPN) is an enhancement to traditional hub-and-spoke VPN designs. It allows the dynamic creation of on-demand, spoke-to-spoke IPsec tunnels, thereby enabling a network to retain the simplicity of a hub-and-spoke topology while enjoying the performance and efficiency benefits of a full-mesh network—without the overhead of manually configuring and maintaining numerous static tunnels.

Here’s a breakdown of the benefits and why options A and C are correct:

A. Full-Mesh Benefits in Hub-and-Spoke Design:

By enabling ADVPN, a hub-and-spoke network gains full-mesh-like capabilities, but without requiring permanent connections between every pair of spokes. Spokes can dynamically discover each other and create temporary direct IPsec tunnels when needed, often based on traffic patterns. This allows for low-latency routing, reduced load on the hub, and optimized performance while maintaining centralized control from the hub.

C. Direct Spoke-to-Spoke Connectivity (Shortcuts):

ADVPN creates shortcuts between spokes that need to communicate. For example, if Spoke A wants to send data to Spoke B, it initially routes traffic through the hub. The hub, acting as a NHRP (Next Hop Resolution Protocol) server, informs Spoke A of Spoke B’s public IP address. Spoke A can then establish a direct IPsec tunnel (shortcut) to Spoke B, bypassing the hub for future communications. This reduces latency and conserves bandwidth at the hub.

Incorrect Answers:

B. Spokes to Third-Party Gateways:

ADVPN does not support or facilitate creating dynamic tunnels to third-party or external gateways outside the ADVPN domain. It is designed for internal VPN peers, specifically for optimizing communication within the enterprise network. Therefore, this option is incorrect.

D. Bypassing the Hub During Negotiation:

ADVPN still relies on the hub for control plane activities such as peer discovery and shortcut coordination. While data traffic between spokes bypasses the hub after the shortcut is created, the shortcut negotiation still involves the hub initially (acting as the NHRP server). Hence, the hub is not bypassed during negotiation, making this option incorrect.

Summary:

Enabling ADVPN offers two significant advantages in a hub-and-spoke topology:

Provides full-mesh benefits without manual configuration (Answer A).
Creates dynamic, direct spoke-to-spoke tunnels, enhancing efficiency (Answer C).

Question No 4:

You are configuring a Fortinet SD-WAN solution to optimize application routing and link usage across multiple WAN interfaces. FortiGate uses a combination of static routes, dynamic routing protocols, and SD-WAN rules to determine the best path for forwarding traffic.

During troubleshooting and policy design, you need to understand how FortiGate applies its routing logic when both SD-WAN rules and traditional routing mechanisms (e.g., static, dynamic, or policy-based routing) are configured.

Based on Fortinet’s SD-WAN behavior and route selection process,which three of the following statements accurately reflect key routing principles in an SD-WAN deployment?

A. By default, SD-WAN members are skipped if they do not have a valid route to the destination.
B. By default, SD-WAN rules are skipped if the best route to the destination is not an SD-WAN member.
C. FortiGate performs route lookups for new sessions only.
D. SD-WAN rules have precedence over ISDB routes.
E. Regular policy routes have precedence over SD-WAN rules.

Correct Answers:

Explanation:

Fortinet’s SD-WAN implementation on FortiGate firewalls introduces a virtual overlay across multiple WAN links. It enhances application steering, performance, and availability by making intelligent decisions based on performance SLAs, cost, or custom rules.

Let’s examine the three correct answers and understand the underlying behavior:

A. SD-WAN Members Must Have Valid Routes:

In Fortinet SD-WAN, each SD-WAN member (an interface like WAN1, WAN2, etc.) must be associated with a valid next-hop route in the routing table. If there is no valid route for a particular member to reach the destination, FortiGate will automatically exclude that member from SD-WAN path selection.

For example, if WAN2 is an SD-WAN member but lacks a default route or specific route to the destination network, FortiGate will skip it during the selection process, even if WAN2 matches the SD-WAN rule.

B. Rules Are Skipped If No SD-WAN Path Exists:

This behavior is subtle but important. When evaluating SD-WAN rules (which are used to steer traffic by application, source, or destination), FortiGate checks whether any SD-WAN member has a valid route to the destination. If none of the SD-WAN members have a usable path, the rule is skipped, and FortiGate falls back to regular routing.

This ensures that traffic is not dropped simply because an SD-WAN rule is configured, but no suitable path exists in the SD-WAN overlay. However, it also means that rules without proper underlay configuration may be unintentionally bypassed.

C. Route Lookups Are Performed for New Sessions Only:

FortiGate’s session-based architecture performs routing decisions at the time of session creation. Once a session is established (e.g., for a TCP connection), the routing path remains fixed for the duration of that session, regardless of any changes in routing or SD-WAN path performance.

This behavior means that changes to route tables, SD-WAN rules, or performance metrics do not affect existing sessions. Only new sessions will go through a fresh route lookup and path selection process. This design ensures session stability and avoids issues like asymmetric routing.

Incorrect Options Explained:

D. SD-WAN Rules Do Not Override ISDB Routes:

ISDB (Internet Service Database) routes are associated with destination services like Microsoft 365, YouTube, etc. While SD-WAN can be used to steer traffic to these services, SD-WAN rules do not inherently override ISDB routes unless explicitly configured. The routing engine still follows standard behavior, where the longest-prefix match and administrative distance determine the active route.

E. Policy Routes Take Precedence Over SD-WAN Rules:

This is incorrect. In FortiOS, SD-WAN rules take precedence over traditional policy-based routes when SD-WAN is enabled. If a matching SD-WAN rule is found and the SD-WAN path is valid, it will be used. Policy routes are considered only if no SD-WAN rule applies or is valid.

Summary:

Fortinet’s SD-WAN route selection relies on SD-WAN members having valid routes and SD-WAN rules applying only when paths are usable. The routing decision is session-based, made at connection setup. Therefore, the correct key routing principles are:

A. SD-WAN members without valid routes are skipped.
B. SD-WAN rules are ignored if no member can reach the destination.
C. Route decisions are made once, when a session is created.

Question No 5:

When troubleshooting ADVPN (Auto-Discovery VPN) tunnel negotiations in real time on a FortiGate firewall, which CLI command provides the most direct and detailed debug output related to IKE (Internet Key Exchange) negotiations and errors?

A. get router info routing-table all
B. get ipsec tunnel list
C. diagnose vpn tunnel list
D. diagnose debug application ike

Correct Answer:

D. diagnose debug application ike

Explanation:

ADVPN (Auto-Discovery VPN) is a dynamic IPsec VPN architecture used in Fortinet deployments to simplify full-mesh VPN connectivity without the need to preconfigure every tunnel. It builds on hub-and-spoke topologies by allowing spokes to discover and create direct tunnels to each other when necessary, which increases efficiency and reduces traffic bottlenecks through the hub.

When troubleshooting ADVPN issues—especially negotiation problems, such as tunnels failing to come up or dropping intermittently—administrators must understand the underlying IKE (Internet Key Exchange) process. This is where the diagnose debug application ike command becomes essential.

Why Option D is Correct:

The diagnose debug application ike command enables real-time debugging for the IKE process, which is the core negotiation protocol for IPsec tunnels. This command:

Shows detailed IKE Phase 1 and Phase 2 negotiation logs.
Provides information about authentication, encryption, key exchange, and tunnel establishment.
Helps identify errors such as mismatched proposals, pre-shared key issues, or policy mismatches.
Supports real-time monitoring, which is critical for live troubleshooting of dynamic tunnels in ADVPN environments.

To use it effectively, you typically combine it with other debug commands:

diagnose debug reset

diagnose debug enable

diagnose debug application ike -1

diagnose debug disable

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

A. get router info routing-table all
This shows the routing table, not related to IPsec or IKE negotiations. While it can help verify routing for tunnel interfaces, it does not assist in real-time tunnel debugging.

B. get ipsec tunnel list
This displays the status of configured IPsec tunnels—whether they are up or down—but it doesn't provide negotiation or error details.

C. diagnose vpn tunnel list
This provides more tunnel-level diagnostic information than option B, including session status, but still lacks detailed logs of the IKE negotiation process.

Summary:

To troubleshoot ADVPN tunnel negotiations, particularly IKE-based issues like failed authentication, phase mismatches, or dynamic spoke-to-spoke negotiation problems, diagnose debug application ike is the go-to CLI tool for real-time visibility into the IPsec negotiation process. It gives granular feedback necessary to resolve complex tunnel issues in dynamic VPN architectures.

Question No 6:

In a Secure SD-WAN architecture, Remote Internet Access (RIA) is used to manage internet-bound traffic more efficiently. What are two common scenarios or use cases where RIA is implemented? (Choose two.)

A. Deliver internet-bound traffic through the hub.
B. Perform centralized security inspection of internet traffic at the hub.
C. Enable local internet breakout and inspection at spoke sites.
D. Reduce latency by allowing direct internet access from spoke locations.

Correct Answers:

B. Centralize security inspection on the hub.
D. Provide direct internet access on spokes.

Explanation:

Remote Internet Access (RIA) is a design approach in SD-WAN and enterprise networks that determines how traffic destined for the public internet is handled—either centrally at the hub or locally at each branch/spoke. The use of RIA is closely tied to balancing security, performance, and operational control.

Use Case 1: Centralized Security Inspection (Answer B)

One common RIA strategy is to backhaul internet-bound traffic from branch offices (spokes) to a central data center or hub. This allows the organization to apply uniform security policies using centralized security infrastructure such as:

Advanced firewalls
Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)
Sandboxing or DLP systems
Compliance monitoring tools

This approach is beneficial in environments with strict security or regulatory requirements, where centralized visibility and control over all outbound traffic is a must. However, it may introduce latency and use more bandwidth, especially if the hub is geographically distant.

Use Case 2: Local Internet Breakout from Spokes (Answer D)

To reduce latency and improve performance, many SD-WAN deployments implement local internet breakout from the spoke sites. This means internet-bound traffic (e.g., accessing Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, SaaS apps) does not need to traverse the hub but exits directly to the internet from the branch.

This has several benefits:

Reduced latency, particularly for cloud applications.
Lower backhaul bandwidth costs.
Improved user experience, especially for remote or geographically distributed teams.

FortiGate SD-WAN supports RIA policies that decide per-application or per-destination whether to use direct internet access or centralized inspection, providing flexible and secure internet routing.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

A. Provide internet access through the hub
While technically possible, this is not a use case for RIA—it’s the traditional model before RIA. RIA usually implies local internet access, whereas this option refers to central internet breakout (old model).

C. Provide thorough inspection on spokes
This is misleading. While some inspection can occur locally at the spokes, full enterprise-grade inspection typically requires additional security infrastructure that many branches don’t have. Centralized inspection at the hub is more common.

Summary:

Remote Internet Access is a key design decision in SD-WAN deployments. The two primary use cases are:

Centralized inspection at the hub, ideal for strict security environments.
Direct internet breakout at spokes, preferred for performance and scalability.

Organizations often use a hybrid model, routing sensitive traffic to the hub while allowing cloud/SaaS traffic to exit locally, optimizing both security and performance.