Palo Alto Networks : NetSec-Architect Questions & Answers

A company wants to reduce false positives in threat detection while maintaining strong security.
What should they do?

• A. Remove logging
• B. Allow all traffic
• C. Disable security profiles
• D. Tune security profiles and exceptions

A global organization is modernizing its data center and private cloud infrastructure. The environment consists of:
- A Nutanix AHV cluster hosting critical east-west application workloads
- A VMware ESXi cluster with multi-socket hosts, supporting high-throughput workloads (>10 Gbps)
- A new pair of PA-5450 firewalls to secure the perimeter and handle encrypted traffic inspection at scale
- Strict performance service-level agreements (SLAs) for both north-south and east-west flows, with heavy reliance on TLS 1.3 and IPSec
- A Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) environment on KVM to provide high-performance security services to maximize packet throughput and minimize latency The chief architect is tasked with ensuring that the firewall design avoids hypervisor contention optimizes non-uniform memory access (NUMA) and uses hardware features for encrypted traffic.
VM-Series on Nutanix AHV - Resource Allocation
- Because the Nutanix cluster is already heavily used, the architect's main concern is preventing performance degradation of the virtual firewall. Thin provisioning or ballooning could introduce latency and unpredictability which is unacceptable for a security-sensitive workload.
VM-Series on VMware ESXi - NUMA and vCPU Placement
- In the VMware ESXi environment, the architect is deploying VM-Series for workloads pushing >10 Gbps. Assigning vCPUs across NUMA nodes or oversubscribing cores would create latency due to cross-socket memory access and scheduling delays. Similarly, dedicating logical hypethreads does not provide the deterministic data plane performance required.
Operational Integration and High Availability
- With performance guaranteed by correct hypervisor and hardware provisioning, the architect also considers high availability (HA). VM-Series pairs are deployed in active/passive HA across Nutanix and VMware clusters, while PA-5450s form the data center's north-south secure perimeter deployment. This ensures resilience without introducing unnecessary east-west inspection bottlenecks.
- The recommendation must be a scalable, high-performance firewall deployment aligned with enterprise SLAs and the CISO's encrypted traffic concerns.
While using the VM-Series to build the NFV environment, which configuration should the architect use?

• A. Virtio drivers and DPDK mode enabled
• B. SR-IOV-enabled network interfaces and standard Linux bridge networking
• C. SR-IOV-enabled network interfaces and DPDK mode enabled
• D. Virtio drivers connected to an Open vSwitch (OVS) bridge

A company needs DNS-based threat protection to block malicious domains. Which solution is appropriate?

• A. URL Filtering
• B. App-ID
• C. QoS
• D. DNS Security

A global organization is modernizing its data center and private cloud infrastructure. The environment consists of:
- A Nutanix AHV cluster hosting critical east-west application workloads
- A VMware ESXi cluster with multi-socket hosts, supporting high-throughput workloads (>10 Gbps)
- A new pair of PA-5450 firewalls to secure the perimeter and handle encrypted traffic inspection at scale
- Strict performance service-level agreements (SLAs) for both north-south and east-west flows, with heavy reliance on TLS 1.3 and IPSec
- A Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) environment on KVM to provide high-performance security services to maximize packet throughput and minimize latency The chief architect is tasked with ensuring that the firewall design avoids hypervisor contention optimizes non-uniform memory access (NUMA) and uses hardware features for encrypted traffic.
VM-Series on Nutanix AHV - Resource Allocation
- Because the Nutanix cluster is already heavily used, the architect's main concern is preventing performance degradation of the virtual firewall. Thin provisioning or ballooning could introduce latency and unpredictability which is unacceptable for a security-sensitive workload.
VM-Series on VMware ESXi - NUMA and vCPU Placement
- In the VMware ESXi environment, the architect is deploying VM-Series for workloads pushing >10 Gbps. Assigning vCPUs across NUMA nodes or oversubscribing cores would create latency due to cross-socket memory access and scheduling delays. Similarly, dedicating logical hypethreads does not provide the deterministic data plane performance required.
Operational Integration and High Availability
- With performance guaranteed by correct hypervisor and hardware provisioning, the architect also considers high availability (HA). VM-Series pairs are deployed in active/passive HA across Nutanix and VMware clusters, while PA-5450s form the data center's north-south secure perimeter deployment. This ensures resilience without introducing unnecessary east-west inspection bottlenecks.
- The recommendation must be a scalable, high-performance firewall deployment aligned with enterprise SLAs and the CISO's encrypted traffic concerns.
Which PAN-OS feature will meet the CISO's need for north-south traffic inspection?

• A. Dedicated out-of-band management port for separating management and data traffic
• B. High-density DAC/QSFP ports for flexible network connectivity
• C. Dedicated hardware crypto engines for offloading SSL/TLS decryption and IPSec processing
• D. Dual redundant, hot-swappable power supplies for HA

An organization has selected Prisma SD-WAN ION devices for use at branch offices and is working to build a low-level design for its sites. A typical branch site has a 10 Mbps MPLS with fiber LC-SR, and an RJ-45 Ethernet 50 Mbps DIA internet circuit.
There are 75 workstations and a stacked core switch that supports LACP, M-LAG, BGP, and OSPF will be used. The core switch is the default gateway for all local VLANs. The final design will determine the selection of the appropriate model and accessories for the site.
Which statement applies to the Prisma SD-WAN architecture in this use case?

• A. High availability (HA) for the LAN side connectivity can at most support two interfaces using LAG / LACP
• B. Only a default route can be advertised on a LAN-side BGP peering from the ION
• C. MPLS underlay paths cannot be used as an active path alongside internet overlay path
• D. Connectivity over the MPLS will be lost when the device that terminates it loses power