A great way to start the Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) preparation is to begin by properly appreciating the role that syllabus and study guide play in the Palo Alto PCNSE certification exam. This study guide is an instrument to get you on the same page with Palo Alto and understand the nature of the Palo Alto PCNSE exam.
Our team of experts has composed this Palo Alto PCNSE exam preparation guide to provide the overview about Palo Alto Network Security Engineer exam, study material, sample questions, practice exam and ways to interpret the exam objectives to help you assess your readiness for the Palo Alto PCNSE exam by identifying prerequisite areas of knowledge. We recommend you to refer the simulation questions and practice test listed in this guide to determine what type of questions will be asked and the level of difficulty that could be tested in the Palo Alto PCNSE certification exam.
Palo Alto PCNSE Exam Overview:
| Exam Name | Network Security Engineer |
| Exam Number | PCNSE |
| Exam Price | $175 USD |
| Duration | 90 minutes |
| Number of Questions | 70-80 |
| Passing Score | 860/300 to 1000 |
| Recommended Training | (EDU-210) Firewall Essentials: Configuration and Management |
| Exam Registration | PEARSON VUE |
| Sample Questions | Palo Alto PCNSE Sample Questions |
| Practice Exam | Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer Practice Test |
Palo Alto PCNSE Exam Topics:
| Section | Objectives |
|---|---|
Core Concepts - 12% |
|
| Identify how Palo Alto Networks products work together to improve PAN-OS services |
- Security components - Firewall components - Panorama components - PAN-OS subscriptions and the features they enable - Plug-in components - Heatmap and BPA reports - Artificial intelligence operations (AIOps)/Telemetry - IPv6 - Internet of things (IoT) |
| Determine and assess appropriate interface or zone types for various environments |
- Layer 2 interfaces - Layer 3 interfaces - Virtual Wire (vWire) interfaces - Tap interfaces - Subinterfaces - Tunnel interfaces - Aggregate interfaces - Loopback interfaces - Decrypt mirror interfaces - VLAN interfaces |
| Identify decryption deployment strategies |
- Risks and implications of enabling decryption - Use cases - Decryption types - Decryption profiles and certificates - Create decryption policy in the firewall - Configure SSH proxy |
| Enforce User-ID |
- Methods of building user-to-IP mappings - Determine if User-ID agent or agentless should be used - Compare and contrast User-ID agents - Methods of User-ID redistribution - Methods of group mapping - Server profile & authentication profile |
| Determine how and when to use the Authentication policy |
- Purpose of, and use case for, the Authentication policy - Dependencies - Captive portal versus GlobalProtect (GP) client |
| Differentiate between the fundamental functions that reside on the management plane and data plane. | |
| Define multiple virtual systems (multi-vsys) environment |
- User-ID hub - Inter-vsys routing - Service routes - Administration |
Deploy and Configure Core Components - 20% |
|
| Configure management profiles |
- Interface management profile - SSL/TLS service profile |
| Deploy and configure Security profiles |
- Custom configuration of different Security profiles and Security profile groups - Relationship between URL filtering and credential theft prevention - Use of username and domain name in HTTP header insertion - DNS Security - How to tune or add exceptions to a Security profile - Compare and contrast threat prevention and advanced threat prevention - Compare and contrast URL Filtering and Advanced URL Filtering |
| Configure zone protection, packet buffer protection, and DoS protection |
- Customized values versus default settings - Classified versus aggregate profile types - Layer 3 and Layer 4 header inspection |
| Design the deployment configuration of a Palo Alto Networks firewall |
- Advanced high availability (HA) deployments - HA pair - Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) - Bootstrapping |
| Configure authorization, authentication, and device access |
- Role-based access control for authorization - Different methods used to authenticate - The authentication sequence - The device access method |
| Configure and manage certificates |
- Usage - Profiles - Chains |
| Configure routing |
- Dynamic routing - Redistribution profiles - Static routes - Path monitoring - Policy-based forwarding - Virtual router versus logical router |
| Configure NAT |
- NAT policy rules - Security rules - Source NAT - No NAT - Use session browser to find NAT rule name - U-Turn NAT - Check HIT counts |
| Configure site-to-site tunnels |
- IPSec components - Static peers and dynamic peers for IPSec - IPSec tunnel monitor profiles - IPSec tunnel testing - Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) - One-to-one and one-to-many tunnels - Determine when to use proxy IDs |
| Configure service routes |
- Default - Custom - Destination - Custom routes for different VSYS versus destination routes - How to verify service routes |
| Configure application-based QoS |
- Enablement requirements - QoS policy rule - Add DSCP/TOS component - QoS profile - Determine how to control bandwidth use on a per-application basis - Use QoS to monitor bandwidth utilization |
Deploy and Configure Features and Subscriptions - 17% |
|
| Configure App-ID |
- Create security rules with App-ID - Convert port and protocol rules to App-ID rules - Identify the impact of application override to the overall functionality of the firewall - Create custom apps and threats - Review App-ID dependencies |
| Configure GlobalProtect |
- GlobalProtect licensing - Configure gateway and portal - GlobalProtect agent - Differentiate between login methods - Configure clientless VPN - Host information profile (HIP) - Configure multiple gateway agent profiles - Split tunneling |
| Configure decryption |
- Inbound decryption - SSL forward proxy - SSL decryption exclusions - SSH proxy |
| Configure User-ID |
- User-ID agent and agentless - User-ID group mapping - Shared User-ID mapping across virtual systems - Data redistribution - User-ID methods - Benefits of using dynamic user groups in policy rules - Requirements to support dynamic user groups - How GlobalProtect internal and external gateways can be used |
| Configure WildFire |
- Submission profile - Action profile - Submissions and verdicts - Signature actions - File types and file sizes - Update schedule - Forwarding of decrypted traffic |
| Configure Web Proxy |
- Transparent proxy - Explicit proxy |
Deploy and Configure Firewalls Using Panorama - 17% |
|
| Configure templates and template stacks |
- Components configured in a template - How the order of templates in a stack affects the configuration push to a firewall - Overriding a template value in a stack - Configure variables in templates - Relationship between Panorama and devices as pertaining to dynamic updates versions, policy implementation, and/or HA peers |
| Configure device groups |
- Device group hierarchies - Identify what device groups contain - Differentiate between different use cases for pre-rules, local rules, the default rules, and post-rules - Identify the impact of configuring a primary device - Assign firewalls to device groups |
| Manage firewall configurations within Panorama |
- Licensing - Commit recovery feature - Automatic commit recovery - Commit types and schedules - Config backups - Commit type options - Manage dynamic updates for Panorama and Panorama-managed devices - Software and dynamic updates - Import firewall configuration into Panorama - Configure log collectors - Check firewall health and status from Panorama - Configure role-based access on Panorama |
Manage and Operate - 16% |
|
| Manage and configure Log Forwarding |
- Identify log types and criticalities - Manage external services - Create and manage tags - Identify system and traffic issues using the web interface and CLI tools - Configure Log Forwarding profile and device log settings - Log monitoring - Customize logging and reporting settings |
| Plan and execute the process to upgrade a Palo Alto Networks system |
- Single firewall - HA pairs - Panorama push - Dynamic updates |
| Manage HA functions |
- Link monitoring - Path monitoring - HA links - Failover - Active/active and active/passive - HA interfaces - Clustering - Election setting |
Troubleshooting - 18% |
|
| Troubleshoot site-to-site tunnels |
- IPSec - GRE - One-to-one and one-to-many tunnels - Route-based versus policy-based remote hosts - Tunnel monitoring |
| Troubleshoot interfaces |
- Transceivers - Settings - Aggregate interfaces, LACP - Counters - Tagging |
| Troubleshoot Decryption |
- Inbound decryption - SSL forward proxy - SSH proxy - Identify what cannot be decrypted and configure exclusions and bypasses - Certificates |
| Troubleshoot routing |
- Dynamic routing - Redistribution profiles - Static routes - Route monitoring - Policy-based forwarding - Multicast routing - Service routes |
| General Troubleshooting |
- Logs - Packet capture (pcap) - Reports |
| Troubleshoot resource protections |
- Zone protection profiles - DoS protections - Packet buffer protections |
| Troubleshoot GlobalProtect |
- Portal and Gateway - Access to resources - GlobalProtect client |
| Troubleshoot policies |
- NAT - Security - Decryption - Authentication |
| Troubleshoot HA functions |
- Monitor - Failover triggers |
Palo Alto PCNSE Exam Description:
The Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) certification is designed to validate the in-depth knowledge and skills required to design, deploy, operate, manage, and troubleshoot Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls.