The decisive session-state flag is synced. Fortinet defines this flag as indicating that the session has been synchronized to the other HA members. The session was created on HA member 0, and a synchronized copy is available to the secondary device.
The FortiOS 7.6 Administrator Study Guide states: "When you enable session synchronization, the new primary can resume communication for sessions after a failover event." It further explains that session pickup allows existing sessions to continue through the newly elected primary with minimal or no interruption.
Therefore, the established TCP session remains usable, and the client does not need to establish a new connection.
The may_dirty flag does not mean that the session is currently dirty. It identifies an allowed session that can be marked dirty later if a firewall-policy, routing, or related configuration change requires re- evaluation. The output does not contain the separate dirty flag. Additionally, app_ntf represents block-notification handling; it does not prove that application control is inspecting the session. The fields app_list=0 and app=0 reinforce this.
The allow_err values are session statistics and do not cause session deletion. Although act=snat and act=dnat confirm NAT, the translation tuples are part of the synchronized session state and do not independently require re-evaluation after FGCP failover.
References: High Availability - Cluster Synchronization and HA Failover , pages 456 and 463; Fortinet: HA session failover ; Fortinet: Session-table information .

The exhibit shows these key lines:
handle_req-Rcvd auth req ... for jsmith in Lab
start_search_dn-base: ' DC=TAC,DC=ottawa,DC=fortinet,DC=com ' filter:sAMAccountName=jsmith get_all_dn-Found DN 1:CN=John Smith,CN=Users,DC=TAC,DC=ottawa,DC=fortinet,DC=com The study guide explicitly shows the same LDAP real-time debug pattern and says the request line includes the LDAP server object name:
handle_req-Rcvd auth req ... for jsmith in Lab ...
That supports A: Lab is the configured LDAP server name being used for this authentication request.
For the LDAP flow stage, the study guide states:
"An fnbamd_ldap_build_dn_search_req-base message indicates that FortiGate is performing step two:
searching for the user in the LDAP tree." It also says that if the LDAP server finds the user, the output shows the user's full DN.
That matches the exhibit's start_search_dn-base ... filter:sAMAccountName=jsmith and Found DN ...
CN=John Smith... lines, so D is correct.
Why the other options are wrong:
B is wrong because the exhibit shows FortiOS has found the user DN CN=John Smith,..., but that does not mean the user is already authenticating with that DN in this step. The study guide says this DN is discovered in step 2, and only in step 3 does FortiGate bind using the user DN.
C is wrong because the exhibit is showing step 2 (Search Request), not step 3 (Bind Request). The study guide separates these steps clearly and shows step 3 with fnbamd_ldap_build_userbind_req-Trying DN ... and
__ldap_build_bind_req-Binding to ' CN=John Smith,... '

The correct answer is C. The session is offloaded using NPU.
The exact session example in the study guide shows:
proto=6 # this is a TCP session
expire=3599 # the session will expire in 3599 seconds, not in one second hook=post dir=org act=snat 10.9.31.117:45388- > 200.8.57.5:443(10.1.0.3:45388) hook=pre dir=reply act=dnat 200.8.57.5:443- > 10.1.0.3:45388(10.9.31.117:45388) npu info: ... offload=8/8 ...
and the slide explicitly states: "Offloaded in both directions using NP6" The study guide also explains this exact point clearly:
"Counters for hardware acceleration-The presence of the npu info field indicates the session has been offloaded to hardware acceleration. In this example, traffic is being offloaded in both directions using network processor (NP) 6, which is represented by the value of 8." Why the other options are wrong:
A is wrong because expire=3599, not 1. The duration=1 field means the session has existed for 1 second, not that it will expire in 1 second.
B is wrong because the original session is from 10.9.31.117 to the remote server 200.8.57.5:443. The IP
10.1.0.3 is the SNAT-translated source address, not the final destination.
D is not the best answer for this single-select question. The reply is indeed DNATed back toward the original client, but the exact validated takeaway highlighted by the study guide for this exhibit is the NPU offload state.

The session output includes the flags:
* state=redir local may_dirty ...
* npu_state=00000000
* offload=0/0
The 7.6 study guide explains these flags directly:
* local = "Session is to/from local stack"
* redir = "Session is being processed by an application layer proxy"
* may_dirty = "Session is allowed by a firewall policy"
This makes C correct, because the local flag means the session either originates from FortiGate or terminates on FortiGate . The FortiOS administration guide states the same meaning: "Session is originated from or destined for local stack." This also makes A correct. The redir flag means the session is handled by an application-layer proxy .
FortiOS documents explain that proxy-based inspection buffers traffic on the FortiGate and inspects it there, and that proxy-based processing is CPU and memory-intensive Since the session also shows no NPU offload (npu_state=00000000, offload=0/0), this traffic is being handled in software/CPU, not by the NPU.
Why the other options are wrong:
* B is wrong because the redir flag proves the session is not passing without inspection; it is being processed by an application-layer proxy
* D is wrong because there is no authentication flag in this session. In Fortinet examples of captive portal/authentication-related sessions, the session state includes auth or authed flags. The study guide shows: "Any session for traffic coming from an authenticated user contains the authed flag." This exhibit does not show auth or authed, so there is no basis to conclude the client was redirected to a captive portal for authentication.