JN0-105 Junos - Associate (JNCIA-Junos) 2025 Exam Questions and Answers

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is responsible for mapping an IPv4 address to a machine's MAC address. ARP operates at Layer 2 of the OSI model and is used to find the MAC address of a host given its IPv4 address. When a device wants to communicate with another device on the same local network, it uses ARP to discover the recipient's MAC address.

In a network that carries diverse types of traffic like data, voice, and video, ensuring the performance of latency-sensitive applications such as voice and video calls is crucial. Class of Service (CoS) is a technology designed to prioritize network traffic, ensuring that critical applications like voice and video receive the necessary bandwidth and minimal latency. CoS mechanisms can include traffic classification, traffic policing, queue management, and scheduling. By implementing CoS, network administrators can assign higher priority to voice and video traffic, thus improving their performance across the network and addressing the users' complaints about call quality.

In a scenario where a router has a route to a specific network (in this case, 10.1.1.0/24) with a next hop that is unreachable or incorrectly specified (e.g., "r jet" seems to be a typo or an undefined entity), the router will typically discard the traffic destined for that network. This action is taken because the router cannot determine a valid path to forward the traffic. Unlike some scenarios where the router might generate an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) unreachable message, in many configurations, especially in production networks, the traffic might be silently discarded without providing feedback to the sender, as generating ICMP messages for all undeliverable packets could lead to additional network congestion and potential security concerns.

In Junos OS, there are two main configuration databases:

Candidate configuration: a working copy of the configuration that holds any uncommitted changes. All configuration edits are made here.

Active configuration: the running configuration that the system currently uses.

When you issue a commit command, the candidate configuration is promoted to active, replacing the previous configuration. Until that happens, all changes remain in the candidate configuration and do not affect device operation.

From Junos Fundamentals Guide:

“The candidate configuration is a separate copy of the configuration database. All changes are made to the candidate configuration and do not take effect until they are committed.”

When you enter ? at the command-line prompt in Junos OS, the system provides assistance in two significant ways. Firstly, it lists the available commands and options that can be used at the current point in the command hierarchy, aiding users in understanding what commands they can execute next. Secondly, it displays summary information about those commands and options, providing brief descriptions or additional context that can help users understand the function of each command or option. This feature is particularly useful for learning the command structure or for quick reference when specific command syntax is forgotten.

In Junos OS, a policer is a feature used to limit the rate of traffic flow in the network, including exception traffic sent from the Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) to the Routing Engine (RE). Exception traffic consists of packets that cannot be processed by the PFE alone and require intervention by the RE, such as control packets or packets destined for the device itself. A policer can be configured to enforce bandwidth limits and drop or mark packets that exceed specified rate limits, thus protecting the RE from being overwhelmed by excessive exception traffic.

The routing table and forwarding table play distinct roles in a Junos OS device. The correct answers are A and D. The routing table (A) is used by the Routing Engine (RE) to select the best route among all the learned routes, while the routing table (D) stores all routes and prefixes learned from all routing protocols. The forwarding table, in contrast, contains only the active routes chosen by the RE and is used by the Packet Forwarding Engine for actual packet forwarding.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is known for being connectionless (D) and providing best-effort delivery without the reliability mechanisms present in TCP (C). This means that UDP does not establish a connection before sending data and does not guarantee delivery, order, or error checking, making it faster but less reliable than TCP.

The Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) is an integral component of Juniper Networks devices, responsible for the data plane operations. The data plane, also known as the forwarding plane, is where the actual processing and forwarding of packets occur based on the routing and forwarding tables. The PFE executes the forwarding decisions made by the Routing Engine (RE), handling all packet transmissions, including routing, filtering, and switching packets towards their destination. This contrasts with the control plane operations handled by the RE, which involve routing table maintenance, system management, and control protocol processing.

An Ethernet frame header includes the source MAC address (B) and the destination MAC address (D). These addresses are used to deliver the frame from one Ethernet device to another directly connected Ethernet device on the same network segment. Ethernet frames do not include IP addresses, as those are part of the IP packet encapsulated within the Ethernet frame.

The Routing Engine (RE) in Junos OS has several critical functions, including processing all management traffic (A) and running the Junos operating system (B). The RE handles system management tasks, user interfaces, system services, and routing protocol processes. It does not directly process transit traffic or evaluate firewall filters for transit traffic, as these tasks are handled by the Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE).

The firewall filter configuration in the exhibit specifies a filter with two terms. Term 1 matches traffic from the source address 10.0.0.0/8 and has two actions: 'log' and 'next term'. The 'log' action will record the match to a log file, and 'next term' indicates that the firewall should evaluate the next term after logging. There is no explicit action such as 'accept' or 'reject' in term 1, so by default, the traffic will be accepted unless subsequently rejected by another term.

Term 2 has the action 'reject', which discards packets that reach this term. Since there is no 'from' condition in term 2, it acts as a default rule for all traffic not matched by term 1.

Because the traffic sourced from 10.0.0.0/8 matches term 1 and there is no reject action in that term, it will be logged and then accepted by the firewall filter. There is no subsequent term that rejects this specific traffic, so the action from term 2 does not apply to it.

In Junos OS, the ? command modifier is used to display all possible completions for a specific command. This helps users understand the available options and syntax for a command they are trying to use.

The request system zeroize media command on a Junos device securely erases all data, including configuration and log files, and resets the device to its factory default settings. This command is used when redeploying a device to ensure no residual data remains from its previous deployment. It's a comprehensive and secure way to clear all configurations and data, making the device as if it were new. The other commands listed do not perform a full reset to factory defaults; for example, show system storage displays storage information, and request system storage cleanup offers to delete unnecessary files without resetting the device to factory settings.

In Junos OS, route preference (also known as administrative distance) is used to determine the preferred route among multiple routes to the same destination learned via different routing protocols. Direct and local routes, which represent directly connected networks and interfaces, typically share the same low preference value, indicating high trustworthiness because they are directly connected to the router. OSPF internal routes (routes within the same OSPF area) and OSPF AS external routes (routes that are external to the OSPF autonomous system but redistributed into OSPF) also share the same preference value, although this value is higher (indicating less trust) than for direct and local routes. This distinction helps the routing engine decide which routes to use when multiple paths are available.

In the exhibit shown, the highlighted number next to the route type (Static) within the square brackets indicates the route preference, also known as the administrative distance. In Junos, the route preference is a value that determines the priority of the route source. Lower numbers indicate a higher priority when the routing table is being calculated. The route preference is used to select the best route when multiple paths to the same destination exist from different routing sources. The number 5 is unusually low for a static route by default, suggesting it has been manually configured to override other route types.

In Juniper firewall filter configurations, "discard" and "accept" are two valid terminating actions for a term within a filter. The "discard" action drops the packet, preventing it from reaching its intended destination, while the "accept" action allows the packet to pass through the filter, proceeding to its next hop or destination. "Count" is a non-terminating action that increments a counter every time a packet matches the term but does not inherently determine the packet's fate. "Next term" directs the evaluation to proceed to the next term in the filter for further processing, also a non-terminating action.

The Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) in Juniper Networks devices is the heart of the data plane, handling the actual forwarding of packets based on pre-computed forwarding tables. It provides several critical services to manage and control traffic flow, including policing (to enforce bandwidth limits for certain traffic types), stateless firewall filtering (to permit or deny traffic based on predefined criteria), and Class of Service (CoS) (to prioritize traffic to ensure quality of service for critical applications). The PFE utilizes both Layer 2 (MAC addresses) and Layer 3 (IP addresses) forwarding tables to make intelligent forwarding decisions, ensuring that packets are efficiently routed toward their final destination.

The show | compare command in Junos OS is used to display the differences between the candidate configuration and the active configuration. If no output is shown when you issue this command, it means that there are no changes between the candidate configuration and the active configuration. This indicates that the candidate configuration is identical to the active configuration, and thus no differences are displayed.

The TCP three-way handshake establishes a reliable connection between two hosts. During this process:

SYN: The client sends a TCP segment with the SYN flag set, including an initial sequence number (ISN) and port information.

SYN-ACK: The server responds with a SYN-ACK, which contains its own sequence number and acknowledgment of the client’s ISN.

ACK: The client replies with an ACK, confirming receipt of the server’s ISN.

Thus, port numbers (to identify the application endpoints) and sequence numbers (to ensure ordered and reliable data transfer) are exchanged.

Interfaces and application names are not exchanged during this process.

From Junos OS Fundamentals / TCP Concepts:

“The TCP three-way handshake establishes a reliable session by exchanging port numbers and sequence numbers between peers. This process synchronizes both sides before data transmission begins.”

Layer 2 network switches are crucial components in local area networks (LANs), providing multiple functions for data packet forwarding and network segmentation. One inherent characteristic of switches is their susceptibility to traffic loops, especially in networks with redundant paths. Without proper loop prevention protocols like Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), loops can cause broadcast storms and network instability. Additionally, switches inherently flood broadcast traffic to all ports within the broadcast domain, except the port on which the broadcast was received. This is because broadcast frames are meant to be delivered to all devices within the VLAN, and the switch ensures this by flooding these frames to all ports in the VLAN, except the source port.

Firewall filters in Junos OS are stateless, meaning they process each packet individually without regard to the state of a connection or sequence of packets. These filters can match various packet attributes, including those at Layer 4, such as TCP and UDP port numbers. This allows for granular control over traffic based on the type of service or application. Unlike stateless filters, stateful firewalls keep track of the state of active connections and make decisions based on the context of the traffic flow, which is not a capability of Junos firewall filters. Additionally, Junos firewall filters primarily operate up to Layer 4 and do not natively inspect Layer 7 parameters, which involve application-level data.

Referring to the exhibit, the presence of the "+" symbol next to the OSPF route for 192.168.100.2/32 indicates that this is the active route being used to forward traffic. The BGP route, although present, does not have the "+" symbol, indicating it is not the active route. In Junos OS, the routing table displays the active route with a "+" symbol, and the fact that the OSPF route has this symbol means it is the preferred path based on the routing protocol's decision process, which takes into account factors such as route preference (administrative distance) and metrics.

In Junos OS, the dedicated out-of-band management interface is typically named fxp0. This interface is used exclusively for management traffic and is physically separated from the data traffic interfaces. It allows administrators to perform management tasks even when the device is experiencing issues that affect the forwarding plane.

From the JNCIA-Junos Study Guide and Junos OS Documentation:

“The fxp0 interface is a dedicated management interface that provides out-of-band management access. It is commonly found on Juniper routers, switches, and security platforms. You assign IP addresses to this interface as you would any other, and it is often used to connect to a management network or to allow SSH, Telnet, or SNMP access.”

— Junos OS Fundamentals, Chapter: Interfaces

— Junos OS Documentation: Management Interfaces Overview

— JNCIA-Junos Exam Objective: Interface Types

Exception traffic includes traffic that is not simply forwarded by the router but requires special handling, such as routing updates (B) and log messages (C). These types of traffic are processed by the router's control plane rather than just being forwarded through the data plane.

In the default configuration of a Junos device, the primary system log file is "messages" (B). This log file contains a wide range of system messages, including operational status changes, system errors, and other critical information, making it a key resource for troubleshooting and monitoring the system's health.