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    Upgrade a Cluster Locally with an Internet Connection
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    4. Upgrade WildFire Appliances in a Cluster
    5. Upgrade a Cluster Locally with an Internet Connection
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    Advanced WildFire Powered by Precision AI™

    Upgrade a Cluster Locally with an Internet Connection

    Table of Contents

    Upgrade a Cluster Locally with an Internet Connection

    Where Can I Use This?What Do I Need?
    • WildFire Appliance
    • WildFire License
    To upgrade a cluster locally, you must individually upgrade each WildFire appliance enrolled in a cluster. When a WildFire appliance finishes upgrading, it automatically re-enrolls into the cluster that it was originally assigned to.
    Important Upgrade Information
    • Direct cluster upgrade from PAN-OS 11.x to 12.x is not supported. You must disband the existing cluster, upgrade each node individually to PAN-OS 12.x, and then reform the cluster. The recommended minimum version for forming a 12.x cluster is PAN-OS 12.1.7 or later.
    • The WildFire appliance cluster nodes must be upgraded in the following order, without exception:
      1. Active (Controller Node Pair)
      2. Passive (Controller Node Pair)
      3. Worker Server Node (Cluster Server)
      4. Worker Client Node(s) (Cluster Client)
    • Ensure that each WildFire appliance node is in a ready state and fully operational after each successive upgrade, regardless of node configuration, before proceeding to the next node.
    1. Review and implement the prerequisites before proceeding with the upgrade process.
    2. Beginning with the passive controller node, followed by the active controller node, server node, and then the worker node(s), follow steps 3-13 to upgrade each node in your WildFire cluster.
    3. Temporarily suspend sample analysis.
      1. Stop firewalls from forwarding any new samples to the WildFire appliance.
        1. Log in to the firewall web interface.
        2. Select Device > Setup > WildFire and edit General Settings.
        3. Clear the WildFire Private Cloud field.
        4. Click OK and Commit.
      2. Confirm that analysis for samples the firewalls already submitted to the appliance is complete:
        admin@WF-500(passive-controller)> show wildfire local latest samples
        If you do not want to wait for the WildFire appliance to finish analyzing recently-submitted samples, you can continue to the next step. However, consider that the WildFire appliance then drops pending samples from the analysis queue.
    4. Install the latest WildFire appliance content update. This update equips the appliance with the latest threat information to accurately detect malware.
      This process can take up to 6 hours or more on older appliances.
      1. Verify that you are running the latest content update on your WildFire appliance.
        admin@WF-500> request wf-content upgrade check
      2. Download the latest WildFire content update package.
        admin@WF-500> request wf-content upgrade download latest
        If you do not have direct connectivity to the Palo Alto Networks Update Server, you can download and Install WildFire Content Updates from an SCP-Enabled Server.
      3. View the status of the download.
        admin@WF-500> show jobs all
      4. After the download is complete, install the update.
        admin@WF-500> request wf-content upgrade install version latest
    5. (Required when upgrading to PAN-OS 10.2.2) Upgrade the VM images on the WildFire appliance.
      1. Log in and access the Palo Alto Networks Customer Support Portal Software Download Page. You can also manually navigate to the software download page from the Support homepage by going to UpdatesSoftware Updates.
      2. From the software updates page, select WF-500 Guest VM Images and download the following VM image files:
        Palo Alto Networks periodically updates the VM image files; as a result, the specific filename changes based on the version that is available. Be sure to download the latest version, whereby the m-x.x.x in the filename indicates the release number; additionally, there is a release date that can be cross-referenced to help determine the latest version.
        • WFWinXpAddon3_m-1.0.1.xpaddon3
        • WFWinXpGf_m-1.0.1.xpgf
        • WFWin7_64Addon1_m-1.0.1.7_64addon1
        • WFWin10Base_m-1.0.1.10base
      3. Upload the VM images to the WildFire appliance.
        1. Import the VM image from the SCP server:
          admin@WF-500>scp import wildfire-vm-image from <username@ip_address>/<folder_name>/<vm_image_filename>
          For example:
          admin@WF-500>scp import wildfire-vm-image from user1@10.0.3.4:/tmp/WFWin7_64Addon1_m-1.0.1.7_64addon1
        2. To check the status of the download, use the following command:
          admin@WF-500>show jobs all
        3. Repeat for the remaining VM images.
      4. Install the VM image.
        1. admin@WF-500>request system wildfire-vm-image upgrade install file <vm_image_filename>
        2. Repeat for the remaining VM images.
      5. Confirm that the VM images have been properly installed and enabled on the WildFire appliance.
        1. (Optional) View a list of available virtual machines images:
          admin@WF-500> show wildfire vm-images
          The output displays the available VM images.
        2. Commit the configuration:
          admin@WF-500# commit
        3. View the active VM image by running the following command:
          admin@WF-500> show wildfire status
    6. Verify that the WildFire appliance software version you want to install is available.
      admin@WF-500(passive-controller)> request system software check
    7. Download the PAN-OS release onto the WildFire appliance.
      You cannot skip any major release version when upgrading the WildFire appliance. For example, if you want to upgrade from PAN-OS 10.2 to PAN-OS 12.1, you must first download and install an intermediate release such as PAN-OS 11.2.15. Refer to the recommended upgrade paths for your source version:
      • From PAN-OS 10.2: PAN-OS 10.2 → PAN-OS 11.2.15 → PAN-OS 12.1.7 (or PAN-OS 12.2.2)
      • From PAN-OS 11.1: PAN-OS 11.1 → PAN-OS 11.2.15 → PAN-OS 12.1.7 (or PAN-OS 12.2.2)
      • From PAN-OS 11.2: PAN-OS 11.2 → PAN-OS 11.2.15 → PAN-OS 12.1.7 (or PAN-OS 12.2.2)
      • From PAN-OS 12.1: PAN-OS 12.1 → PAN-OS 12.1.7 (or PAN-OS 12.2.2)
      Download the PAN-OS 10.2.2 software version.
      admin@WF-500(passive-controller)> request system software download version 10.2.2
      To check the status of the download, use the following command
      admin@WF-500(passive-controller)> show jobs all
    8. Confirm that all services are running.
      admin@WF-500(passive-controller)> show system software status
    9. Verify there are no pending tasks in the cluster.
      admin@WF-500(passive-controller)> show cluster task pending
    10. Install the 10.2.2 software version.
      admin@WF-500(passive-controller)> request system software install version 10.2.2
    11. Confirm that the upgrade is complete. Run the following command and look for the job type Install and status FIN:
      admin@WF-500(passive-controller)> show jobs all

Enqueued Dequeued ID Type Status Result Completed
----------------------------------------------------
14:53:15 14:53:15 5 Install FIN    OK   14:53:19
    12. Gracefully restart the appliance:
      admin@WF-500(passive-controller)> request cluster reboot-local-node
      The upgrade process completion time varies widely, depending on the number of samples stored on the WildFire appliance.
    13. Validate the WildFire cluster node upgrade.
    14. Repeat steps 3-13 for each WildFire cluster node in the cluster. Be mindful of the order of operations for each node type.

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