Focus

PAN-OS Upgrade Checklist

Table of Contents

PAN-OS Upgrade Checklist

What do I need to plan my PAN-OS upgrade?
Planning your PAN-OS upgrade can help ensure a smoother transition to a newer version of PAN-OS for your Panorama or firewalls.
  • Make sure the device is registered and licensed.
  • Verify the available disk space.
    The disk space required varies based on the PAN-OS release. Select DeviceSoftware and review the target PAN-OS release Size to determine the required disk space.
    • Run show system disk-space
  • Verify the minimum content release version.
  • Identify the preferred release.
    • (PAN-OS 11.1.3 and later releases)
      Select DeviceSoftware. By default, the Release Type column displays the preferred and base releases. To view the preferred releases only, disable (clear) the Base Releases checkbox.
    • (PAN-OS 11.1.3 and later releases)
      Run request system software info preferred
    See the Palo Alto Networks Support Software Release Guidance and End-of-Life Summary for more information. Additionally, review the known and addressed issues, upgrade and downgrade considerations, and limitations for your target PAN-OS release to understand how a PAN-OS upgrade may impact you.
  • Determine the upgrade path.
  • Review the upgrade/downgrade considerations for all releases in your upgrade path.
  • (Required for GlobalProtect) Verify the minimum GlobalProtect™ agent version to prevent GlobalProtect users from losing VPN connectivity. GlobalProtect can be upgraded directly to the latest version.
  • Verify the minimum plugin release versions on the target release version for any plugins you have installed.
  • Verify connectivity from the management interface to the update server.
    • Select DeviceTroubleshooting and test the Update Server Connectivity to check that the DNS can resolve the address.
      If it doesn’t resolve, change the DNS to 8.8.8.8 (you need to use a public DNS server rather than your own DNS server) and ping again.
      If this doesn’t resolve, change the update server to staticupdates.paloaltonetworks.com and Commit.
  • (SD-WAN only) Identify the hub and branch firewalls you intend to upgrade to PAN-OS 11.1.
    To preserve an accurate status for your SD-WAN links, you must upgrade your hub firewalls before you upgrade your branch firewalls. Upgrading branch firewalls before hub firewalls may result in incorrect monitoring data (PanoramaSD-WANMonitoring) and for SD-WAN links to erroneously display as down.
  • (PAN-OS 11.1 and 11.2 only)
    If there are any plugins currently installed, download the plugin version supported on the target release for all plugins currently installed on Panorama (PanoramaPlugins) or your firewall (DevicePlugins) before upgrade.
    See the Panorama Plugins Compatibility Matrix for the Panorama plugin version supported on the target release.
    This is required to successfully upgrade Panorama and firewall to PAN-OS 11.1 and PAN-OS 11.2. The downloaded plugin version is automatically installed during upgrade to PAN-OS 11.1 and PAN-OS 11.2. Upgrade to PAN-OS 11.1 or 11.2 is blocked if the supported plugin version is not downloaded.
  • (PAN-OS 12.1 and later)
    With the plugin bundling feature, supported plugin versions are downloaded automatically when you download the PAN-OS image.