: Modify Log Forwarding and Buffering Defaults
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Modify Log Forwarding and Buffering Defaults

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Modify Log Forwarding and Buffering Defaults

You can define the log forwarding mode that the firewalls use to send logs to Panorama and, when configured in a high availability (HA) configuration, specify which Panorama peer can receive logs. To access these options, select
Panorama
Setup
Management
, edit the Logging and Reporting Settings, and select
Log Export and Reporting
.
  • Define the log forwarding mode on the firewall: The firewalls can forward logs to Panorama (pertains to both the M-Series appliance and the Panorama virtual appliance) in either Buffered Log Forwarding mode or in the Live Mode Log Forwarding mode.
Logging Options
Description
(
Best Practice
)
Buffered Log Forwarding from Device
Default: Enabled
Allows each managed firewall to buffer logs and send the logs at 30-second intervals to Panorama (not user configurable).
Buffered log forwarding is very valuable when the firewall loses connectivity to Panorama. The firewall buffers log entries to its local hard disk and keeps a pointer to record the last log entry that was sent to Panorama. When connectivity is restored the firewall resumes forwarding logs from where it left off.
The disk space available for buffering depends on the log storage quota for the firewall model and the volume of logs that are pending roll over. If the firewall was disconnected for a long time and the last log forwarded was rolled over, all the logs from its local hard disk will be forwarded to Panorama on reconnection. If the available space on the local hard disk of the firewall is consumed, the oldest entries are deleted to allow logging of new events.
Live Mode Log Forwarding from Device
This option is enabled when the check box for
Buffered Log Forwarding from Device
is cleared.
In live mode, the managed firewall sends every log transaction to Panorama at the same time as it records it on the firewall.
  • Define log forwarding preference on a Panorama virtual appliance in Legacy mode that is deployed in a high availability (HA) configuration:
    • When logging to a virtual disk, enable logging to the local disk on the primary Panorama peer only. By default, both Panorama peers in the HA configuration receive logs.
      For the 5200 and 7000 series firewalls, only the active peer receive logs.
    • When logging to an NFS (ESXi server only), enable the firewalls to send only newly generated logs to a secondary Panorama peer, which is promoted to primary, after a failover.
Logging Options
Pertains to
Description
Only Active Primary Logs to Local Disk
Default: Disabled
Panorama virtual appliance in Legacy mode that is logging to a virtual disk and is deployed in an HA configuration.
Allows you to configure only the primary Panorama peer to save logs to the local disk.
Get Only New Logs on Convert to Primary
Default: Disabled
Panorama virtual appliance in Legacy mode that is mounted to a Network File System (NFS) datastore, runs on a VMware ESXi server, and is deployed in an HA configuration
With NFS logging, when you have a pair of Panorama servers configured in a high availability configuration, only the primary Panorama peer mounts the NFS datastore. Therefore, the firewalls can only send logs to the primary Panorama peer, which can write to the NFS datastore.
When an HA failover occurs, the
Get Only New Logs on Convert to Primary
option allows an administrator to configure the managed firewalls to send only newly generated logs to Panorama. This event is triggered when the priority of the active-secondary Panorama is promoted to primary and it can begin logging to the NFS. This behavior is typically enabled to prevent the firewalls from sending a large volume of buffered logs when connectivity to Panorama is restored after a significant period of time.

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