Perform Initial Configuration for an Air Gapped M-Series Appliance

Gather the required information from your network administrator.
Private IP address for the management (MGT) port
Netmask
Default gateway
DNS server address
NTP server address
Install and power on M-Series appliance.
Review your M-Series appliance hardware reference guide for details and best practices.
Connect to the M-Series appliance.
You must log in using the default
admin
username. You are immediately prompted to change the default
admin
password before you can continue. The new password must be a minimum of eight characters and include a minimum of one lowercase and one uppercase character, as well as one number or special character.
You can connect to the M-Series appliance in one of the following ways:
Connect a serial cable from your computer to the Console port and connect to the M-Series appliance using terminal emulation software (9600-8-N-1). Wait a few minutes for the boot-up sequence to complete; when the M-Series appliance is ready, the prompt changes to the name of the M-Series, for example
M-500 login
.
Log in to the Panorama CLI by connecting an RJ-45 Ethernet cable from your computer to the MGT interface on the M-Series appliance. From a browser, go to
https://192.168.1.1
.
You may need to change the IP address on your computer to an address in the 192.168.1.0/24 network, such as 192.168.1.2, to access this URL.
Configure the network settings for the air gapped M-Series appliance.
The following commands set the interface IP allocation to
static
, configures the IP address for the MGT interface, the Domain Name Server (DNS), and Network Time Protocol (NTP) server.
admin> 
configure
admin# 
set deviceconfig system type static
admin# 
set deviceconfig system ip-address <IP-Address> netmask <Netmask-IP> default-gateway <Gateway-IP>
admin# 
set deviceconfig system dns-settings servers primary <IP-Address> secondary <IP-Address>
admin# 
set deviceconfig system ntp-servers primary-ntp-server ntp-server-address <IP-Address>
admin# 
set deviceconfig system ntp-servers secondary-ntp-server ntp-server-address <IP-Address>
Register the M-Series appliance with the Palo Alto Networks Customer Support Portal (CSP).
Log in to the Palo Alto Networks CSP.
Click
Register a Device
.
Select
Register device using Serial Number
and click
Next
.
Enter the required
Device Information
.
Enter the M-Series appliance
Serial Number
.
Check (enable)
Device will be used offline
.
Select the PAN-OS
OS Release
running on the M-Series appliance.
Enter the required
Location Information
.
Enter the
City
the M-Series appliance is located in,
Enter the
Postal Code
the M-Series appliance is located in,
Enter the
Country
the M-Series appliance is located in.
Agree and Submit
.
Skip this step
when prompted to generate the optional
Day 1 Configuration
config file.
Download the Panorama license keys.
The license key files are required to activate your Panorama licenses when air gapped.
Log in to the Palo Alto Networks CSP.
Select
Product
Devices
and locate the M-Series appliance you added.
Download all license keys files from the download links available
License
column.
You must download a license key file for each license you want to active on Panorama.
Active the Panorama licenses.
Log in to the Panorama web interface.
Select
Panorama
Licenses
and
Manually upload license key
.
Click
Choose File
to select the license key file you downloaded in the previous step and click
OK
.
Repeat this step to uploaded and activate all licenses.
(
Optional
) Configure general Panorama settings as needed.
Select
Panorama
Setup
Management
and edit the General Settings.
Enter a
Hostname
for Panorama and enter your network
Domain
name. The domain name is just a label; it will not be used to join the domain.
Enter
Login Banner
text that informs users who are about to log in that they require authorization to access the Panorama management functions.
As a best practice, avoid using welcoming verbiage. Additionally, you should ask your legal department to review the banner message to ensure it adequately warns that unauthorized access is prohibited.
Enter the
Latitude
and
Longitude
to enable accurate placement of the M-Series on the world map.
Click
OK
.
Commit
and
Commit to Panorama
.
Upgrade the PAN-OS and dynamic content versions on Panorama.
Review the PAN-OS Release Notes for detailed information about your target PAN-OS upgrade version.
Log in to the Palo Alto Networks CSP.
Download dynamic content updates.
Select
Updates
Dynamic Updates
.
Select the dynamic
Content type
you want to install.
Download
the dynamic content update to your local device.
Repeat this step to download all required dynamic content updates.
Download a PAN-OS software update.
Select
Updates
Software Updates
.
For the
Content type
, select
Panorama M Base
. For the
Release type
, select
All
(default) or
Preferred
.
In the
Download
column, click the PAN-OS version to download the software image to your local device.
Log in to the Panorama web interface.
Select
Panorama
Dynamic Updates
and
Upload
the dynamic content updates you downloaded.
Repeat this step to
Browse
and select all the dynamic content release versions.
Install
the dynamic content updates.
Select
Panorama
Software
and
Upload
the PAN-OS software image you download.
Install
the PAN-OS software version.
Panorama needs to restart to finish installing the PAN-OS software upgrade.
Connect Panorama to your network.
Disconnect Panorama from your computer.
Connect the MGT port to a switch port on your management network using an RJ-45 Ethernet cable. Make sure that the switch port you cable on Panorama is configured for autonegotiation.