Deploy the VM-Series Firewall on Azure Stack HCI

Table of Contents

Deploy the VM-Series Firewall on Azure Stack

Deploy the VM-Series Firewall on Azure Stack HCI

Where Can I Use This?	What Do I Need?
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You can deploy the VM-Series firewall on Azure Stack HCI within Software Defined Networking (SDN) architecture. Azure Stack HCI is a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) cluster solution that hosts virtualized Windows and Linux workloads and their storage in a hybrid environment that combines on-premises infrastructure with Azure cloud services. For more information, see Azure Stack HCI solution overview.

You can deploy the VM-Series firewall on Azure Stack HCI and protect the inbound traffic, outbound traffic, and east-west traffic between various vNETs. The VM-Series firewall traffic is pinned to an active interface with an out-of-band management interface, where the internal applications and inbound traffic are routed through route tables to force traffic through the firewall load balancer for east-west and north-south traffic to provide internal microsegmentation and a security perimeter. The SDN Gateway then allows traffic to pass in and out of the internal SDN via the hub vNet.

Perform the following steps to deploy the VM-Series firewall on Azure Stack HCI SDN:

To get started, you will need the following:
- One or more servers from the Azure Stack HCI Catalog and Azure subscription.
- Operating system licenses for your workload VMs – for example, Windows Server. See Activate Windows Server VMs.
- An internet connection for each server in the cluster that can connect via HTTPS outbound traffic to well-known Azure endpoints at least every 30 days. See Azure connectivity requirements for more information.
- For clusters stretched across sites :
  - At least one 1 GB connection between sites (a 25 GB RDMA connection is preferred).
  - At least four severs (two in each site).
  - An average latency of 5 ms round trip between sites if you want to do synchronous replication where writes occur simultaneously in both sites.
- To use SDN infrastructure, you need a virtual hard disk (VHD) for the Azure Stack HCI operating system to create Network Controller, Multiplexer, and Gateway VMs on Management Network (see Plan to deploy Network Controller, Deploy SDN Software Load Balancer, and Deploy SDN Gateway).
For more information, see What you need for Azure Stack HCI.
Create an Azure Stack HCI cluster using any one of the below given methods:
- Using Windows Admin Center. For more information, see Create an Azure Stack HCI cluster using Windows Admin Center.
- Using Windows PowerShell. For more information, see Create an Azure Stack HCI cluster using Windows PowerShell.
Register Azure Stack HCI cluster with Azure for monitoring, support, billing, and hybrid services.
Deploy the SDN infrastructure using any one of the following methods:
This document considers the Windows Admin Center option for deploying the VM-Series firewall.

After successfully deploying the SDN infrastructure, go to the SDN Infrastructure dashboard on your Windows Admin Center and ensure that all server nodes are healthy.
After deploying the SDN infrastructure, create a Hyper-V Network Virtualization (HNV) virtual network.

By modeling a VLAN-based network as an SDN logical network, you can apply network policies to workloads that are attached to these networks. For more information, see Manage Tenant Logical Network.
Deploy the VM-Series firewall.
Download the VHDX file. Register your VM-Series firewall and obtain the VHDX file.
- Go to https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/services/support.
- Filter by PAN-OS for VM-Series Base Images and download the VHDX file. For example, PA-VM-HPV-7.1.0.vhdx.
Install the VM-Series firewall.
Perform the following steps to install the VM-Series firewall on Azure Stack HCI:
Add a virtual machine.
1. Go to Windows Admin Center > Cluster Manager and select the Cluster.
2. Go to Virtual Machines > Add> New.
Configure the following settings in the New Virtual Machine Wizard:
- Enter the Name for the VM-Series firewall.
- Select Generation 1. This is the default option and the only version supported.
- Select the Host and Path for the VM-Series firewall. Browse the VHD/VHDX FW image file.
  Note: You must store the VHD/VHDX in location C:/ClusterStorage/Volumes.
- For Startup Memory, assign the memory based on the VM-Series System Requirements of your VM-Series model.
- To configure networking, from the Virtual Network dropdown menu, select vNet.
  
  A converged virtual switch (vSwitch) gets created while bringing up the Azure Stack HCI cluster.
  - Select Virtual Switch > Isolation Mode > Virtual Network > Virtual Subnet.
  - Click Add IP Address and enter the IP address for the management interface.
  - Select Network Security Group (optional).
- To connect the Virtual Hard Disk, select Use an existing virtual hard disk and browse to the VHDX file you downloaded earlier in Step 6.
- Click Create.
After successfully installing the VM-Series firewall on the cluster, you can add more Network Adapters for data traffic. Perform the following to add a Network Adapter:
- Select your VM, go to Settings > Network.
- Click Add Network Adapter.
- Select Virtual Switch > Isolation Mode > Virtual Network > Virtual Subnet.
- Click Add IP Address and enter the IP address for the data interface.
- Select Network Security Group (optional).
- Click Save Network Settings.
  
  Connect at least one network adapter for the data interface on the firewall. You can create and add more Network Adapters using the same steps above.
(Optional) Enable MAC address spoofing if you're not using Layer 3 with MAC address.
1. Double-click the dataplane virtual network adapter and click Advanced Settings.
2. Click the Enable MAC address spoofing check box and click Apply.
Bootstrap the VM-Series Firewall.
Power on the firewall.