Upgrade the VM-Series PAN-OS Software Using Panorama

After upgrading Panorama, commit and push the configuration to the firewalls you are planning to upgrade.
Verify that enough hardware resources are available to the VM-Series firewall.
Refer to the VM-Series System Requirements to see the resource requirements for each VM-Series model. Allocate additional hardware resources before continuing the upgrade process; the process for assigning additional hardware resources differs on each hypervisor.
If the VM-Series firewall does not have the required resources for the model, it defaults to the capacity associated with the VM-50.
From the web interface, navigate to
Device
Licenses
and make sure you have the correct VM-Series firewall license and that the license is activated.
On the VM-Series firewall standalone version, navigate to
Device
Support
and make sure that you have activated the support license.
Save a backup of the current configuration file on each managed firewall you plan to upgrade.
Although the firewall automatically creates a configuration backup, it is a best practice to create and externally store a backup before you upgrade.
From the Panorama web interface, select
Panorama
Setup
Operations
and click
Export Panorama and devices config bundle
to generate and export the latest configuration backup of Panorama and of each managed appliance.
Save the exported file to a location external to the firewall. You can use this backup to restore the configuration if you have problems with the upgrade.
Update the content release version on the firewalls you plan to upgrade.
Refer to the Release Notes for the minimum content release version required for PAN-OS 9.1. Make sure to follow the Best Practices for Application and Threat Updates when deploying content updates to Panorama and managed firewalls.
Select
Panorama
Device Deployment
Dynamic Updates
and
Check Now
for the latest updates. If an update is available, the Action column displays a
Download
link.
If not already installed,
Download
the latest content release version.
Click
Install
, select the firewalls on which you want to install the update, and click
OK
. If you are upgrading HA firewalls, you must update content on both peers.
(
HA firewall upgrades only
) If you will be upgrading firewalls that are part of an HA pair, disable preemption. You need only disable this setting on one firewall in each HA pair.
Select
Device
High Availability
and edit the
Election Settings
.
If enabled, disable (clear) the
Preemptive
setting and click
OK
.
Commit
your change. Make sure the commit is successful before you proceed with the upgrade.
Download the target PAN-OS release image.
Select
Panorama
Device Deployment
Software
and
Check Now
for the latest release versions.
Download
the firewall-specific file (or files) for the release version to which you are upgrading. You must download a separate installation file for each firewall model (or firewall series) that you intend to upgrade.
Install the PAN-OS software update on the firewalls.
Click
Install
in the Action column that corresponds to the firewall models you want to upgrade.
In the Deploy Software file dialog, select all firewalls that you want to upgrade. To reduce downtime, select only one peer in each HA pair. For active/passive pairs, select the passive peer; for active/active pairs, select the active-secondary peer.
(
HA firewall upgrades only
) Make sure
Group HA Peers
is not selected.
Select
Reboot device after install
.
To begin the upgrade, click
OK
.
After the installation completes successfully, reboot using one of the following methods:
If you are prompted to reboot, click
Yes
.
If you are not prompted to reboot, select
Device
Setup
Operations
and
Reboot Device
.
After the firewalls finish rebooting, select
Panorama
Managed Devices
and verify the Software Version is 9.1.0 for the firewalls you upgraded. Also verify that the HA status of any passive firewalls you upgraded is still passive.
(
HA firewall upgrades only
) Upgrade the second HA peer in each HA pair.
(
Active/passive upgrades only
) Suspend the active device in each active/passive pair you are upgrading.
Switch context to the active firewall.
In the High Availability widget on the
Dashboard
, verify that
Local
firewall state is
Active
and the
Peer
is
Passive
).
Select
Device
High Availability
Operational Commands
Suspend local device
.
Go back to the High Availability widget on the
Dashboard
and verify that
Local
changed to
Passive
and
Peer
changed to
Active
.
Go back to the Panorama context and select
Panorama
Device Deployment
Software
.
Click
Install
in the Action column that corresponds to the firewall models of the HA pairs you are upgrading.
In the Deploy Software file dialog, select all firewalls that you want to upgrade. This time, select only the peers of the HA firewalls you just upgraded.
Make sure
Group HA Peers
is not selected.
Select
Reboot device after install
.
To begin the upgrade, click
OK
.
After the installation completes successfully, reboot using one of the following methods:
If you are prompted to reboot, click
Yes
.
If you are not prompted to reboot, select
Device
Setup
Operations
and
Reboot Device
.
(
Active/passive upgrades only
) From the CLI of the peer you just upgraded, run the following command to make the firewall functional again:
request high-availability state functional
(
PAN-OS XFR upgrade only
) Upgrade the first peer and second peer to PAN-OS XFR by repeating Step 8 and Step 9.
Verify the software and content release version running on each managed firewall.
On Panorama, select
Panorama
Managed Devices
.
Locate the firewalls and review the content and software versions in the table.
For HA firewalls, you can also verify that the HA Status of each peer is as expected.
(HA firewall upgrades only)
If you disabled preemption on one of your HA firewalls before you upgraded, then edit the
Election Settings
(
Device
High Availability
) and re-enable the
Preemptive
setting for that firewall and then
Commit
the change.