When you upgrade from one PAN-OS feature release version to a later feature release, you cannot skip the installation of any feature release versions in the path to your target release (for example, to get from a PAN-OS 7.0 release to PAN-OS 8.0, you also need to install a PAN-OS 7.1 release version). In most cases, the recommended path when moving from one feature release to the next is to download the base image for the next feature release version and then download and install your target maintenance release version. You must have both the base image and the maintenance release image on the firewall for installation to be successful. If the firewall doesn’t have enough disk space to hold both the base image and the maintenance release image, it will delete the base image and you will see an error message when you attempt to install the maintenance release. In this case, you need to re-download and install the base image before you can download and install the maintenance release. To minimize downtime for your users, perform upgrades during non-business hours.

Determine the upgrade path as follows: