The universally unique identifier (UUID) for
a rule is a 32-character string (based on data such as the network
address and the timestamp of creation) that the firewall or Panorama
assigns to the rule. The UUID uses the format 8-4-4-4-12 (where
8, 4, and 12 represent the number of unique characters separated
by hyphens). UUIDs identify rules for all policy rulebases. You
can also use UUIDs to identify applicable rules in the following
log types: Traffic, Threat, URL Filtering, WildFire Submission,
Data Filtering, GTP, SCTP, Tunnel Inspection, Configuration, and
Unified.
Using the UUID to search for a rule enables you
to locate a specific rule you want to find among thousands of rules
that may have similar or identical names. UUIDs also simplify automation
and integration for rules in third-party systems (such as ticketing
or orchestration) that do not support names.
In some cases,
you may need to generate new UUIDs for existing rulebases. For example,
if you want to export a configuration to another firewall, you need
to
regenerate the UUIDs for the rules as you import
the configuration to ensure there are no duplicate UUIDs. If you
regenerate UUIDs, you are no longer able to track those rules using their
previous UUIDs and the hit data and app usage data for those rules
are reset.
When
you load a configuration that contains rules with UUIDs, the firewall
considers rules to be the same if the rule name, rulebase, and virtual
system all match. Panorama considers rules to be the same if the
rule name, rulebase, and the device group all match.