Configure QoS for a Virtual System

QoS can be configured for a single or several virtual systems configured on a Palo Alto Networks firewall. Because a virtual system is an independent firewall, QoS must be configured independently for a single virtual system.

Configuring QoS for a virtual system is similar to configuring QoS on a physical firewall, with the exception that configuring QoS for a virtual system requires specifying the source and destination of traffic. Because a virtual system exists without set physical boundaries and because traffic in a virtual environment spans more than one virtual system, specifying source and destination zones and interfaces for traffic is necessary to control and shape traffic for a single virtual system.

The example below shows two virtual systems configured on firewall. VSYS 1 (purple) and VSYS 2 (red) each have QoS configured to prioritize or limit two distinct traffic flows, indicated by their corresponding purple (VSYS 1) and red (VSYS 2) lines. The QoS nodes indicate the points at traffic is matched to a QoS policy and assigned a QoS class of service, and then later indicate the point at which traffic is shaped as it egresses the firewall.

Refer to Virtual Systems for information on virtual systems and how to configure them.

Confirm that the appropriate interfaces, virtual routers, and security zones are associated with each virtual system.
To view configured interfaces, select
Network
Interface
.
To view configured zones, select
Network
Zones
.
To view information on defined virtual routers, select
Network
Virtual Routers
.
Identify traffic to apply QoS to.
Select
ACC
to view the
Application Command Center
page. Use the settings and charts on the
ACC
page to view trends and traffic related to Applications, URL filtering, Threat Prevention, Data Filtering, and HIP Matches.
To view information for a specific virtual system, select the virtual system from the
Virtual System
drop-down:
Click any application name to display detailed application information.
Identify the egress interface for applications that you identified as needing QoS treatment.
In a virtual system environment, QoS is applied to traffic on the traffic’s egress point on the virtual system. Depending the configuration and QoS policy for a virtual system, the egress point of QoS traffic could be associated with a physical interface or could be a zone.
This example shows how to limit web-browsing traffic on vsys 1.
Select
Monitor
Logs
Traffic
to view traffic logs. Each entry has the option to display columns with information necessary to configure QoS in a virtual system environment:
virtual system
egress interface
ingress interface
source zone
destination zone
To display a column if it is not displayed by default:
Click any column header to add a column to the log:

Click the spyglass icon to the left of any entry to display a detailed log that includes the application’s egress interface, as well as source and destination zones, in the

Source

and

Destination

sections:
For example, for web-browsing traffic from VSYS 1, the ingress interface is ethernet 1/2, the egress interface is ethernet 1/1, the source zone is trust and the destination zone is untrust.
Create a QoS Profile.
You can edit any existing QoS Profile, including the default, by clicking the profile name.
Select
Network
Network Profiles
QoS Profile
and click
Add
to open the QoS Profile dialog.
Enter a descriptive
Profile Name
.
Enter an
Egress Max
to set the overall bandwidth allocation for the QoS profile.
Enter an
Egress Guaranteed
to set the guaranteed bandwidth for the QoS profile.
Any traffic that exceeds the QoS profile’s egress guaranteed limit is best effort but is not guaranteed.
In the Classes section of the
QoS Profile
, specify how to treat up to eight individual QoS classes:
Click
Add
to add a class to the QoS Profile.
Select the
Priority
for the class.
Enter an
Egress Max
for a class to set the overall bandwidth limit for that individual class.
Enter an
Egress Guaranteed
for the class to set the guaranteed bandwidth for that individual class.
Click
OK
to save the QoS profile.
Create a QoS policy.
In an environment with multiple virtual systems, traffic spans more than one virtual system. Because of this, when you are enabling QoS for a virtual system, you must define traffic to receive QoS treatment based on source and destination zones. This ensures that the traffic is prioritized and shaped only for that virtual system (and not for other virtual systems through which the traffic might flow).
Select
Policies
QoS
and
Add
a QoS Policy Rule.
Select
General
and give the QoS Policy Rule a descriptive
Name
.
Specify the traffic to which the QoS policy rule will apply. Use the
Source
,
Destination
,
Application
, and
Service/URL Category
tabs to define matching parameters for identifying traffic.
For example, select
Application
and
Add
web-browsing to apply the QoS policy rule to that application:
Select
Source
and
Add
the source zone of vsys 1 web-browsing traffic.
Select
Destination
and
Add
the destination zone of vsys 1 web-browsing traffic.
Select
Other Settings
and select a
QoS Class
to assign to the QoS policy rule. For example, assign Class 2 to web-browsing traffic on vsys 1:
Click
OK
to save the QoS policy rule.
Enable the QoS Profile on a physical interface.
It is a best practice to always define the
Egress Max
value for a QoS interface.
Select
Network
QoS
and click
Add
to open the QoS Interface dialog.
Enable QoS on the physical interface:
On the
Physical Interface
tab, select the
Interface Name
of the interface to apply the QoS Profile to.
In this example, ethernet 1/1 is the egress interface for web-browsing traffic on vsys 1 (see Step 2).
Select
Turn on QoS feature on this interface
.
On the
Physical Interface
tab, select the default QoS profile to apply to all
Clear Text
traffic.
(
Optional
) Use the
Tunnel Interface
field to apply a default QoS profile to all tunneled traffic.
(
Optional
) On the
Clear Text Traffic
tab, configure additional QoS settings for clear text traffic:
Set the
Egress Guaranteed
and
Egress Max
bandwidths for clear text traffic.
Click
Add
to apply a QoS Profile to selected clear text traffic, further selecting the traffic for QoS treatment according to source interface and source subnet (creating a QoS node).
(
Optional
) On the
Tunneled Traffic
tab, configure additional QoS settings for tunnel interfaces:
Set the
Egress Guaranteed
and
Egress Max
bandwidths for tunneled traffic.
Click
Add
to associate a selected tunnel interface with a QoS Profile.
Click
OK
to save changes.
Commit
the changes.
Verify QoS configuration.
Select
Network
QoS
to view the QoS Policies page. The
QoS Policies
page verifies that QoS is enabled and includes a
Statistics
link. Click the Statistics link to view QoS bandwidth, active sessions of a selected QoS node or class, and active applications for the selected QoS node or class.
In a multi-vsys environment, sessions cannot span multiple systems. Multiple sessions are created for one traffic flow if the traffic passes through more than one virtual system. To browse sessions running on the firewall and view applied QoS Rules and QoS Classes, select
Monitor
Session Browser
.