: Migrate a Firewall to Panorama Management
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Migrate a Firewall to Panorama Management

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Migrate a Firewall to Panorama Management

When you import a firewall configuration, Panorama automatically creates a template to contain the imported network and device settings. To contain the imported policies and objects, Panorama automatically creates one device group for each firewall or one device group for each virtual system (vsys) in a multi-vsys firewall.
When you perform the following steps, Panorama imports the entire firewall configuration. Alternatively, you can Load a Partial Firewall Configuration into Panorama.
To migrate a firewall HA pair to Panorama management, see Migrate a Firewall HA Pair to Panorama Management.
Panorama can import configurations from firewalls that run PAN-OS 5.0 or later releases and can push configurations to those firewalls. The exception is that Panorama 6.1 and later releases cannot push configurations to firewalls running PAN-OS 6.0.0 through 6.0.3.
Panorama can import configurations from firewalls that are already managed devices but only if they are not already assigned to device groups or templates.
  1. Plan the migration.
  2. Add the firewall as a managed device.
    1. Log in to the Panorama Web Interface and select
      Panorama
      Managed Devices
      Summary
      to
      Add
      a firewall as a managed device.
    2. Enter the serial number of the firewall and click
      OK
      .
      If you will import multiple firewall configurations, enter the serial number of each one on a separate line. Optionally, you can copy and paste the serial numbers from a Microsoft Excel worksheet.
    3. Select
      Commit
      Commit to Panorama
      and
      Commit
      your changes.
  3. Set up a connection from the firewall to Panorama.
    1. Log in to the firewall web interface and select
      Device
      Setup
      to edit the Panorama Settings.
    2. In the
      Panorama Servers
      fields, enter the IP addresses of the Panorama management server.
    3. Click
      OK
      and
      Commit
      .
  4. Import the firewall configuration into Panorama.
    If you later decide to re-import a firewall configuration, first remove the firewall device groups and template to which it is a member. If the device group and template names are the same as the firewall hostname, then you can delete the device group and template before re-importing the firewall configuration or use the
    Device Group Name Prefix
    fields to define new names for the device group and template created by the re-import. Additionally, firewalls don’t lose logs when you remove them from device groups or templates.
    1. From Panorama, select
      Panorama
      Setup
      Operations
      , click
      Import device configuration to Panorama
      , and select the
      Device
      .
      Panorama can’t import a configuration from a firewall that is assigned to an existing device group or template.
    2. (
      Optional
      ) Edit the
      Template Name
      . The default value is the firewall name. You can’t use the name of an existing template or template stack.
    3. (
      Optional
      ) Edit the
      Device Group
      names. For a multi-vsys firewall, each device group has a vsys name by default, so add a character string as a Device Group Name Prefix for each. Otherwise, the default value is the firewall name. You can’t use the names of existing device groups.
      The
      Import devices' shared objects into Panorama's shared context
      check box is selected by default, which means Panorama compares imports objects that belong to the Shared location in the firewall to Shared in Panorama. If an imported object is not in the Shared context of the firewall, it is applied to each device group being imported. If you clear the check box, Panorama copies will not compare imported objects, and apply all shared firewall objects into device groups being imported instead of Shared. This could create duplicate objects, so selecting the check box is a best practice in most cases. To understand the consequences of importing shared or duplicate objects into Panorama, see Plan how to manage shared settings.
    4. Select a
      Rule Import Location
      for the imported policy rules:
      Pre Rulebase
      or
      Post Rulebase
      . Regardless of your selection, Panorama imports default security rules (intrazone-default and interzone-default) into the post-rulebase.
      If Panorama has a rule with the same name as a firewall rule that you import, Panorama displays both rules. Delete one of the rules before performing a Panorama commit to prevent a commit error.
    5. Click
      OK
      . Panorama displays the import status, result, details about your selections, details about what was imported, and any warnings. Click
      Close
      .
    6. Select
      Commit
      Commit to Panorama
      and
      Commit
      your changes.
  5. Push the configuration bundle from Panorama to the newly added firewall to remove all policy rules and objects from its local configuration.
    This step is necessary to prevent duplicate rule or object names, which would cause commit errors when you push the device group configuration from Panorama to the firewall in the next step.
    Pushing the imported firewall configuration from Panorama to remove local firewall configuration updates
    Policy
    rule
    Creation
    and
    Modified
    dates to reflect the date you pushed to your newly managed firewalls when you monitor policy rule usage for a managed firewall. Additionally, a new universially unique identifier (UUID) for each policy rule is created.
    This step is required to successfully migrate firewall management to the Panorama management server. Failure to perform this step successfully causes configuration errors and commit failures.
    1. Select
      Panorama
      Setup
      Operations
      and
      Export or push device config bundle
      .
    2. Select the
      Device
      from which you imported the configuration and click
      OK
      .
      If a master key is configured,
      Use Master Key
      and enter the master key before you click
      OK
      .
    3. Select
      Push & Commit
      . Panorama pushes the bundle and initiates a commit on the firewall.
    4. Click
      Close
      after the push has committed successfully.
    5. Launch the Web Interface of the firewall and ensure that the configuration has been successfully committed. If not,
      Commit
      the changes locally on the firewall.
    6. Select
      Commit
      Commit to Panorama
      and
      Commit
      your changes.
  6. Push the device group and template configurations to complete the transition to centralized management.
    This step overwrites any local
    Network
    and
    Device
    settings configured on the firewall.
    If you are migrating multiple firewalls, perform all the preceding steps—including this one—for each firewall before continuing.
    1. Select
      Commit
      Commit and Push
      and
      Edit Selections
      in the Push Scope.
    2. Select
      Device Groups
      and select the device groups that contain the imported firewall configurations.
    3. Select
      Merge with Device Candidate Config
      ,
      Include Device and Network Templates
      , and
      Force Template Values
      .
    4. Click
      OK
      to save your changes to the Push Scope.
    5. Commit and Push
      your changes.
  7. On the Panorama web interface, select
    Panorama
    Managed Devices
    Summary
    and verify that the device group and template stack are in sync for the firewall. On the firewall web interface, verify that configuration objects display a green cog ( ), signifying that the configuration object is pushed from Panorama.
  8. Fine-tune the imported configuration.
    1. In Panorama, select
      Panorama
      Config Audit
      , select the
      Running config
      and
      Candidate config
      for the comparison, click
      Go
      , and review the output.
    2. Update the device group and template configurations as needed based on the configuration audit and any warnings that Panorama displayed after the import. For example:
  9. Consolidate all the imported firewall configurations.
    This step is required if you are migrating multiple firewalls.
    1. After importing all the firewall configurations, update the device groups and templates as needed to eliminate redundancy and streamline configuration management: see Fine-tune the imported configuration. (You don’t need to push firewall configuration bundles again.)
    2. Configure any firewall-specific settings.
      If the firewalls will have local zones, you must create them before performing a device group or template commit; Panorama can’t poll the firewalls for zone name or zone configuration. If you will use local firewall rules, ensure their names are unique (not duplicated in Panorama). If necessary, you can Override a Template or Template Stack Value with a firewall-specific value.
    3. Commit and push your changes:
      1. Select
        Commit
        Commit and Push
        and
        Edit Selections
        in the Push Scope.
      2. Select
        Device Groups
        , select the device groups you changed, and
        Include Device and Network Templates
        .
      3. Click
        OK
        to save your changes to the Push Scope.
      4. Commit and Push
        your changes.
  10. Perform your post-migration test plan.
    Perform the verification tasks that you devised during the migration planning to confirm that the firewalls work as efficiently with the Panorama-pushed configuration as they did with their original local configuration: see Create a post-migration test plan.

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