Deploy Panorama Virtual Appliances with Local Log Collectors

You can configure firewalls to send logs to a Log Collector that runs locally on a Panorama virtual appliance in Panorama mode. In a high availability (HA) configuration, each Panorama HA peer can have a local Log Collector. You can assign the local Log Collectors on the HA peers to the same Collector Group or to separate Collector Groups, as illustrated in the following figures. Deploying the Panorama virtual appliance with local Log Collectors suits firewall management within a VMware virtual infrastructure in which Panorama processes up to 10,000 logs per second.

The Panorama virtual appliance cannot be a Dedicated Log Collector. However, if the logging rate increases beyond 10,000 logs per second, you can use the virtual appliance to manage Dedicated Log Collectors as described in Deploy Panorama with Dedicated Log Collectors. Such an expansion might require reassigning firewalls from the local Log Collectors to Dedicated Log Collectors.

If you will assign more than one Log Collector to a Collector Group, see Caveats for a Collector Group with Multiple Log Collectors to understand the requirements, risks, and recommended mitigations.

Perform the following steps to deploy Panorama with local Log Collectors. Skip any steps you have already performed (such as the initial setup).

Perform the initial setup of each Panorama virtual appliance.
Install Panorama on an ESXi Server. You must configure the following resources to ensure the virtual appliance starts in Panorama mode:
System disk with exactly 81GB of storage.
CPUs and memory that are sufficient for the quantity of logs that Panorama will receive and store.
Virtual logging disk with 2–24TB of storage.
Panorama automatically divides the new disk into 2TB partitions, each of which will function as a separate virtual disk.
Perform Initial Configuration of the Panorama Virtual Appliance.
Register Panorama and Install Licenses.
Install Content and Software Updates for Panorama.
Set up the Panorama virtual appliances in an HA configuration.
Set Up HA on Panorama.
Test Panorama HA Failover.
Add a Log Collector that is local to the primary Panorama.
On the primary Panorama:
Record the Panorama serial number.
Access the Panorama web interface.
Select
Dashboard
and record the
Serial #
in the General Information section.
Add the Log Collector as a managed collector.
Select
Panorama
Managed Collectors
and
Add
a new Log Collector.
In the
General
settings, enter the serial number (
Collector S/N
) you recorded for Panorama.
Click
OK
to save your changes.
Select
Commit
Commit to Panorama
.
This step is required before you can add the virtual logging disks.
Add the virtual logging disks.
Select
Panorama
Managed Collectors
and edit the Log Collector by clicking its name.
The Log Collector name has the same value as the hostname of the primary Panorama.
Select
Disks
and
Add
the virtual logging disks.
Click
OK
to save your changes.
Select
Commit
Commit to Panorama
.
Add a Log Collector that is local to the secondary Panorama.
Panorama treats this Log Collector as remote because it does not run locally on the primary Panorama.
Record the serial number of the secondary Panorama.
Access the web interface of the secondary Panorama.
Select
Dashboard
and record the
Serial #
in the General Information section.
Access the web interface of the primary Panorama.
Select
Panorama
Managed Collectors
and
Add
the Log Collector.
In the
General
settings, enter the serial number (
Collector S/N
) you recorded for the secondary Panorama.
Enter the IP address or FQDN of the primary and secondary Panorama HA peers in the
Panorama Server IP
field and
Panorama Server IP 2
field respectively.
Click
OK
to save your changes to the Log Collector.
Select
Commit
Commit to Panorama
and
Commit
your changes.
This step is required before you can add the virtual logging disks.
Edit the Log Collector by clicking its name.
The Log Collector name has the same value as the hostname of the secondary Panorama.
Select
Disks
,
Add
the virtual logging disks, and click
OK
.
Select
Commit
Commit to Panorama
and
Commit
your changes.
Add a Firewall as a Managed Device.
Use the primary Panorama to perform this task for each firewall that will forward logs to the Log Collectors.
Configure the Collector Group.
Perform this step once if you will assign both Log Collectors to the same Collector Group. Otherwise, configure a Collector Group for each Log Collector.
On the primary Panorama:
Select
Panorama
Collector Groups
and
Add
a Collector Group.
Add
one or both Log Collectors as Collector Group Members.
In any single Collector Group, all the Log Collectors must run on the same Panorama model: all M-500 appliances, all M-100 appliances, or all Panorama virtual appliances.
(
Best Practice
)
Enable log redundancy across collectors
if you add multiple Log Collectors to a single Collector group. This option requires each Log Collector to have the same number of virtual logging disks.
Enabling redundancy doubles the amount of logs and log processing traffic in a Collector Group. If necessary, Expand Log Storage Capacity on the Panorama Virtual Appliance.
Select
Device Log Forwarding
and configure the Log Forwarding Preferences list. This list defines which firewalls forward logs to which Log Collectors. Assign firewalls according to the number of Log Collectors in this Collector Group:
Single
—Assign the firewalls that will forward logs to the Log Collector that is local to the primary Panorama, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Multiple
—Assign each firewall to both Log Collectors for redundancy. When you configure the preference list, make Log Collector 1 the first priority for half the firewalls and make Log Collector 2 the first priority for the other half, as illustrated in Figure 2.
Click
OK
to save your changes.
Select
Commit
Commit and Push
and then
Commit and Push
your changes to Panorama and the Collector Groups you added.
Trigger failover on the primary Panorama so that the secondary Panorama becomes active.
On the primary Panorama:
Select
Panorama
High Availability
.
Click
Suspend local Panorama
in the Operational Commands section.
Configure the connection from the secondary Panorama to the Log Collector that is local to the primary Panorama.
On the secondary Panorama:
In the Panorama web interface, select
Panorama
Managed Collectors
and select the Log Collector that is local to the primary Panorama.
Enter the IP address or FQDN of the secondary Panorama in the
Panorama Server IP
field and the IP address or FQDN of the primary Panorama in the
Panorama Server IP 2
field.
Click
OK
to save your changes.
Select
Commit
Commit and Push
and then
Commit and Push
your changes to Panorama and the Collector Groups.
Trigger fail-back on the secondary Panorama so that the primary Panorama becomes active.
On the secondary Panorama:
Select
Panorama
High Availability
.
Click
Suspend local Panorama
in the Operational Commands section.
Configure log forwarding from the firewalls to Panorama.
On the primary Panorama to:
Configure Log Forwarding to Panorama from firewalls.
Verify Log Forwarding to Panorama.