Modify Log Forwarding and Buffering Defaults
You can define the log forwarding mode that the firewalls
use to send logs to Panorama and, when configured in a high availability
(HA) configuration, specify which Panorama peer can receive logs.
To access these options, select ,
edit the Logging and Reporting Settings, and select
Panorama
Setup
Management
Log Export
and Reporting
.- Define the log forwarding mode on the firewall: The firewalls can forward logs to Panorama (pertains to both the M-Series appliance and the Panorama virtual appliance) in either Buffered Log Forwarding mode or in the Live Mode Log Forwarding mode.
Logging Options | Description |
|---|---|
( Best Practice ) Buffered
Log Forwarding from Device Default: Enabled | Allows each managed firewall to buffer logs
and send the logs at 30-second intervals to Panorama (not user configurable). Buffered
log forwarding is very valuable when the firewall loses connectivity
to Panorama. The firewall buffers log entries to its local hard
disk and keeps a pointer to record the last log entry that was sent
to Panorama. When connectivity is restored the firewall resumes
forwarding logs from where it left off. The disk space available
for buffering depends on the log storage quota for the firewall
model and the volume of logs that are pending roll over. If the
firewall was disconnected for a long time and the last log forwarded
was rolled over, all the logs from its local hard disk will be forwarded
to Panorama on reconnection. If the available space on the local
hard disk of the firewall is consumed, the oldest entries are deleted
to allow logging of new events. |
Live Mode Log Forwarding from
Device This option is enabled when the check box
for Buffered Log Forwarding from Device is
cleared. | In live mode, the managed firewall sends
every log transaction to Panorama at the same time as it records
it on the firewall. |
- Define log forwarding preference on a Panorama virtual appliance in Legacy mode that is deployed in a high availability (HA) configuration:
- When logging to a virtual disk, enable logging to the local disk on the primary Panorama peer only. By default, both Panorama peers in the HA configuration receive logs.For the 5200 and 7000 series firewalls, only the active peer receive logs.
- When logging to an NFS (ESXi server only), enable the firewalls to send only newly generated logs to a secondary Panorama peer, which is promoted to primary, after a failover.
Logging Options | Pertains to | Description |
|---|---|---|
Only Active Primary Logs to Local
Disk Default: Disabled | Panorama virtual appliance in Legacy mode
that is logging to a virtual disk and is deployed in an HA configuration. | Allows you to configure only the primary
Panorama peer to save logs to the local disk. |
Get Only New Logs on Convert
to Primary Default: Disabled | Panorama virtual appliance in Legacy mode
that is mounted to a Network File System (NFS) datastore, runs on
a VMware ESXi server, and is deployed in an HA configuration | With NFS logging, when you have a pair of
Panorama servers configured in a high availability configuration,
only the primary Panorama peer mounts the NFS datastore. Therefore,
the firewalls can only send logs to the primary Panorama peer, which
can write to the NFS datastore. When an HA failover occurs,
the Get Only New Logs on Convert to Primary option
allows an administrator to configure the managed firewalls to send
only newly generated logs to Panorama. This event is triggered when
the priority of the active-secondary Panorama is promoted to primary and
it can begin logging to the NFS. This behavior is typically enabled
to prevent the firewalls from sending a large volume of buffered
logs when connectivity to Panorama is restored after a significant
period of time. |