The Panorama extensible plugin architecture enables support for third-party integration plugins, such as VMware NSX, and other Palo Alto Networks products, such as the GlobalProtect cloud service. With this modular architecture, you can take advantage of new capabilities without waiting for a new PAN-OS version.

You can also configure the VM-Series plugin from Panorama. The VM-Series plugin is a single plugin that enables integration with public cloud environments such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Azure, AWS and private cloud hypervisors such as KVM, ESXi and others. The VM-Series plugin enables you to publish metrics from VM-Series firewalls deployed in public clouds. You can use Panorama to configure the VM-Series plugin settings for public clouds and push your configuration to your managed firewalls.

(PAN-OS 12.1.2 and later releases) Panorama Plugin Bundling simplifies the upgrade process by automatically handling the complex task of managing version compatibility between your PAN-OS software and plugins. Previously, you had to manually compare PAN-OS and plugin versions, which often led to version mismatches. These conflicts lead to network outages and critical configurations, such as VPN pre-shared keys and routing commands, being overwritten.

By bundling the plugins with the base image, this feature automatically ensures version compatibility and eliminates the risk of version mismatches, ensuring your configurations are preserved. When you upgrade, the system automatically downloads compatible plugins with the base image. This ensures that you no longer have to manually download compatible plugin versions, and you can directly install the plugins you need. For more information about compatible plugins, see the Compatibility Matrix.

The Plugins interface offers a single, easy-to-use location to manage all the bundled plugins. The interface intelligently displays and sorts plugins, allowing you to simply install plugins as required. If you have the appropriate license, you can manage Cloud Services in a separate, dedicated section. For more information about the Plugins interface, see Panorama>Plugins.