Migrate from a Panorama Virtual Appliance to an M-Series Appliance

1. Plan the migration.

   • Ensure the new Panorama is ready with a Device management and support license. These base licenses enable core functionalities of Panorama to operate successfully, such as onboarding firewalls, downloading threat and content updates, and generating OTPs for Panorama certificates.
   • Upgrade the software on the Panorama virtual appliance before the migration if the M-Series appliance requires a later release of the current software. For important details about software versions, see Panorama, Log Collector, Firewall, and WildFire Version Compatibility.
   • Schedule a maintenance window for the migration. Although firewalls can buffer logs after the Panorama virtual appliance goes offline and then forward the logs after the M-Series appliance comes online, completing the migration during a maintenance window minimizes the risk that logs will exceed the buffer capacities and be lost during the transition between Panorama models.
   • Consider whether to maintain access to the Panorama virtual appliance after the migration to access existing logs. The most efficient approach is to assign a new IP address to the old Panorama virtual appliance and reuse its old IP address for the M-Series appliance. This ensures that the Panorama virtual appliance remains accessible and that firewalls can point to the M-Series appliance without you reconfiguring the Panorama IP address on each firewall.
   • Capture and export a fresh set of running configurations from your old Panorama.
   • If the new Panorama keeps the same IP address, you must migrate the migrate the SC3 security certificates to ensure that the managed firewalls onboarded using an auth key automatically reconnect (without requiring re-onboarding).

     Your old Panorama must be running PAN-OS 11.1.8 or a later 11.1 release, or PAN-OS 11.2.5 or a later release, to use the SC3 certificate migration feature.
   • (Prisma Access) Plan to transfer your Prisma Access licenses to the new target appliance.
   • (SD-WAN) Plan export the MongoDB database, in addition to your standard configuration snapshot, to the new Panorama.
     Contact Palo Alto Networks Customer Support for assistance with running database export commands.
2. Purchase the new M-Series appliance, and migrate your subscriptions to the new appliance.

   1. Purchase the new M-Series appliance.
   2. Purchase the new support license and migration license.
   3. At the time you purchase the new M-Series appliance, provide your sales representative the serial number and device management auth-code of the Panorama virtual appliance you are phasing out, as well as a license migration date of your choosing. On receipt of your M-Series appliance, register the appliance and activate the device management and support licenses using the migration and support auth-codes provided by Palo Alto Networks. On the migration date, the device management license on the Panorama virtual appliance is decommissioned, and you can no longer manage devices or collect logs using the Panorama virtual appliance. However, the support license is preserved and the Panorama appliance remains under support. You can complete the migration after the effective date, but you are unable to commit any configuration changes on the now decommissioned Panorama virtual appliance.
3. Perform the initial setup of the M-series appliance.

   1. Set Up the M-series appliance.
   2. Perform Initial Configuration of the M-series appliance.
   3. Register Panorama.
   4. Activate a Panorama Support License.
   5. (Optional) For Panorama-managed Prisma Access, ensure that you transfer the licenses to the new panorama appliance.
   6. Activate/Retrieve a Firewall Management License when the Panorama Virtual Appliance is Internet-connected
   7. This step is required before loading configuration from the old Panorama virtual appliance. Ensure that all required content updates are installed to avoid security outages.
      Install Content and Software Updates for Panorama. Install the same versions as those on the M-Series appliance.
   8. (PAN-OS 11.2.x and earlier releases) Select PanoramaPlugins and install all plugins that were installed on the old Panorama virtual appliance.
4. (Legacy mode only) On the old Panorama virtual appliance, change to Panorama mode.

   This step is required to preserve the log data, settings and log forwarding configuration of the Panorama virtual appliance. If you export the Panorama configuration while in Legacy mode, these settings are lost. You must complete Step 9 if you do not change Panorama to Panorama mode before continuing.

   Continue to the next step if the Panorama virtual appliance is already in Panorama or Management Only mode.
5. Add the IP address of the new Panorama.

   On the virtual appliance, add the Public IP address of the new Panorama as the second Panorama Server to manage devices from the new Panorama management server.

   1. Select DeviceSetup.
   2. In the Template context drop-down, select the template or template stack containing the Panorama server configuration.
   3. Edit the Panorama Settings.
   4. Enter the public IP address and click OK.
   5. Select CommitCommit and Push.
6. Export the Panorama configuration from the Panorama virtual appliance.

   1. Log in to the Panorama virtual appliance and select PanoramaSetupOperations.
   2. Click Save named Panorama configuration snapshot, enter a Name to identify the configuration, and click OK.
   3. Click Export named Panorama configuration snapshot, select the Name of the configuration you just saved, and click OK. Panorama exports the configuration to your client system as an XML file.
   4. (SD-WAN Only) Export the mongodump to your external SCP server by entering the following command: mongodump --db pl_sd_wan -o /opt/panlogs/ld1/mdbdump

   Contact Palo Alto Networks Customer Support for assistance with running database export commands.
7. Power off the Panorama virtual appliance if you won’t need to access to it after the migration or assign a new IP address to its management (MGT) interface if you will need access to it.

   To power off the Panorama virtual appliance, see the documentation for your VMware product.

   To change the IP address on the Panorama virtual appliance:

   1. Select PanoramaSetupManagement, and edit the Management Interface Settings.
   2. Enter the new IP Address and click OK.
   3. Select CommitCommit to Panorama and Commit All Changes.
8. Load the Panorama configuration snapshot that you exported from the Panorama virtual appliance into the M-Series appliance.

   The Panorama Policy rule Creation and Modified dates are updated to reflect the date you commit the imported Panorama configuration on the new Panorama. The universially unique identifier (UUID) for each policy rule persists when you migrate the Panorama configuration.

   The Creation and Modified for managed firewalls are not impacted when you monitor policy rule usage for a managed firewall because this data is stored locally on the managed firewall and not on Panorama.

   1. On the M-Series appliance, select PanoramaSetupOperations.
   2. Click Import named Panorama configuration snapshot, Browse to the Panorama configuration file you exported from the Panorama virtual appliance, and click OK.
   3. Click Load named Panorama configuration snapshot, select the Name of the configuration you just imported, select a Decryption Key (the master key for Panorama), and click OK. Panorama overwrites its current candidate configuration with the loaded configuration. Panorama displays any errors that occur when loading the configuration file.
   4. (SD-WAN only) Import the mongodump, which you previously exported, from the SCP server and restore it to the new Panorama by using the following command. mongorestore --db pl_sd_wan pl_sd_wan

      Contact Palo Alto Networks Customer Support for assistance with running database export commands.
   5. If errors occurred, save them to a local file. Resolve each error to ensure the migrated configuration is valid.
9. Modify the configuration on the M-Series appliance.

   Required if the M-Series appliance will use different values than the Panorama virtual appliance. If you will maintain access to the Panorama virtual appliance to access its logs, use a different hostname and IP address for the M-Series appliance.

   1. Select PanoramaSetupManagement.
   2. Edit the General Settings, modify the Hostname, and click OK.
   3. Edit the Management Interface Settings, modify the values as necessary, and click OK.
10. Add the default managed collector and Collector Group back to the M-Series appliance.

    Loading the configuration from the Panorama virtual appliance (Step 7) removes the default managed collector and Collector Group that are predefined on each M-Series appliance.

    1. Configure a Managed Collector that is local to the M-Series appliance.
    2. Configure a Collector Group for the default managed collector.
    3. Select CommitCommit to Panorama and Commit All Changes to the Panorama configuration.
11. Migrate the SC3 certificates to ensure your existing managed firewalls automatically trust and reconnect to the new Panorama without manual intervention. If the connectivity issues persist, recover the connectivity of the managed devices to Panorama to resolve the issues.

    This is required when transitioning from one Panorama model to another.
12. Synchronize the M-Series appliance with the firewalls to resume firewall management.

    Complete this step during a maintenance window to minimize network disruption.

    1. On the M-Series appliance, select PanoramaManaged Devices and verify that the Device State column displays Connected for the firewalls.

       At this point, the Shared Policy (device groups) and Template columns display Out of sync for the firewalls.
    2. Push all your changes to device groups and templates:

       1. Select CommitPush to Devices and Edit Selections.
       2. Select Device Groups, select every device group, Include Device and Network Templates, and click OK.
       3. Push your changes.
    3. In the PanoramaManaged Devices page, verify that the Shared Policy and Template columns display In sync for the firewalls.

    After you migrate to a different Panorama model, if there are connectivity issues between Panorama and the managed firewalls, recover the connectivity of the managed devices to Panorama to resolve the issues.
13. (HA only) Set up the Panorama HA peer.

    If the Panorama management servers are in a high availability configuration, perform the steps below on the HA peer.

    1. Perform Initial Configuration of the M-series appliance.
    2. Add the IP address of the new Panorama.
    3. Power off the Panorama virtual appliance or assign a new IP address to the management (MGT) interface.
14. (HA only) Modify the M-series appliance HA peer configuration.

    1. On an HA peer, Log in to the Panorama Web Interface, select PanoramaHigh Availability and edit the Setup.
    2. In the Peer HA IP Address field, enter the new IP address of the HA peer and click OK.
    3. Select CommitCommit to Panorama and Commit All Changes.
    4. Repeat these steps on the other peer in the HA peer.
15. (HA only) Synchronize the Panorama peers.

    1. Access the Dashboard on one of the HA peers and select WidgetsSystemHigh Availability to display the HA widget.
    2. Sync to peer, click Yes, and wait for the Running Config to display Synchronized.
    3. Access the Dashboard on the remaining HA peer and select WidgetsSystemHigh Availability to display the HA widget.
    4. Verify that the Running Config displays Synchronized.

    After you migrate, if there are connectivity issues between Panorama and the managed firewalls, recover the connectivity of the managed devices to Panorama to resolve the issues.