Panorama Models

• Panorama virtual appliance—This model provides simple installation and facilitates server consolidation for sites that need a virtual management appliance. You can install Panorama on Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS GovCloud, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), KVM, Hyper-V, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), a VMware ESXi server, or on VMware vCloud Air. The virtual appliance can collect firewall logs locally at rates of up to 20,000 logs per second and can manage Dedicated Log Collectors for higher logging rates. The virtual appliance can function as a dedicated management server, a Panorama management server with local log collection capabilities, or as a Dedicated Log Collector. For the supported interfaces, log storage capacity, and maximum log collection rates, see the Setup Prerequisites for the Panorama Virtual Appliance. You can deploy the virtual appliance in the following modes:
  • Panorama mode
    In this mode, the Panorama virtual appliance supports a local Log Collector with 1 to 12 virtual logging disks (see Deploy Panorama Virtual Appliances with Local Log Collectors). Each logging disk has 2TB of storage capacity for a total maximum of 24TB on a single virtual appliance and 48TB on a high availability (HA) pair. Only Panorama mode enables you to add multiple virtual logging disks without losing logs on existing disks. Panorama mode also provides the benefit of faster report generation. In Panorama mode, the virtual appliance does not support NFS storage.
  • Management Only mode
    In this mode, the Panorama virtual appliance is a dedicated management appliance for your managed devices and Dedicated Log Collectors. Additionally, an appropriately resourced Panorama virtual appliance can manage up to 2,500 firewalls in this mode. The Panorama virtual appliance has no log collection capabilities except for config and system logs and requires a Dedicated Log Collector to these store logs. By default, the virtual appliance in Management Only mode has only one disk partition for all data so all logs forwarded to a Panorama virtual appliance in Management Only mode are dropped. Therefore, to store the log data from your managed appliances, you must configure log forwarding in order to store the log data from your managed devices. For more information, see Increased Device Management Capacity Requirements.
  • Log Collector mode
    The Panorama virtual appliance functions as a Dedicated Log Collector. If multiple firewalls forward large volumes of log data, a Panorama virtual appliance in Log Collector mode provides increased scale and performance. In this mode, the appliance does not have a web interface for administrative access; it has only a command line interface (CLI). However, you can manage the appliance using the web interface of the Panorama management server. CLI access to a Panorama virtual appliance in Log Collector mode is necessary only for initial setup and debugging. For configuration details, see Deploy Panorama with Dedicated Log Collectors.
  • As of September 1, 2025, the legacy mode is no longer supported on Panorama. For additional information, see the official end-of-life notice.
• M-Series appliance—The M-200, M-300, M-500, M-600, and M-700 appliances are dedicated hardware appliances intended for large-scale deployments. In environments with high logging rates (over 10,000 logs per second) and log retention requirements, these appliances enable scaling of your log collection infrastructure. For the supported interfaces, log storage capacity, and maximum log collection rates, see M-Series Appliance Interfaces. All M-Series models share the following attributes:
  • RAID drives to store firewall logs and RAID 1 mirroring to protect against disk failures
  • SSD to store the logs that Panorama and Log Collectors generate
  • MGT, Eth1, Eth2, and Eth3 interfaces that support 1Gbps throughput
  • Redundant, hot-swappable power supplies
  • front-to-back airflow
  The M-500 and M-600 appliances have the following additional attributes, which make them more suitable for data centers:
  • Eth4 and Eth5 interfaces that support 10Gbps throughput
  Additionally, the following attribute makes the M-600 and M-700 appliances more suitable for large-scale firewall deployments:
  • The M-600 and M-700 appliances in Management Only mode can manage up to 5,000 firewalls.
  You can deploy the M-Series appliances in the following modes:
  • Panorama mode
    The appliance functions as a Panorama management server to manage firewalls and Dedicated Log Collectors. The appliance also supports a local Log Collector to aggregate firewall logs. Panorama mode is the default mode. For configuration details, see Deploy Panorama M-Series Appliances with Local Log Collectors.
  • Management Only mode
    The Panorama appliance is a dedicated management appliance for your managed devices and Dedicated Log Collectors. The Panorama appliance has no log collection capabilities except for config and system logs and your deployment requires a Dedicated Log Collector to store these logs. By default, the Panorama appliance in Management Only mode has only one disk partition for all data so all logs forwarded to a Panorama virtual appliance in Management Only mode are dropped. Therefore, to store the log data from your managed appliances, you must configure log forwarding in order to store the log data from your managed devices.
  • Log Collector mode
    The appliance functions as a Dedicated Log Collector. If multiple firewalls forward large volumes of log data, an M-Series appliance in Log Collector mode provides increased scale and performance. In this mode, the appliance does not have a web interface for administrative access; it has only a command line interface (CLI). However, you can manage the appliance using the web interface of the Panorama management server. CLI access to an M-Series appliance in Log Collector mode is necessary only for initial setup and debugging. For configuration details, see Deploy Panorama with Dedicated Log Collectors.
  For more details and specifications for the M-Series appliances, see the M-Series Appliance Hardware Reference Guides.