topic Can I upgrade pan-os after support license expired? in General Topics

Can I upgrade pan-os after support license expired?

JunsenLiao — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 05:14:45 GMT

Hi everyone,

Can I upgrade pan-os after support license expired? Anyone know that?

Re: Can I upgrade pan-os after support license expired?

PavelK — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 12:44:54 GMT

what you are asking is a bit controversial.

To be eligible to upgrade PAN-OS you should have a valid support license, however technically you can still upload an image manually. If you click under: Device > Software > "Check Now" without license you will get an error: "An active license is required for this feature", but nothing is stopping you to download an image from Customer Support Portal, then click on "Upload", then you can complete the upgrade. Here is KB how to do the same from CLI.

Personally, I think doing an upgrade in this way is a violation and would avoid it unless you are already in the process to renew support and have urgent need to upgrade it.

Kind Regards

Pavel

Re: Can I upgrade pan-os after support license expired?

Jlsierra — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 09:43:51 GMT

I am in a similar scenario,

I have 10.1.11-h5 and need to update to 11.x. To achieve this, I must update the content update package. I downloaded the required package from the customer support portal and uploaded to my PA820. When I try to install, this says that there´s no valid license available and can't install the content update.

Do you know another way or option to upgrade the PA820 to 11.x without license?

Thank you,

Best regards.

Re: Can I upgrade pan-os after support license expired?

nohash4u — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:04:17 GMT

@PavelK

Is this approach still valid in 2026?

Re: Can I upgrade pan-os after support license expired?

BPry — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:07:22 GMT

@nohash4u,

No, this changed in a somewhat modern version of PAN-OS to remove the capability to apply updates without a valid support contract. I forget exactly which PAN-OS version implemented this check exactly, but modern releases will not allow you to manually upload and install updates without a valid contract.

Re: Can I upgrade pan-os after support license expired?

nohash4u — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:08:35 GMT

@BPry thank you. Will test this in my lab env with NGFWs on 10.2.x.