topic Setting static Management interface IP in Azure VM NGFW in General Topics

Setting static Management interface IP in Azure VM NGFW

Adrian_Jensen — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 23:03:43 GMT

Is there any way to set a static Management interface IP with PanOS 12.1 in Azure VM? There are no options in the GUI, just a show DHCP client information window. From the CLI, a static IP/GW/DNS can be set in the config and commits without error, but it does not apply to the interface. Any attempt to "set deviceconfig system type static" results in an error when committing:

Invalid configuration. Please fix errors and try again.

It appears that this is simply not an option in an Azure VM, but I can't find that documented anywhere. The closest I can find is this old thread that doesn't have a follow-up.

https://live.paloaltonetworks.com/t5/general-topics/settings-missing-in-management-interface/td-p/420573

Re: Setting static Management interface IP in Azure VM NGFW

TomYoung — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 23:26:20 GMT

Hi @Adrian_Jensen ,

All interfaces in Azure obtain their IP addresses via DHCP. This requirement is on the bottom of page 35 of the deployment guide -> https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources/guides/azure-transit-vnet-deployment-guide.

They don't really give a reason, but I am pretty sure that is how Azure knows how to forward packets to the IP address. It must assign the IP address via DHCP, and then it adds the IP to its forwarding table.

Thanks,

Tom

Re: Setting static Management interface IP in Azure VM NGFW

Adrian_Jensen — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 23:46:01 GMT

Hmmmm... that's weird and can't really find it anywhere else as a hard limit. The Azure template allows me to assign DHCP or static IPs to both the Management and dataplane interfaces:

Step 7 in the 11.1 VM-Series Deployment Guide for firewalls on Azure shows using DHCP or static IPs on the dataplane, though I can't find anything about IPs on the Management interface.

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/vm-series/11-1/vm-series-deployment/set-up-the-vm-series-firewall-on-azure/deploy-the-vm-series-firewall-on-azure-solution-template

Re: Setting static Management interface IP in Azure VM NGFW

TomYoung — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 23:50:05 GMT

Oh, well! I thought I found it for you. It's been a while since I have done it, and I don't remember it that well.

Re: Setting static Management interface IP in Azure VM NGFW

Adrian_Jensen — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:47:04 GMT

I am find all sorts of other stuff that apparently doesn't work in Azure VM instances, such as no way to override default Security Policies (to add logging). You can click the Override button and make a change, but clicking OK does nothing, you can't actually save the change. Is there any documentation about what doesn't work in a VM instance?