Software Upgrade Problems on PA-200 Devices

Issue

Attempts to upgrade PA-200 devices to a maintenance release on a later major software version fail. Specifically, after successfully downloading the base software image (for example, PAN-OS 6.0.0), the download of the maintenance release fails with errors similar to the following:

• The required '6.0' base image must be loaded before this image can be loaded. You do not have to install or run the base image, only download it. Once the base is loaded, re-download your target image.
• Failed to load into software manager. Please retry.
• Post processing failed. Please retry.

As the screenshot shows, the 6.0.0 image is present on the system. However, after closing the dialog box and refreshing the software page, the 6.0.0 image disappears.

Cause

Base images can be prematurely purged from the system due to limited storage capacity on PA-200 series devices.

Resolution

To upgrade PA-200 devices to maintenance releases on later major versions of PAN-OS:

1. Delete any unused PAN-OS images present on the firewall to free some space on the device.
2. Download base software image (for example, 6.0.0).
3. Install base software image without rebooting.
4. Download desired maintenance release software image (for example, 6.0.2).
5. Install maintenance release and reboot.

owner: garrison