04-10-2019 08:39 AM
Hi guys,
I was wondering if anyone has any experience using a totally airgapped panorama/firewalls deployment.
At the moment I have a case where none of the devices are allowed any outside connections.
I thought it would be do-able since both software and content updates can be manually uploaded to panorama and deployed like this, and license keys can be downloaded and uploaded to the firewalls... That should cover all bases, right?
Now we realize that panorama isn't aware of licenses manually uploaded to firewalls. The only way to make panorama aware of the licenses present on a firewall is by letting it connect to the outside license server (updates.paloaltonetworks.com I suppose...). Since we need a valid suppport license to be known on the Panorama to push software updates and content packs, the whole thing falls apart.
It doesn't make sense to me. They implemented ways to do version and content updates in an airgapped system, but you still need to break the airgap to allow panorama to retrieve the licenses for the airgap solutions to work.
I must be missing something, right?
04-10-2019 09:33 AM
You have to have some kind of access for Panorama to retreive updates. I run firewalls that have no internet access what-so-ever. But, they can reach Panorama which does have internet access (licences/software/updates/etc). This way, everything is managed exclusively from Panorama.
Are you wanting to run no internet access at all, even for Panorama? If so, I'd be curious why?
04-10-2019 10:03 AM - edited 04-10-2019 10:18 AM
04-10-2019 01:34 PM
All I can say is... WOW! Sounds like a security analyst got a little over zealous. If you're air gapped and can't automate updates, what's the point of even running a PAN. Go get yourself some dumb L3/L4 firewall and call it a day. Sounds like a mess.
04-11-2019 06:00 AM
All I'm going to say about that is that even without automated updates, PAN still won.
But regardless how anyone feels about airgapping an PAN deployment, fact is that PAN supports it:
*activation via uploadable license keys on both panorama and firewalls
*uploadable software updates
*uploadable content updates
It's quite frustrating to find out you then need to open a connection to the palo alto update server after all, because the firewalls can't report their license status to panorama. At that point, everything you need is already present in the airgapped segment!
Click Accept as Solution to acknowledge that the answer to your question has been provided.
The button appears next to the replies on topics you’ve started. The member who gave the solution and all future visitors to this topic will appreciate it!
These simple actions take just seconds of your time, but go a long way in showing appreciation for community members and the LIVEcommunity as a whole!
The LIVEcommunity thanks you for your participation!