Why are new units shipped so out-of-date?

[KGC]

We have purchased eight units (2020s and 4020s) in the past two months and they all shipped with PANOS v3.1.4, no updates of any kind, and an incorrect setting for the URL filering (surfcontrol vs. brightcloud) which requires a full reboot to fix. It has been very time consuming to get all these units up-to-date before we can use them.

I realize this is probably a n00b pet-peeve, but it would be nice to recieve a new unit that is actually "new" and not several revisions and updates behind.

</rant-over>

[spolo]

The process by which the hardware travels and the way licensing works may lend some insight.  The boxes go from manufacturing and QA to distribution, sit on the shelves there until ordered, and then get shipped to the customer.  Manufacturing also has to choose a version of software to include, and since PAN puts out maintenance releases approximately every six weeks, these may be difficult to keep up with.  Also, as far as App-ID, threat, and URL databases go, AppID and Threats come out weekly, possibly twice weekly, with Antivirus databases coming out as frequently as daily or even hourly.  URL databases are daily.  So no matter what you'll have to upgrade the databases.

If it helps you, I've found when deploying multiple boxes you can be more slightly efficient if you download the software (OS and dynamic updates) to your PC first and manually upload them to the device.  You still have to wait for install times, but after you have the software locally getting the software on to multiple devices can be a time saver.

Yes a bit of patience is required when first loading up a new box, but after that it's glorious.

[KGC]

Thanks; I do appreciate the logistics of prepping and delivering new units.