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PAN-OS ® New Features Guide

Customize Dataplane Cores

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Customize Dataplane Cores

Use the CLI to customize the core division between the dataplane and the manage-ment plane in the VM-Series Firewall version 10.1 or later.

When a firewall is deployed with Software NGFW Credits, the memory profile and the total number of vCPUs determine how many cores are automatically assigned to the management plane and the dataplane. The default configurations perform well in most cases.

Customize dataplane cores is an optional feature that allows you to customize the number of dataplane cores in two ways:

During the initial deployment, use the init-cfg.txt file bootstrap parameter plugin‑op‑commands=set‑dp‑cores:<#-cores>. See init-cfg.txt File Components.
From a deployed firewall, use the VM-Series CLI command request plugins vm_series dp‑cores <#-cores>. This procedure is the task below.

Typically you increase the number of dataplane cores (which decreases the number of management plane cores) to improve performance. Dataplane core customization does not require a change to the deployment profile or additional credits because the total number of vCPUs remains the same.

Dataplane core customization is supported on firewalls licensed with a Software NGFW credit pool for 10.0.4 and above, and running PAN-OS 10.1 or later.
Dataplane core customization is not supported for:
- NSX-T
- Intelligent Traffic Offload

Follow these steps to customize the dataplane cores on the VM-Series firewall.

admin@PA-VM(active)>show plugins vm_series dp-cores
Device current DP cores: 13 (Total cores: 18)

Change the number of dataplane cores.
Note that you must have at least one management plane core, and having too few cores also affects performance.

In this example we increase the dataplanes to 14.
```
admin@PA-VM(active)>request plugins vm_series dp-cores 14
Device current DP cores: 14 (Total cores: 18)
```
Reboot the VM-Series firewall.
Select DeviceSetupOperations and Reboot Device.
Use show plugins vm_series dp-cores to verify that the number of DP cores has changed.

Intelligent Traffic Offload Service for VM‑Series on KVM

Mobile Infrastructure Security Features