: Device Group Objects
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Device Group Objects

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Device Group Objects

Objects are configuration elements that policy rules reference, for example: IP addresses, URL categories, security profiles, users, services, and applications. Rules of any type (pre-rules, post-rules, default rules, and rules locally defined on a firewall) and any rulebase (Security, NAT, QoS, Policy Based Forwarding, Decryption, Application Override, Captive Portal, and DoS Protection) can reference objects. You can reuse an object in any number of rules that have the same scope as that object in the Device Group Hierarchy. For example, if you add an object to the Shared location, all rules in the hierarchy can reference that shared object because all device groups inherit objects from Shared. If you add an object to a particular device group, only the rules in that device group and its descendant device groups can reference that device group object. If object values in a device group must differ from those inherited from an ancestor device group, you can Override inherited object values (see Step Override inherited object values.). You can also Revert to Inherited Object Values at any time. When you Create Objects for Use in Shared or Device Group Policy once and use them many times, you reduce administrative overhead and ensure consistency across firewall policies.
You can configure how Panorama handles objects system-wide:
  • Pushing unused objects—By default, Panorama pushes all objects to firewalls regardless of whether any shared or device group policy rules reference the objects. Optionally, you can configure Panorama to push only referenced objects. For details, see Manage Unused Shared Objects.
  • Precedence of ancestor and descendant objects—By default, when device groups at multiple levels in the hierarchy have an object with the same name but different values (because of overrides, as an example), policy rules in a descendant device group use the object values in that descendant instead of object values inherited from ancestor device groups or Shared. Optionally, you can reverse this order of precedence to push values from Shared or the highest ancestor containing the object to all descendant device groups. For details, see Manage Precedence of Inherited Objects.