Enable Session Resiliency on VM-Series for GCP
Table of Contents
PAN.OS 11.1 & Later
Expand all | Collapse all
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- VM-Series Deployments
- VM-Series in High Availability
- IPv6 Support on Public Cloud
- Enable Jumbo Frames on the VM-Series Firewall
- Hypervisor Assigned MAC Addresses
- Custom PAN-OS Metrics Published for Monitoring
- Interface Used for Accessing External Services on the VM-Series Firewall
- PacketMMAP and DPDK Driver Support
- Enable NUMA Performance Optimization on the VM-Series
- Enable ZRAM on the VM-Series Firewall
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- Licensing and Prerequisites for Virtual Systems Support on VM-Series
- System Requirements for Virtual Systems Support on VM-Series
- Enable Multiple Virtual Systems Support on VM-Series Firewall
- Enable Multiple Virtual Systems Support on VM-Series in Panorama Console
- Enable Multiple Virtual Systems Support Using Bootstrap Method
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- VM-Series Firewall Licensing
- Create a Support Account
- Serial Number and CPU ID Format for the VM-Series Firewall
- Use Panorama-Based Software Firewall License Management
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- Activate Credits
- Create a Deployment Profile
- Activate the Deployment Profile
- Manage a Deployment Profile
- Register the VM-Series Firewall (Software NGFW Credits)
- Provision Panorama
- Migrate Panorama to a Software NGFW License
- Transfer Credits
- Renew Your Software NGFW Credits
- Deactivate License (Software NGFW Credits)
- Delicense Ungracefully Terminated Firewalls
- Set the Number of Licensed vCPUs
- Customize Dataplane Cores
- Migrate a Firewall to a Flexible VM-Series License
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- Generate Your OAuth Client Credentials
- Manage Deployment Profiles Using the Licensing API
- Create a Deployment Profile Using the Licensing API
- Update a Deployment Profile Using the Licensing API
- Get Serial Numbers Associated with an Authcode Using the API
- Deactivate a VM-Series Firewall Using the API
- What Happens When Licenses Expire?
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- Supported Deployments on VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)
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- Plan the Interfaces for the VM-Series for ESXi
- Provision the VM-Series Firewall on an ESXi Server
- Perform Initial Configuration on the VM-Series on ESXi
- Add Additional Disk Space to the VM-Series Firewall
- Use VMware Tools on the VM-Series Firewall on ESXi and vCloud Air
- Use vMotion to Move the VM-Series Firewall Between Hosts
- Use the VM-Series CLI to Swap the Management Interface on ESXi
- Configure Link Aggregation Control Protocol
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- Supported Deployments of the VM-Series Firewall on VMware NSX-T (North-South)
- Components of the VM-Series Firewall on NSX-T (North-South)
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- Install the Panorama Plugin for VMware NSX
- Enable Communication Between NSX-T Manager and Panorama
- Create Template Stacks and Device Groups on Panorama
- Configure the Service Definition on Panorama
- Deploy the VM-Series Firewall
- Direct Traffic to the VM-Series Firewall
- Apply Security Policy to the VM-Series Firewall on NSX-T
- Use vMotion to Move the VM-Series Firewall Between Hosts
- Extend Security Policy from NSX-V to NSX-T
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- Components of the VM-Series Firewall on NSX-T (East-West)
- VM-Series Firewall on NSX-T (East-West) Integration
- Supported Deployments of the VM-Series Firewall on VMware NSX-T (East-West)
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- Install the Panorama Plugin for VMware NSX
- Enable Communication Between NSX-T Manager and Panorama
- Create Template Stacks and Device Groups on Panorama
- Configure the Service Definition on Panorama
- Launch the VM-Series Firewall on NSX-T (East-West)
- Add a Service Chain
- Direct Traffic to the VM-Series Firewall
- Apply Security Policies to the VM-Series Firewall on NSX-T (East-West)
- Use vMotion to Move the VM-Series Firewall Between Hosts
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- Install the Panorama Plugin for VMware NSX
- Enable Communication Between NSX-T Manager and Panorama
- Create Template Stacks and Device Groups on Panorama
- Configure the Service Definition on Panorama
- Launch the VM-Series Firewall on NSX-T (East-West)
- Create Dynamic Address Groups
- Create Dynamic Address Group Membership Criteria
- Generate Steering Policy
- Generate Steering Rules
- Delete a Service Definition from Panorama
- Migrate from VM-Series on NSX-T Operation to Security Centric Deployment
- Extend Security Policy from NSX-V to NSX-T
- Use In-Place Migration to Move Your VM-Series from NSX-V to NSX-T
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- Deployments Supported on AWS
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- Planning Worksheet for the VM-Series in the AWS VPC
- Launch the VM-Series Firewall on AWS
- Launch the VM-Series Firewall on AWS Outpost
- Create a Custom Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
- Encrypt EBS Volume for the VM-Series Firewall on AWS
- Use the VM-Series Firewall CLI to Swap the Management Interface
- Enable CloudWatch Monitoring on the VM-Series Firewall
- VM-Series Firewall Startup and Health Logs on AWS
- Use AWS Secrets Manager to Store VM-Series Certificates
- Use Case: Secure the EC2 Instances in the AWS Cloud
- Use Case: Use Dynamic Address Groups to Secure New EC2 Instances within the VPC
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- Intelligent Traffic Offload
- Software Cut-through Based Offload
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- Deployments Supported on Azure
- Deploy the VM-Series Firewall from the Azure Marketplace (Solution Template)
- Deploy the VM-Series Firewall from the Azure China Marketplace (Solution Template)
- Deploy the VM-Series with the Azure Gateway Load Balancer
- Create a Custom VM-Series Image for Azure
- Deploy the VM-Series Firewall on Azure Stack
- Deploy the VM-Series Firewall on Azure Stack HCI
- Enable Azure Application Insights on the VM-Series Firewall
- Set up Active/Passive HA on Azure
- Use Azure Key Vault to Store VM-Series Certificates
- Use the ARM Template to Deploy the VM-Series Firewall
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- About the VM-Series Firewall on Google Cloud Platform
- Supported Deployments on Google Cloud Platform
- Create a Custom VM-Series Firewall Image for Google Cloud Platform
- Prepare to Set Up VM-Series Firewalls on Google Public Cloud
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- Deploy the VM-Series Firewall from Google Cloud Platform Marketplace
- Management Interface Swap for Google Cloud Platform Load Balancing
- Use the VM-Series Firewall CLI to Swap the Management Interface
- Enable Google Stackdriver Monitoring on the VM Series Firewall
- Enable VM Monitoring to Track VM Changes on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Use Dynamic Address Groups to Secure Instances Within the VPC
- Use Custom Templates or the gcloud CLI to Deploy the VM-Series Firewall
- Enable Session Resiliency on VM-Series for GCP
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- Prepare Your ACI Environment for Integration
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- Create a Virtual Router and Security Zone
- Configure the Network Interfaces
- Configure a Static Default Route
- Create Address Objects for the EPGs
- Create Security Policy Rules
- Create a VLAN Pool and Domain
- Configure an Interface Policy for LLDP and LACP for East-West Traffic
- Establish the Connection Between the Firewall and ACI Fabric
- Create a VRF and Bridge Domain
- Create an L4-L7 Device
- Create a Policy-Based Redirect
- Create and Apply a Service Graph Template
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- Create a VLAN Pool and External Routed Domain
- Configure an Interface Policy for LLDP and LACP for North-South Traffic
- Create an External Routed Network
- Configure Subnets to Advertise to the External Firewall
- Create an Outbound Contract
- Create an Inbound Web Contract
- Apply Outbound and Inbound Contracts to the EPGs
- Create a Virtual Router and Security Zone for North-South Traffic
- Configure the Network Interfaces
- Configure Route Redistribution and OSPF
- Configure NAT for External Connections
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- Choose a Bootstrap Method
- VM-Series Firewall Bootstrap Workflow
- Bootstrap Package
- Bootstrap Configuration Files
- Generate the VM Auth Key on Panorama
- Create the bootstrap.xml File
- Prepare the Licenses for Bootstrapping
- Prepare the Bootstrap Package
- Bootstrap the VM-Series Firewall on AWS
- Bootstrap the VM-Series Firewall on Azure
- Bootstrap the VM-Series Firewall on Azure Stack HCI
- Bootstrap the VM-Series Firewall on Google Cloud Platform
- Verify Bootstrap Completion
- Bootstrap Errors
Enable Session Resiliency on VM-Series for GCP
Learn how to enable session resiliency on your VM-Series firewall deployed in
GCP.
Session resiliency allows the VM-Series firewall to maintain session continuity
during a failure event. The GCP Network Load Balancer (NLB) can detect and
deregister unhealthy VM-Series firewalls deployed in a horizontally scalable cluster
behind it. With session resiliency enabled, the NLB rehashes existing traffic
sessions flowing toward an unhealthy VM-Series and redirects the traffic to a
healthy VM-Series firewall. This allows a VM-Series firewall cluster to continue
inspecting long-lived application sessions, even in the case of VM-Series appliance
failures.
Traffic inspection of the rehashed traffic
flows is Layer 4 only. The VM-Series firewall inspects traffic in new sessions
up to Layer 7.
To maintain sessions failing over to healthy VM-Series firewalls, you must deploy a
Standard-tier Memorystore for Redis cache
accessible to your VM-Series firewalls. The Redis cache maintains session
information. When your load balancer detects an unhealthy VM-Series firewall, the
load balancer rebalances traffic to a healthy VM-Series firewall. The healthy
VM-Series firewall accesses the Redis cache for session information and continues to
inspect and forward the existing traffic.
Your load balancer must meet the following requirements to support session
resiliency.
- Your load balancer must be an Internal pass-through Network Load Balancer
- You must set your load balancer connection persistence on unhealthy nodes to NEVER_PERSIST.
Your Memorystore for Redis instance must meet the following requirements to
support session resiliency on the VM-Series firewall.
- Standard tier
- Deploy the Redis cache in the same region and zone as your VM-Series firewall instances.
- From the Network drop-down, select the VPC network associated with the VM-Series firewall management interface.
- Enable AUTH to limit access to only trusted users.
- Enable In-Transit Encryption to encrypt connections to Redis cache using TLS.
When sizing your Memorystore for Redis, use the following guidelines.
- Base the size of Redis cache on the maximum number of sessions supported by your VM-Series firewall instance. See Maximum Limits Based on Tier and Memory to the maximum sessions for your firewall.
- When session resiliency is enabled, the maximum number of sessions is capped at 70% of the amount listed in the link above. For example, if your firewall supports up to 10,000,000 sessions, the maximum is 7,000,000 with session resiliency.
- Each redis entry per session uses approximately 128 bytes. Therefore, one VM-Series firewall that supports 10,000,000 sessions requires approximately 1.3 GB of storage. And a cluster of 10 VM-Series firewalls requires at least 13 GB.
- Use the following formula to calculate the redis requirements.(128 x <number of sessions>) x 10-9 = require redis cache size per firewall
Session resiliency can't be enabled on existing VM-Series
firewall instances; only on newly deployed instances.
Enable session resiliency on the VM-Series firewall by passing the configuration as
part of a bootstrapping init-cfg.txt file or in the user data field.
Bootstrap Parameter | Description |
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op-command-modes=mgmt-interface-swap | Allows you to swap the management interface (MGT) with the dataplane interface (ethernet 1/1) when deploying the firewall. For details, see Management Interface Swap for Google Cloud Platform Load Balancing. |
plugin-op-commands=set-sess-ress:True | Enables session resiliency. |
redis-endpoint= | Provide the IP address or FQDN and port of your Redis endpoint. |
redis-auth= | Optional The auth code your VM-Series firewall uses to connect with the Redis endpoint. |
redis-certificate= | OptionalThe root CA certificate string used to connect to the Redis endpoint. The certificate must be a base64-encoded string using utf-8 encoding. |
- Deploy your Redis cache.Prepare your boostrap file.op-command-modes=mgmt-interface-swap plugin-op-commands=set-sess-ress:True redis-endpoint=<redis-IP-address:port> redis-auth=<redis-auth-code> redis-certificate=Bootstrap your VM-Series firewalls.Log in to the firewall.Create an address object for the load balancer front-end IP address.
- Select Objects Address and click Add.Enter a descriptive Name.Set the Type to IP Netmask and enter the load balancer front-end IP address.Click OK.Create a loopback interface to send health check packets to the load balancer.
- Select Networking InterfacesLoopback and click Add.Enter a descriptive Name.On the Config tab, set the Virtual Router to default and the Security Zone to your trust zone.On the IPv4 tab, add the address object you created previously.Click OK.Create a management profile.
- Select Network Network Profiles Interface Mgmt and click Add.Enable Ping, SSH, HTTPS, and SNMP.Don’t enable HTTP or Telnet because those protocols transmit in cleartext and therefore aren’t secure.Click OK.Add your management profile to your loopback interface.
- Select NetworkInterfaces, select your loopback interface.Select AdvancedOther info and select the Interface Management Profile you just added.Click OK.Commit your changes.