Book Image

Mastering Palo Alto Networks

By : Tom Piens aka Piens aka 'reaper'
Book Image

Mastering Palo Alto Networks

By: Tom Piens aka Piens aka 'reaper'

Overview of this book

To safeguard against security threats, it is crucial to ensure that your organization is effectively secured across networks, mobile devices, and the cloud. Palo Alto Networks’ integrated platform makes it easy to manage network and cloud security along with endpoint protection and a wide range of security services. With this book, you'll understand Palo Alto Networks and learn how to implement essential techniques, right from deploying firewalls through to advanced troubleshooting. The book starts by showing you how to set up and configure the Palo Alto Networks firewall, helping you to understand the technology and appreciate the simple, yet powerful, PAN-OS platform. Once you've explored the web interface and command-line structure, you'll be able to predict expected behavior and troubleshoot anomalies with confidence. You'll learn why and how to create strong security policies and discover how the firewall protects against encrypted threats. In addition to this, you'll get to grips with identifying users and controlling access to your network with user IDs and even prioritize traffic using quality of service (QoS). The book will show you how to enable special modes on the firewall for shared environments and extend security capabilities to smaller locations. By the end of this network security book, you'll be well-versed with advanced troubleshooting techniques and best practices recommended by an experienced security engineer and Palo Alto Networks expert.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Section 1: First Steps and Basic Configuration
4
Section 2: Advanced Configuration and Putting the Features to Work
10
Section 3: Maintenance and Troubleshooting

Adding licenses and setting up dynamic updates

Before we can start adding licenses, the device needs to be registered. You will need to note down the device's serial number or, if you do not have a support portal account, the sales order number to create a new account.

Open a new tab or browser and navigate to https://support.paloaltonetworks.com

If you do not have an account yet, create a new one.

Creating a new account

When creating a new account, you will be asked for an email address and whether you want to register using a serial number or an Authorization (auth) code, as in the following screenshot. The serial number is needed when registering a hardware appliance; the auth code is used when registering a VM device:

Figure 2.6 – Serial or authorization code device registration

Alternatively, if you have set up a virtual appliance on one of the cloud providers, you can pick which provider your device is running on (such as Amazon...