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Import and load a configuration file

In this guide, you will import a PAN-OS XML configuration file to your NGFW, then load the config into candidate configuration. This is most commonly done when restoring from a backup.

Assumptions​

This tutorial/guide assumes:

  • you have a working installation of Ansible with the PAN-OS collection installed (see example instructions here)
  • you have working connectivity to the firewall and/or Panorama
  • you have administrative credentials capable of performing the relevant operations on the firewall and/or Panorama

Important - Work in a Lab Environment First​

With all of the tutorials and guides presented on this website, please ensure that you attempt the tasks in a lab or a similar safe and non-production environment first. In public cloud scenarios, this should be a non-production cloud account which contains no production assets or data. Confirm the tasks behave as expected and perform the operations you require, before using them in production or other live environments.

Create playbook files and define connectivity to the firewall​

Create a new Ansible yaml file named import-and-load-config.yml, establish a variable block called device for the firewall, and reference the PAN-OS collection:

---
- name: Import and load a configuration file
  hosts: '{{ target | default("firewall") }}'
  connection: local

  vars:
    device:
      ip_address: "{{ ip_address }}"
      username: "{{ username | default(omit) }}"
      password: "{{ password | default(omit) }}"
      api_key: "{{ api_key | default(omit) }}"

  collections:
    - paloaltonetworks.panos

Import the configuration file​

You will first import a valid PAN-OS XML configuration file to the NGFW. The file should be stored in a location accessible to the host executing Ansible, and could be passed as an extra runtime variable. For one-off operations, the variable could be defined in the playbook itself

cfg_file: "exampleconfig.xml"

The first tasks in the playbook by uses panos_import to import/upload the XML config file:

tasks:
  - name: Import configuration
    paloaltonetworks.panos.panos_import:
      provider: "{{ device }}"
      file: "{{ cfg_file }}"
      category: "configuration"
    register: result

Load the configuration file​

Continue the tasks by loading the imported config file. This will use panos_loadcfg to make the imported config file the new candidate configuration:

- name: Load configuration
  paloaltonetworks.panos.panos_loadcfg:
    ip_address: "{{ device.ip_address }}"
    username: "{{ device.username }}"
    password: "{{ device.password }}"
    file: "{{ result.filename }}"

Commit the imported configuration​

To make the imported configuration "live", a commit is required to promote the candidate configuration into the running configuration:

- name: Commit candidate configuration
  panos_commit_firewall:
    provider: "{{ device }}"
  register: results
- debug:
    msg: "Commit with job ID: {{ results.jobid }} had output: {{ results.details }}"

Final playbook​

Putting all the sections together, the playbook in entirety looks like this:

---
- name: Import and load a configuration file
  hosts: '{{ target | default("firewall") }}'
  connection: local

  vars:
    device:
      ip_address: "{{ ip_address }}"
      username: "{{ username | default(omit) }}"
      password: "{{ password | default(omit) }}"
      api_key: "{{ api_key | default(omit) }}"

  collections:
    - paloaltonetworks.panos

  tasks:
    - name: Import configuration
      paloaltonetworks.panos.panos_import:
        provider: "{{ device }}"
        file: "{{ cfg_file }}"
        category: "configuration"
      register: result

    - name: Load configuration
      paloaltonetworks.panos.panos_loadcfg:
        ip_address: "{{ device.ip_address }}"
        username: "{{ device.username }}"
        password: "{{ device.password }}"
        file: "{{ result.filename }}"

    - name: Commit candidate configuration
      panos_commit_firewall:
        provider: "{{ device }}"
      register: results
    - debug:
        msg: "Commit with job ID: {{ results.jobid }} had output: {{ results.details }}"