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Palo Alto NGFW lab 23 of 30

Troubleshooting toolkit: packet flow, captures, counters and sessions

Learn the PAN-OS packet flow and the tools that let you see a packet at each stage: dataplane packet captures at receive, firewall, transmit and drop stages, filtered global counters, session details, policy and route tests, and system resources. Use them to find out exactly why the admins can't SSH to web01, then fix it.

Run this lab

It needs Lite: its 4 nodes are set to 5 vCPU and 7,680 MB in total. That fits the free demo too.

In your workspace: Shared, then Palo Alto NGFW PAN-OS 11 guided labs, then 23 - Troubleshooting toolkit - packet flow captures counters and sessions

Try it free for 30 minutesRun it on Lite from £3 a day

The free demo needs no card and no email. Every lab plan includes every guided lab.

Level
Advanced
Time
About 50 minutes
Nodes need
5 vCPU, 7,680 MB
Smallest plan
Lite

The scenario

A ticket has arrived: "Since the migration the admin workstation (10.1.1.10) can't SSH to web01 (172.16.1.10). Web works fine." Before anyone touches the rulebase, the change board wants evidence of where and why the packets die. You'll learn the firewall's own diagnostic tools and use them to prove the cause.

Before you start. Start all the nodes. The firewall takes 6-8 minutes to boot and comes up with this lab's starting configuration already loaded. Wait until the FW1 console shows FW1 login:, then log in as admin / Lab-Access-1. Until the management plane is ready it answers Login incorrect, even with the right password. The Linux hosts are ready within seconds.

What you’ll practise

  • Describe the PAN-OS packet flow, from ingress to egress
  • Capture traffic at the four dataplane stages with filters and read the captures
  • Use filtered global counters with delta to find drop reasons
  • Read session details, test policy and routing, and check resources
  • Diagnose and fix a policy drop with evidence

The tasks

  1. The packet flow in one page
  2. Reproduce the problem
  3. Capture at all four stages
  4. Confirm with the policy and routing tests
  5. Session details while it works
  6. Health of the box

The Lab Tasks pane has the scenario, these tasks, the checks to run, hints and the full solution.

Topology and devices

The network as it opens in EVE-NG, drawn from the lab’s own canvas, and the image each node runs.

Topology of Troubleshooting toolkit - packet flow captures counters and sessions4 nodes and 3 networks, 7 links. Every link is listed as text below the diagram.FW1Client-PCweb01InternetInsideOutsideDMZeth0ethernet1/3eth0mgmtethernet1/2eth0ethernet1/1
4 nodes and 3 networks, with the interface names each link uses. On a narrow screen, scroll the diagram sideways.
Every link, as text
  • FW1 mgmt to Inside (network)
  • FW1 ethernet1/1 to Outside (network)
  • FW1 ethernet1/2 to Inside (network)
  • FW1 ethernet1/3 to DMZ (network)
  • Client-PC eth0 to Inside (network)
  • web01 eth0 to DMZ (network)
  • Internet eth0 to Outside (network)
Nodes in Troubleshooting toolkit: packet flow, captures, counters and sessions, with the image each runs and the vCPU and RAM it’s set to
NodeDeviceImage in Add NodeSet to
FW1Palo Alto Networks VM-Series (PAN-OS)paloalto-11.2.52 vCPU, 5,632 MB
Client-PCEVE-NG GUI server (Docker)eve-gui-server:latest1 vCPU, 1,024 MB
web01EVE-NG GUI server (Docker)eve-gui-server:latest1 vCPU, 512 MB
InternetEVE-NG GUI server (Docker)eve-gui-server:latest1 vCPU, 512 MB

How to open this lab

  1. Sign in to your workspace at lab.cloudlabbox.com.

  2. In File Manager, open Shared, then the folder Palo Alto NGFW PAN-OS 11 guided labs.

  3. Open 23 - Troubleshooting toolkit - packet flow captures counters and sessions and start its nodes, then open Lab Tasks for the scenario and the steps.

The lab is read-only. You can start the nodes and configure the devices, but changes to the topology can’t be saved. To change it, rebuild it in your own folder.

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CloudLabBox is independent of Palo Alto Networks and Cisco. The lab follows exam topics and isn’t vendor training material; vendor names identify the exams and the images in the workspace.