Palo Alto Panorama — Group Export
A Connect Group is a named list of IP addresses/CIDRs, kept up to date automatically as matching resources change. Group Export pushes a Group to your Palo Alto firewalls (managed by Panorama) as a Dynamic Address Group (DAG).
Each Connect Group maps to a tag (registered on each member IP) and a DAG whose match filter is that tag. Adding or removing IPs only changes tag registrations on the firewall — instant, no Panorama commit required. Creating, renaming, or deleting the DAG itself changes Panorama configuration and does require a commit + push, which the Connector handles for you.
Set up a Palo Alto account
- In Connect, go to Settings > Accounts and add a new account.
- Cloud Provider: Palo Alto Networks. Give it an account ID and name.
- Save — you land on the Provision page. Fill in:
- Connector — the Connector you paired earlier. (Required for Palo Alto.)
- Panorama Hostname — your Panorama's IP or hostname.
- Username / Password — Panorama admin credentials.
- Device Group — the exact Panorama device group name (case-sensitive) whose firewalls should receive the DAG.
- Allow Self-Signed Certificate — turn this on only if your Panorama uses a self-signed certificate (common in lab/test environments). Leave it off for a production Panorama with a CA-signed certificate.
- Save.
The Connector picks up the account on its next poll (within ~30 seconds).
Export a Group
- In Connect, go to Groups > New Group.
- Set Update to Automatic so membership stays current with no manual refresh.
- Set Export To to your Palo Alto account.
- Build your membership filters (tags, type, vendor, CIDR, account, region, etc.) and confirm the preview table shows the members you expect.
- Save. Because the group updates automatically, Connect will warn that saving exports all current matches — confirm.
Within about 30 seconds the Connector picks up the export job. You can watch its progress under Settings > Connectors > Jobs in Connect.
Verify it landed
- In the Panorama UI, go to Objects > Address Groups and select your device group (not Shared). You should see a new Dynamic address group referencing your export.
- Resolved members only live on the managed firewall, not Panorama itself. On the firewall, check Monitor > IP-Tag Mapping for your tagged IPs, and Objects > Address Groups to see the DAG's resolved members.
- If the DAG shows no members on the firewall, Panorama may not have pushed it yet — this needs either Share Unused Address and Service Objects with Devices enabled (Panorama's default), or a policy referencing the DAG, followed by a commit and push to devices.
What happens when you change things
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Edit the Group's filters | Membership recalculates on save; tags register/unregister on the firewall immediately — no commit needed. |
| A resource gains/loses a matching tag | Automatic groups pick up the change on the next refresh. |
| Rename the Group | The DAG is renamed in place; existing policy references are preserved. |
| Add/remove a target under Export To | Members sync to the new target and are removed from any dropped target. |
| Delete the Group | The DAG and its tagged IPs are left in place on Panorama/the firewall — remove them manually if unwanted. |
For common issues, see Troubleshooting.