Prisma AIRS: Cloud Deployment Guide

The firewall type determines which traffic can be inspected. Only Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Firewall supports AI, K8s, and cluster traffic.

Network Intercept requires an active Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Firewall license, funded through Software NGFW credits.

Confirm credentials for both management platforms:

The firewall management interface and the AI security cloud service require outbound connectivity to these endpoints:

Prepare the following for your target cloud provider(s). These apply regardless of deployment model.

# Default SCM discovery IPs
34.71.64.3/32
34.28.60.186/32

# Germany / Netherlands region
34.32.8.22/32

# Australia region
34.116.76.243/32

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Action": "bedrock:InvokeModel",
    "Resource": "*"
  }]
}

# Default SCM discovery IPs
34.71.64.3
34.28.60.186

# Germany / Netherlands region
34.32.8.22

# Australia region
34.116.76.243

(logName =~ "logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access" AND protoPayload.methodName:("google.cloud.aiplatform.")) OR ((logName="projects/<GCP_PROJECT_ID>/logs/compute.googleapis.com%2Fvpc_flows") AND (resource.labels.subnetwork_name="<SUBNET_1>" OR resource.labels.subnetwork_name="<SUBNET_2>"))

cloudasset.assets.listResource
cloudasset.assets.listAccessPolicy
cloudasset.feeds.get
cloudasset.feeds.list
compute.machineTypes.list
compute.networks.list
compute.subnetworks.list
container.clusters.list
pubsub.subscriptions.consume
pubsub.topics.attachSubscription
storage.buckets.list
aiplatform.models.list

gcloud beta services identity create \
  --service=cloudasset.googleapis.com \
  --project=<your_gcp_project_id>

If you plan to manage AIRS firewalls through Panorama, complete these additional prerequisites. Skip this step if using SCM-only management.

Preparation Steps

1. Deploy Panorama in standalone or HA mode. Copy and save the active/passive Panorama IP address.
2. Generate the VM Auth Key on Panorama.
3. (Optional) For public-cloud firewalls, add the firewall’s public IP under Panorama → Setup → Interfaces → Management.
4. Install CloudConnector Plugin 2.1.0 and install the Panorama Device Certificate.
5. Enable and verify the cloud connector plugin:

# Enable the cloud connector
admin@Panorama> request plugins cloudconnector enable basic

# Verify connection status
admin@Panorama> show plugins cloudconnector status

# Expected output:
# pass
# CloudConnector plugin is enabled.
# Connectivity to region ... is a success.

6. Install Enterprise DLP Plugin 5.0.5 or above on Panorama.
7. Set Telemetry region to Americas (recommended).
8. (Optional) Onboard Panorama to Strata Logging Service for log forwarding.
9. Enable automatic configuration push to managed firewalls on the template stack.
10. Commit → Commit to Panorama.

1. Click the activation link in your purchase confirmation email.
2. Log in to the Hub with your Palo Alto Networks Customer Support credentials.
3. Select your Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Firewall subscription.
4. Associate the subscription with your Customer Support account.
5. Confirm the activation. The license provisions the following bundled services:
   • AI App Protection, AI Model Protection, AI Data Protection
   • Cloud Identity Engine & SCM Pro
   • Enterprise DLP
   • Advanced Threat Prevention, Advanced URL Filtering, Advanced WildFire, Advanced DNS Security
   • GlobalProtect

Strata Logging Service stores AI security logs, threat logs, and provides data for the discovery dashboard and SLR reports.

1. Click the SLS activation link in your confirmation email (or navigate from the Hub).
2. Select your Strata Logging Service subscription and click Activate Subscription.
3. Log in with your Palo Alto Networks Customer Support credentials.
4. Select the Customer Support account to associate.
5. Configure your Tenant Service Group (TSG):
   • New TSG: Create a new tenant service group and provide a name.
   • Existing TSG: Select an existing TSG. A tenant can have only one SLS instance.
6. Select the region for your SLS instance.
7. Click Add Instance to deploy SLS to the TSG.
8. Verify storage space and region settings.
9. Accept the Terms and Conditions and click Activate Now.

The device certificate enables secure communication between the firewall and Palo Alto Networks licensing servers and Cloud-Delivered Security Services. This is mandatory before deploying a Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Firewall.

1. Log in to the Customer Support Portal.
2. Navigate to Products → Device Certificates → Generate Registration PIN.
3. Enter a description (e.g., "AIRS Network Intercept Production").
4. Select a PIN expiration period.
5. Click Generate Registration PIN.
6. Immediately save both values:
   • PIN ID
   • PIN Value

A deployment profile defines your resource allocation (vCPUs per instance, number of instances) and bundles the required security services.

Part 1: Create the Profile

1. In the Customer Support Portal, navigate to Products → Software/Cloud NGFW Credits.
2. Locate your credit pool and click Create Deployment Profile.
3. Select product type: Prisma AIRS: AI Runtime Security (Firewalls).
4. Select PAN-OS version: PAN-OS 11.2.2 and above.
5. Configure the profile:
   • Deployment Profile Name: A descriptive name (e.g., AIRS-NetIntercept-Prod)
   • Number of instances: Planned firewall count
   • vCPUs per instance: Minimum 4 (impacts transaction limits: 10K AI transactions/day/vCPU)
6. Optionally configure Panorama management with Log Collector if using Panorama.
7. Click Create Deployment Profile.

Part 2: Associate the Profile with a TSG

1. In the credit pool details, locate your new profile and click Finish Setup.
2. Select your Customer Support Account.
3. Select the Tenant (same TSG as your SLS instance — verify SLS is enabled).
4. Select the Region.
5. Select your deployment profile and click Done.
6. Enable Cloud Identity Engine (recommended).
7. Accept the Terms and Conditions.
8. Click Activate.
9. Record the Auth Code that appears — this is required during firewall deployment.

1. Log in to Strata Cloud Manager.
2. Navigate to AI Security → AI Runtime → AI Runtime Firewall.
3. Click the Cloud Account Manager (cloud icon).
4. Click Add Cloud Account.

Follow the onboarding workflow for your cloud provider. Each cloud has specific IAM configuration steps.

# Unzip and navigate to the onboarding folder
unzip aws-onboard-terraform.zip
cd panw-discovery-<tsg-id>-onboarding/aws

# Deploy
terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

Outputs:
cross_account_role_arn = "arn:aws:iam::10xxxx684868:role/airs-prod-role-2"

paloaltonetworks.com-monitored: enable
serialNumber: <serial-number-or-comma-separated-list>

# Unzip and navigate to the onboarding folder
unzip azure-onboard-terraform.zip
cd panw-discovery-<tsg-id>-onboarding/azr

# Login to Azure tenant
az login -t <Tenant_Id>
az account set -s <Subscription_Id>

# Deploy
terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

paloaltonetworks.com-monitored: enable
serialNumber: <serial-number-or-comma-separated-list>

# Unzip and navigate to the onboarding folder
unzip gcp-onboard-terraform.zip
cd panw-discovery-<tsg-id>-onboarding/gcp

# Deploy
terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

paloaltonetworks_com-monitored: enable
serialnumber: <serial-number-or-comma-separated-list>

The Cloud Asset Map provides a geographical view of your cloud regions, showing resource distribution and protection status.

1. Navigate to AI Security → AI Runtime Firewall → Cloud Asset Map.
2. Review the infrastructure view for your onboarded cloud accounts.
3. Identify regions and VPCs/VNets marked as:
   • Green — Fully protected
   • Orange — Partially protected
   • Red — Unprotected
4. Drill into specific regions to see VPC-level details, applications, and traffic flows.

The topology view shows relationships between components and helps identify unprotected traffic paths that need Network Intercept protection.

The AI Traffic and Network Risk Analysis views reveal which applications communicate with AI models, which traffic is protected, and where threats are occurring.

1. Navigate to AI Security → AI Runtime Firewall.
2. Select the Operational view for traffic analysis.
3. Review the three risk analysis views:

4. Select the Security view for threat assessment — threats prioritized by urgency and risk type.
5. Use Add Protection icons to identify where firewalls should be deployed between network segments.

Agent Discovery identifies AI agents built through cloud provider platforms (AWS Bedrock Agents, Azure AI Foundry / OpenAI Agents).

• AWS Bedrock Agents — Configuration discovery + runtime interaction monitoring (agent-to-model, agent-to-tool, agent-to-agent). Requires S3 bucket access for invocation log analysis.
• Azure AI Foundry / OpenAI Agents — Configuration discovery (runtime monitoring support is pending).

After enabling agent discovery, discovered agents appear as Protected or Unprotected with Sankey-style diagrams showing agent interactions, dependencies, knowledge bases, and tool usage.

Reference: Agent Discovery Documentation

1. Log in to Strata Cloud Manager.
2. Navigate to AI Security → AI Runtime Firewall.
3. Click Add Protections (the + icon).

1. Select your Cloud Service Provider (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud).
2. Click Next.
3. In Firewall Placement, select the traffic streams to inspect:
   • AI queries and responses — application-to-AI-model traffic
   • Inbound traffic to cloud applications — user-to-application traffic
   • Outbound traffic from cloud applications — application-to-internet traffic
   • Inter VPC/VNet communication — application-to-application traffic
   • Select All Traffic — inspect all streams
4. Select Download Terraform templates and execute on my own as the deployment method.
5. Click Next.

1. Select your cloud account from the onboarded accounts list.
2. Select the region where applications will be protected.
3. In Selected applications, choose the applications to secure from the discovered list.

Cloud-specific configuration for application VPC/VNet connectivity:

Traffic steering inspection is available when namespace-level applications are selected. This allows granular control over which CIDRs are inspected or bypassed.

1. Select a namespace from the applications list.
2. Configure traffic handling per namespace (limit: 10 CIDRs per cluster):
   • Inspect certain CIDRs — only inspect traffic from specified subnet ranges.
   • Bypass certain CIDRs — exclude traffic from specified subnet ranges.

Configure the firewall type, instance count, zones, instance size, and scaling behavior.

1. In Deployment type, select AI Runtime Security.
   • Select VM-Series only if protecting non-AI, non-cluster traffic exclusively. See Phase 4.
2. Optionally enable Auto-Deploy Security (disabled by default).
3. Enter the number of firewalls to deploy.
4. Select zones from the available list. Firewall zones must cover all application zones selected in Step 1.3.
5. Choose the instance type for the security VM (minimum 4 vCPUs).
6. In Firewall Scaling, select Static or Dynamic.

IP addressing differs by cloud provider. Configure the security VPC/VNet CIDR and transit/peering connectivity.

Enter the licensing parameters generated during Phase B.

1. Select the PAN-OS version from the available list.
2. Enter the Flex authentication code — the AUTH CODE from the deployment profile created in the Customer Support Portal.
3. Enter the Device Certificate PIN ID and PIN Value generated during Step B.3.

Choose whether firewalls are managed by Strata Cloud Manager or Panorama.

AWS-specific management options (both SCM and Panorama):

• Deploy NAT Gateway — routes egress traffic through a NAT gateway in the security VPC.
• Overlay Routing — enables a dual-arm architecture (eth1/1 + eth1/2) for egress traffic inspection. Requires PAN-OS 11.2.8+.

1. Click Next to reach the Review Architecture screen.
2. Enter a unique Terraform template name.
   • Use only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.
   • Do not start or end with a hyphen.
   • Maximum 19 characters.
3. Review the topology diagram for your AI network architecture.
4. Click Create terraform template.
5. Click Download terraform template.
6. Close the deployment workflow.

Before running Terraform, accept the marketplace subscription for the Prisma AIRS image in your cloud provider.

az vm image accept-terms --urn paloaltonetworks:airs-flex:airs-byol:VERSION

The security_project creates the core firewall infrastructure: security VPC/VNet, firewall instances, load balancers, health checks, and the IP-tag collector service.

1. Unzip the downloaded Terraform template.
2. Review the README.md in the architecture/ directory.
3. Navigate to the security_project directory and run:

cd architecture/security_project
terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

The application_project creates the peering connections between application VPCs/VNets and the security VPC/VNet, and creates GWLB endpoints (AWS) or peering (Azure/GCP).

cd ../application_project
terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

After both Terraform projects complete, verify the firewall has connected to the management platform.

1. In SCM, navigate to Workflows → NGFW Setup → Device Management.
2. Switch to the Cloud Managed Devices tab.
3. Locate the deployed firewall(s).
4. Confirm Device Status shows Connected.
5. Verify the serial number, PAN-OS version, and deployment profile match your configuration.

1. Log in to Strata Cloud Manager.
2. Navigate to AI Security → AI Runtime Firewall.
3. Click Add Protections (the + icon).
4. Select your Cloud Service Provider (AWS or Azure) and click Next.
5. In Firewall Placement, select the traffic streams to inspect.
6. Select Auto-Execute as the deployment method.
7. Click Next.

1. On the Applications tab, use the Select Application(s) dropdown to choose discovered applications to protect.
2. For AWS, configure GWLB Endpoint CIDR & Zone Pair for each application:
   • Select the zone.
   • Enter the CIDR of an available subnet in the application VPC.
   • Click the + icon to add additional zones.
3. Optionally select VPC(s) from the discovered list. VPCs associated with selected applications are pre-populated.
4. Click Next.

Auto-Execute pre-selects AI Runtime Security as the firewall type when AI traffic streams are selected. VM-Series is not supported for Auto-Execute.

1. Specify the number of firewall instances.
2. Select deployment zones covering all application availability zones.
3. Select the instance type for the security VM.
4. Optionally enable Deploy NAT Gateway (AWS only).
5. Optionally enable Overlay Routing (AWS only, PAN-OS 11.2.8+).
6. Optionally enable Cloud Mesh for multi-cloud secure tunneling.

1. Select the PAN-OS version.
2. Enter the Flex authentication code.
3. Enter the Device Certificate PIN ID and PIN Value.
4. Enter allowed management CIDRs.
5. Enter the SSH public key.
6. Select Manage by SCM and choose the SCM folder.

1. Click Next to reach the Review Architecture screen.
2. Review the topology diagram.
3. Click Deploy to initiate automatic deployment.

SCM orchestrates the deployment automatically. No Terraform download or manual apply is needed.

1. Navigate to AI Security → AI Runtime Firewall.
2. Click the shield icon.
3. Select the Cloud Task log tab.
4. Locate your deployment by name to monitor task progress.

1. Navigate to Workflows → NGFW Setup → Device Management.
2. Switch to the Cloud Managed Devices tab.
3. Locate the deployed firewall(s) and confirm Device Status is Connected.

Decommissioning deletes the Terraform template, associated firewalls, and cloud resources deployed by Prisma AIRS. Software NGFW credits are released back to the pool. The cloud account is not modified or deleted.

1. Log in to Strata Cloud Manager.
2. Disable and re-enable the cloud account.
3. Navigate to AI Security → AI Runtime → AI Runtime Firewall.
4. Click the shield icon.
5. Select the Terraform Templates tab.
6. Click the delete icon next to the template to decommission.

Monitor decommissioning progress on the Cloud Task log tab. The Purge MSF Managed Folders from SCM task may log an error if other active firewall clusters exist in the same folder; this error has no functional impact.

Before running the SCM wizard, prepare the Panorama environment.

1. Confirm Panorama is running PAN-OS 11.2.5+ with CloudConnector Plugin 2.1.0.
2. Generate a VM auth key on Panorama: Panorama → Setup → Management → VM Auth Key → Generate. See Generate the VM Auth Key on Panorama.
3. Create a Device Group for AIRS firewalls. See Add a Device Group.
4. Create a Template Stack for AIRS firewalls. See Configure a Template Stack.
5. Record the Panorama active IP address and (if HA) passive IP address: Panorama → High Availability.

Follow Phase 1 Steps 1.1–1.6 for your cloud provider. At the management parameters step:

1. Select Manage by Panorama.
2. Enter the Active Panorama IP address.
3. Optionally enter the Passive Panorama IP address.
4. Enter the Panorama VM auth key.
5. Enter the Device Group name.
6. Enter the Template Stack name.

Continue with Steps 1.7–1.9 (licensing, review architecture, download Terraform).

Follow the same Terraform execution as Phase 1 Steps 1.10–1.12 (marketplace subscription, security_project, application_project).

If Panorama has a security group restricting inbound connections, add the firewall public IP to allow communication.

1. In the cloud console (e.g., AWS Console), navigate to EC2 → Instances.
2. Search for the deployed AIRS firewall instance.
3. Copy the Public IPv4 address.
4. Navigate to the Panorama instance → Security tab → click the Security group.
5. Select Inbound rules → Edit inbound rules.
6. Click Add rule → select All traffic → enter the firewall public IP.
7. Click Save rules.

1. Log in to the Panorama web interface.
2. Navigate to Panorama → Managed Devices → Summary.
3. Locate the deployed firewall.
4. Confirm the device status is Connected.
5. Verify it is assigned to the correct Device Group and Template Stack.

View AI security threat logs at Monitor → Logs → Threat with the ai-security subtype filter.

Follow Phase 1 Steps 1.1–1.4. At the deployment parameters step:

1. In Deployment type, select VM-Series.
2. Enter the Service account attached to security VM (GCP only).
3. Enter the number of firewalls to deploy.
4. Select deployment zones.
5. Select the instance type.

Follow Phase 1 Steps 1.6–1.9 for IP addressing, licensing (using VM-Series auth code), management parameters, and Terraform template creation/download.

Follow Phase 1 Steps 1.10–1.12 (marketplace subscription, security_project, application_project).

1. Navigate to Workflows → NGFW Setup → Device Management.
2. Switch to the Cloud Managed Devices tab.
3. Confirm the VM-Series firewall shows Device Status as Connected.
4. Verify the Application Type column shows VMSeries.

1. Log in to the Customer Support Portal.
2. Navigate to Updates → Software Updates.
3. In Content type, search for:
   • ESXi: PAN-OS for AI Runtime Security ESXi Base Images → download the .ova file
   • KVM: PAN-OS for AI Runtime Security KVM Base Images → download the .qcow2 file

Create a virtual machine using the downloaded image.

1. In ESXi or KVM, create a new VM using the OVA/QCOW2 file.
2. Enter a name for the VM.
3. Upload the image file.
4. Configure three network interfaces:
   • Management — for firewall management traffic
   • Client-side — for application-facing traffic
   • Server-side — for AI model-facing traffic
5. Configure VM resources: minimum 2 CPUs and 4.5 GB memory.
6. Complete the VM creation wizard.

Create the standard bootstrap folder structure on your local machine or storage.

mkdir -p content software plugins license config

Create the auth codes file and init-cfg.txt bootstrap configuration.

Part 1: Auth Codes

Create a file named authcodes in the license/ folder with your auth code (no leading or trailing spaces or newlines):

# Create the authcodes file
echo -n "YOUR_AUTH_CODE_HERE" > license/authcodes

Part 2: init-cfg.txt

Create init-cfg.txt in the config/ folder. See Phase 6: Manual Bootstrap for the full parameter reference.

type=static
ip-address=10.3.254.85
default-gateway=10.3.254.1
netmask=255.255.255.0
hostname=airs-private-01
panorama-server=cloud
plugin-op-commands=advance-routing:enable
dgname=airs-private-dg
dns-primary=8.8.8.8
dns-secondary=8.8.4.4
vm-series-auto-registration-pin-id=YOUR_PIN_ID
vm-series-auto-registration-pin-value=YOUR_PIN_VALUE

type=static
ip-address=10.3.254.85
default-gateway=10.3.254.1
netmask=255.255.255.0
hostname=airs-private-01
panorama-server=10.1.1.20
panorama-server-2=10.1.1.21
vm-auth-key=0123456789ABCDEF
plugin-op-commands=advance-routing:enable
dgname=airs-panorama-dg
tplname=airs-panorama-tpl
dns-primary=8.8.8.8
dns-secondary=8.8.4.4
vm-series-auto-registration-pin-id=YOUR_PIN_ID
vm-series-auto-registration-pin-value=YOUR_PIN_VALUE

Package the bootstrap folder structure into an ISO image and attach it to the VM.

1. Create an ISO from the bootstrap folders. See Bootstrap the VM-Series Firewall for platform-specific ISO creation steps.
2. Attach the ISO to the VM as a CD/DVD drive.
3. Power on the VM.

The firewall automatically reads the bootstrap parameters from the ISO during first boot.

Connect to the firewall console and verify the bootstrap parameters.

show system info

Confirm the following values in the output:

Check bootstrap status:

show system bootstrap status

Check for configuration push jobs:

show jobs all

1. In SCM, navigate to System Settings → Device Management.
2. Locate the firewall by the serial number recorded in the previous step.
3. Confirm Device Status is Connected and configuration is In Sync.

Three bootstrap methods are available. Choose based on your cloud and infrastructure.

Reference: Bootstrap the VM-Series Firewall

The init-cfg.txt file contains all bootstrap parameters. Configuration differs based on the management platform.

type=dhcp-client
dhcp-accept-server-domain=yes
dhcp-accept-server-hostname=yes
dhcp-send-client-id=yes
dhcp-send-hostname=yes
dgname=airs-brownfield-dg
plugin-op-commands=advance-routing:enable
panorama-server=cloud
mgmt-interface-swap=enable
dns-primary=10.5.6.6
dns-secondary=10.5.6.7
vm-series-auto-registration-pin-id=YOUR_PIN_ID
vm-series-auto-registration-pin-value=YOUR_PIN_VALUE

type=static
ip-address=10.1.1.19
default-gateway=10.1.1.1
netmask=255.255.255.0
dgname=airs-panorama-dg
vm-auth-key=0123456789ABCDEF
plugin-op-commands=advance-routing:enable
panorama-server=10.1.1.20
panorama-server-2=10.1.1.21
mgmt-interface-swap=enable
tplname=airs-panorama-tpl
dns-primary=10.5.6.6
dns-secondary=10.5.6.7
vm-series-auto-registration-pin-id=YOUR_PIN_ID
vm-series-auto-registration-pin-value=YOUR_PIN_VALUE

Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Firewall supports different routing configurations based on the management platform.

When deploying manually (not using the SCM-generated Terraform), add cloud-specific labels to your Terraform template for Prisma AIRS to identify and manage the firewall instances.

Add the following labels under Tags in <terraform-path>/architecture/security_project/terraform.tfvars:

paloaltonetworks.com-trust  = "unique-value-1"
paloaltonetworks.com-occupied = "unique-value-2"

paloaltonetworks_com-trust  = "unique-value-1"
paloaltonetworks_com-occupied = "unique-value-2"

Additionally, ensure the network interface name in the security_project Terraform is suffixed by -trust-vpc.

1. Download the Terraform module for your cloud architecture from the cloud marketplace or Palo Alto Networks resources.
2. Apply the Terraform with the configured init-cfg.txt and labels.
3. Wait for the firewall to bootstrap (allow 10–15 minutes).
4. Verify connectivity in SCM (Workflows → NGFW Setup → Device Management) or Panorama (Managed Devices → Summary).

1. Security Configuration — Create AI Security Profiles, model groups, Security Profile Groups, and policy rules. See Core Guide Phase 5.
2. Push Configuration — Push the security configuration to the deployed firewall(s) from SCM or Panorama.
3. Validation — Generate test traffic, review AI Security logs, and confirm threat detection. See Core Guide Phase 7.
4. K8s Protection (optional) — For containerized workloads, configure interfaces, zones, NAT, routers, and deploy PAN-CNI. See Configure SCM to Secure K8s Clusters.

The SCM-generated Terraform template contains two directories:

<template-name>/
  architecture/
    security_project/      # Core firewall infrastructure
      terraform.tfvars     # Configuration variables
      main.tf              # Resource definitions
      README.md            # Deployment instructions
    application_project/   # App VPC/VNet peering
      terraform.tfvars
      main.tf
      README.md
  modules/                 # Shared Terraform modules

Reference: Create Bootstrap Configuration Files

Tags/labels required for firewall discovery and management by SCM.