Deploy the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual on Azure

This chapter explains how to deploy the Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual from the Azure portal.

Overview

The Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual is integrated into the Microsoft Azure marketplace and supports the following VM sizes:

Table 1. Supported VM Sizes

VM Size

vCPUs

Memory (RAM) in GB

vNICs

Version

Standard_D3

4

14

4

Any

Standard_D3_v2

4

14

4

Any

Standard_D4_v2

8

28

8

6.5 or above

Standard_D5_v2

16

56

8

6.5 or above

Standard_D8s_v3

8

32

4

7.1 or above

Standard_D16s_v3

16

64

8

7.1 or above

Standard_F8s_v2

8

16

4

7.1 or above

Standard_F16s_v2

16

32

4

7.1 or above

Standard_D8_v4

8

32

4

7.7 or above

Standard_D16_v4

16

64

8

7.7 or above

Standard_D8s_v4

8

32

4

7.7 or above

Standard_D16s_v4

16

64

8

7.7 or above

Standard_D8_v5

8

32

4

7.7 or above

Standard_D16_v5

16

64

8

7.7 or above

Standard_D8s_v5

8

32

4

7.7 or above

Standard_D16s_v5

16

64

8

7.7 or above

Prerequisites

Communication Paths

  • Management interface—Used to connect the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual to the Secure Firewall Management Center.


    Note

    In 6.7 and later, you can optionally configure a data interface for Firewall Management Center management instead of the Management interface. The Management interface is a pre-requisite for data interface management, so you still need to configure it in your initial setup. For more information about configuring a data interface for Firewall Management Center access, see the configure network management-data-interface command in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Command Reference.

  • Diagnostic interface—Used for diagnostics and reporting; cannot be used for through traffic.

  • Inside interface (required)—Used to connect the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual to inside hosts.

  • Outside interface (required)—Used to connect the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual to the public network.

Guidelines and Limitations

Supported Features

Licensing

  • BYOL (Bring Your Own License) using a Cisco Smart License Account.

  • PAYG (Pay As You Go) licensing, a usage-based billing model that allows customer to run Firewall Threat Defense Virtual without having to purchase Cisco Smart Licensing. All licensed features (Malware/Threat/URL Filtering/VPN, etc.) are enabled for a registered PAYG Firewall Threat Defense Virtual device. Licensed features cannot be edited or modified from the Firewall Management Center. (Version 6.5+)


    Note

    PAYG licensing is not supported on the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual devices deployed in the Firewall Device Manager mode.

See the "Licensing" chapter in the Secure Firewall Management Center Administration Guide for guidelines when licensing your Firewall Threat Defense Virtual device.

Performance Tiers for Firewall Threat Defense Virtual Smart Licensing

The Firewall Threat Defense Virtual supports performance-tiered licensing that provides different throughput levels and VPN connection limits based on deployment requirements.


Note

Any threat defense virtual tier license can be used with any supported threat defense virtual vCPU or memory configuration.

This allows threat defense virtual customers to use a license on a wide variety of VM resources.

This can also increase the number of Azure VM sizes that are supported. When configuring a threat defense virtual VM, the maximum number of cores (vCPUs) supported is 16, and the maximum memory supported is 32 GB RAM.

Table 2. Firewall Threat Defense Virtual Licensed Feature Limits Based on Entitlement

Performance Tier

Suggested vCPU/Memory Configuration

Rate Limit

RA VPN Session Limit

FTDv5, 100Mbps

4 core/8 GB

100Mbps

50

FTDv10, 1Gbps

4 core/8 GB

1Gbps

250

FTDv20, 3Gbps

4 core/8 GB

3Gbps

250

FTDv30, 5Gbps

8 core/16 GB

5Gbps

250

FTDv50, 10Gbps

12 core/24 GB

10Gbps

750

FTDv100, 16Gbps

16 core/34 GB

16Gbps

10,000

Performance Optimizations

To achieve the best performance out of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual, you can make adjustments to the both the VM and the host. See Virtualization Tuning and Optimization on Azure for more information.

Receive Side Scaling—The Firewall Threat Defense Virtual supports Receive Side Scaling (RSS), which is a technology utilized by network adapters to distribute network receive traffic to multiple processor cores. Supported on Version 7.0 and later. See Multiple RX Queues for Receive Side Scaling (RSS) for more information.

Unsupported Features

  • Licensing:

    • PLR (Permanent License Reservation)

    • PAYG (Pay As You Go) (Versions 6.4 and earlier)

  • Networking (many of these limitations are Microsoft Azure restrictions):

    • Jumbo frames

    • 802.1Q VLANs

    • Transparent Mode and other Layer 2 features; no broadcast, no multicast.

    • Proxy ARP for an IP address that the device does not own from an Azure perspective (impacts some NAT capabilities).

    • Promiscuous mode (no capture of subnet traffic).

    • Inline-set modes, passive mode.


      Note

      Azure policy prevents the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual from operating in transparent firewall or inline mode because it does not allow interfaces to operate in promiscuous mode.

    • ERSPAN (uses GRE, which is not forwarded in Azure).

  • Management:

    • Azure portal “reset password” function

    • Console-based password recovery; because the user does not have real-time access to the console, password recovery is not possible. It is not possible to boot the password recovery image. The only recourse is to deploy a new Firewall Threat Defense Virtual VM.

  • High Availability (active/standby)

  • Clustering

  • IPv6

  • VM import/export

  • Gen 2 VM generation on Azure

  • Re-sizing the VM after deployment

  • Migration or update of the Azure Storage SKU for the OS Disk of the VM from premium to standard SKU and vice versa

  • Firewall Device Manager user interface (Versions 6.4 and earlier)

Azure DDoS Protection Feature

Azure DDoS Protection in Microsoft Azure is an additional feature implemented at the forefront of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual. In a virtual network, when this feature is enabled it helps to defend applications against common network layer attacks depending on the packet per second of a network’s expected traffic. You can customize this feature based on the network traffic pattern.

For more information about the Azure DDoS Protection feature, see Azure DDoS Protection Standard overview.

Snort

  • If you are observing abnormal behavior such as Snort taking a long time to shut down, or the VM being slow in general or when a certain process is executed, collect logs from the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual and the VM host. Collection of overall CPU usage, memory, I/O usage, and read/write speed logs will help troubleshoot the issues.

  • High CPU and I/O usage is observed when Snort is shutting down. If a number of Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instances have been created on a single host with insufficient memory and no dedicated CPU, Snort will take a long time to shut down which will result in the creation of Snort cores.

How to Manage Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual Device

You have two options to manage your Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual.

Secure Firewall Management Center

If you are managing large numbers of devices, or if you want to use the more complex features and configurations that the Firewall Threat Defense allows, use the Firewall Management Center to configure your devices instead of the integrated Firewall Device Manager.


Important

You cannot use both the Firewall Device Manager and the Firewall Management Center to manage the Firewall Threat Defense device. Once the Firewall Device Manager integrated management is enabled, it won't be possible to use the Firewall Management Center to manage the Firewall Threat Defense device, unless you disable the local management and re-configure the management to use the Firewall Management Center. On the other hand, when you register the Firewall Threat Defense device to the Firewall Management Center, the Firewall Device Manager onboard management service is disabled.


Caution

Currently, Cisco does not have an option to migrate your Firewall Device Manager configuration to the Firewall Management Center and vice-versa. Take this into consideration when you choose what type of management you configure for the Firewall Threat Defense device.

Secure Firewall Device Manager

The Firewall Device Manager is a web interface included on most Firewall Threat Defense devices. It lets you configure the basic features of the software that are most commonly used for small networks. It is especially designed for networks that include a single device or just a few, where you do not want to use a high-powered multiple-device manager to control a large network with many devices.


Note

See the Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Compatibility Guide for list of devices that support the Firewall Device Manager.

Sample Network Topology for the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual on Azure

The following figure shows a typical topology for the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual in Routed Firewall Mode within Azure. The first defined interface is always the Management interface, and only the Management 0/0 and GigabitEthernet0/0 are assigned public IP addresses.

Resources Created During Deployment

When you deploy the Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual in Azure the following resources are created:

  • The Firewall Threat Defense Virtual Machine (VM)

  • A Resource Group

    • The Firewall Threat Defense Virtual is always deployed into a new Resource Group. However, you can attach it to an existing Virtual Network in another Resource Group.

  • Four NICS named vm name -Nic0, vm name -Nic1, vm name -Nic2, vm name -Nic3

    Note

    Based on the requirement, you can create VNet with IPv4 only.

    These NICs map to the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual interfaces Management, Diagnostic 0/0, GigabitEthernet 0/0, and GigabitEthernet 0/1 respectively.

  • A security group named vm name -mgmt-SecurityGroup

    The security group will be attached to the VM’s Nic0, which maps to the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual management interface.

    The security group includes rules to allow SSH (TCP port 22) and the management traffic for the Firewall Management Center interface (TCP port 8305). You can modify these values after deployment.

  • Public IP addresses (named according to the value you chose during deployment).

    You can assign a public IP address to any interface; see Public IP addresses for Azure's guidelines regarding public IPs, including how to create, change, or delete a public IP address..

  • A Virtual Network with four subnets will be created if you choose the New Network option.

  • A Routing Table for each subnet (updated if it already exists)

    The tables are named “subnet name ”-FTDv-RouteTable.

    Each routing table includes routes to the other three subnets with the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual IP address as the next hop. You may chose to add a default route if traffic needs to reach other subnets or the Internet.

  • A boot diagnostics file in the selected storage account

    The boot diagnostics file will be in Blobs (binary large objects).

  • Two files in the selected storage account under Blobs and container VHDs named vm name -disk.vhd and vm name -<uuid>.status

  • A Storage account (unless you chose an existing storage account)


    Note
    When you delete a VM, you must delete each of these resources individually, except for any resources you want to keep.

Accelerated Networking (AN)

Azure's Accelerated Networking (AN) feature enables single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) to a VM, which accelerates networking by allowing VM NICs to bypass the hypervisor and go directly to the PCIe card underneath. AN significantly enhances the throughput performance of the VM and also scales with additional cores (i.e. larger VMs).

AN is disabled by default. Azure supports enabling AN on pre-provisioned virtual machines. You simply have to stop VM in Azure and update the network card property to set the enableAcceleratedNetworking parameter to true. See the Microsoft documentation Enable accelerated networking on existing VMs. Then restart the VM.

Limitations of using ixgbe-vf Interfaces

Be aware of the following limitations when using ixgbe-vf interfaces:

  • The guest VM is not allowed to set the VF to promiscuous mode. Because of this, transparent mode is not supported when using ixgbe-vf.

  • The guest VM is not allowed to set the MAC address on the VF. Because of this, the MAC address is not transferred during HA like it is done on other Firewall Threat Defense Virtual platforms and with other interface types. HA failover works by transferring the IP address from active to standby.


    Note

    This limitation is applicable to the i40e-vf interfaces too.

  • The Cisco UCS-B server does not support the ixgbe-vf vNIC.

  • In a failover setup, when a paired Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (primary unit) fails, the standby unit takes over as the primary unit role and its interface IP address is updated with a new MAC address of the standby Firewall Threat Defense Virtual unit. Thereafter, the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual sends a gratuitous Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) update to announce the change in MAC address of the interface IP address to other devices on the same network. However, due to incompatibility with these types of interfaces, the gratuitous ARP update is not sent to the global IP address that is defined in the NAT or PAT statements for translating the interface IP address to global IP addresses.

Azure Routing

Routing in an Azure Virtual Network Subnet is determined by the Subnet's Effective Routing Table. The Effective Routing Table is a combination of built-in system routes and the routes in the User Defined Route (UDR) Table.


Note
You can view the Effective Routing Table under VM NIC properties.

You can view and edit the User Defined Routing table. When the system routes and the user defined routes are combined to form the Effective Routing Table, the most specific route wins and ties go to the User Defined Routing table. The System Routing Table also includes specific routes to the other defined subnets with the next-hop pointing to Azure’s Virtual Network infrastructure gateway.

To route traffic through the Azure Routing Firewall Threat Defense Virtual, routes must be added/updated in the User Defined Routing table associated with each data subnet. Traffic of interest should be routed by using the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual IP address on that subnet as the next-hop.

Because of the existing specific routes in the System Routing Table, you must add specific routes to the User Defined Routing table to point to the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual as the next-hop. Otherwise, a default route in the User Defined table would lose to the more specific route in the System Routing Table and traffic would bypass the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual.

Routing Configuration for VMs in the Virtual Network

Routing in the Azure Virtual Network depends on the Effective Routing Table and not the particular gateway settings on the clients. Clients running in a Virtual Network may be given routes by DHCP that are the .1 address on their respective subnets. This is a place holder and serves only to get the packet to the Virtual Network’s infrastructure virtual gateway. Once a packet leaves the VM it is routed according to the Effective Routing Table (as modified by the User Defined Table). The Effective Routing Table determines the next hop regardless of whether a client has a gateway configured as .1 or as the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual address.

Azure VM ARP tables will show the same MAC address (1234.5678.9abc) for all known hosts. This ensures that all packets leaving an Azure VM will reach the Azure gateway where the Effective Routing Table will be used to determine the path of the packet.

IP Addresses

The following information applies to IP addresses in Azure:

  • The first NIC on the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (which maps to Management) is given a private IP address in the subnet to which it is attached.

    A public IP address may be associated with this private IP address and the Azure Internet gateway handles the NAT translations.

  • Public IP addresses that are static do not change until you change them in Azure.

  • Firewall Threat Defense Virtual interfaces may use DHCP to set their IP addresses. The Azure infrastructure ensures that the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual interfaces are assigned the IP addresses set in Azure.

Deploy the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual

You can deploy the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual in Azure using templates. Cisco provides two kinds of templates:

  • Solution Template in the Azure Marketplace—Use the solution template available in the Azure Marketplace to deploy the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual using the Azure portal. You can use an existing resource group and storage account (or create them new) to deploy the virtual appliance. To use the solution template, see Deploy from the Azure Marketplace Using the Solution Template.

  • Custom Template using a Managed Image from a VHD (available from https://software.cisco.com/download/home )—In addition to the Marketplace-based deployment, Cisco provides a compressed virtual hard disk (VHD) that you can upload to Azure to simplify the process of deploying the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual in Azure. Using a Managed Image and two JSON files (a Template file and a Parameters File), you can deploy and provision all the resources for the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual in a single, coordinated operation. To use the custom template, see Deploy from Azure Using a VHD and Resource Template.


Note

While searching for Cisco offers in Marketplace, you may find two different offers with similar names, but different offer types, Application Offer and Virtual Machine Offer.

For marketplace deployments, use ONLY the Application Offers.

Virtual Machine offer (may be visible) with VMSR (Virtual Machine Software Reservations) plan in marketplace. These are specific Multiparty Private Offer plans specifically for channel/resale and should be ignored for regular deployments.

Application Offers available in Marketplace:

Deploy from the Azure Marketplace Using the Solution Template

The following instructions show you how to deploy the solution template for the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual that is available in the Azure Marketplace. This is a top-level list of steps to set up the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual in the Microsoft Azure environment. For detailed steps about the Azure setup, see Getting Started with Azure.

You can further manage these configurations after deployment. For example, you may want to change the Idle Timeout value from the default, which is a low timeout.


Note

To use the customizable ARM templates available in the GitHub repository, see Deploy from Azure Using a VHD and Resource Template.

Procedure

Step 1

Log into the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) portal.

The Azure portal shows virtual elements associated with the current account and subscription regardless of data center location.

Step 2

Choose Azure Marketplace > Virtual Machines.

Step 3

Search Marketplace for “Cisco Firepower NGFW Virtual (Firewall Threat Defense Virtual)”, choose the offering, and click Create.

Step 4

Configure the basic settings.

  1. Enter a name for the virtual machine. This name should be unique within your Azure subscription.

    Important

     
    If you use an existing name the deployment will fail.

  2. Choose your licensing method, either BYOL or PAYG.

    Choose BYOL (Bring Your Own License) to use a Cisco Smart License Account.

    Choose PAYG (Pay As You Go) licensing to use a usage-based billing model without having to purchase Cisco Smart Licensing.

    Important

     

    You can only use PAYG when you manage the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual using the Firewall Management Center.

  3. Enter a username for the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual administrator.

    Note

     
    The name “admin” is reserved in Azure and cannot be used.

  4. Choose an authentication type, either password or SSH key.

    If you choose password, enter a password and confirm.

    If you choose SSH key, specify the RSA public key of the remote peer.

  5. Create a password to use with the Admin user account when you log in to configure the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual.

  6. Choose your subscription.

  7. Create a new Resource Group.

    The Firewall Threat Defense Virtual should be deployed into a new Resource Group. The option to deploy into an existing Resource Group only works if that existing Resource Group is empty.

    However, you can attach the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual to an existing Virtual Network in another Resource Group when configuring the network options in later steps.

  8. Select geographical location. This should be the same for all resources used in this deployment (for example: Firewall Threat Defense Virtual, Network, storage accounts).

  9. Click OK.

Step 5

Configure the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual settings.

  1. Choose the virtual machine size.

  2. Choose a storage account.

    Note

     
    You can use an existing storage account or create a new one. The storage account name can only contain lowercase letters and numbers.

  3. Choose a public IP address.

    You can choose a public IP address available for the selected subscription and location, or click Create new.

    When you create a new public IP address, you get one from the block of IP addresses that Microsoft owns, so you can’t choose a specific one. The maximum number of public IP addresses you can assign to an interface is based on your Azure subscription.

    Important

     

    Azure creates a dynamic public IP address by default. The public IP may change when the VM is stopped and restarted. If you prefer a fixed IP address, you should create a static address. You can also modify the public IP address after deployment and change it from a dynamic to a static address.

  4. Add the DNS label.

    Note

     
    The fully qualified domain name will be your DNS label plus the Azure URL: <dnslabel>.<location>.cloudapp.azure.com

  5. Choose a virtual network.

    You can choose an existing Azure Virtual Network (VNet) or create a new one and enter the IP address space for the VNet. By default, the Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) IP address is 10.0.0.0/16.

  6. Configure four subnets for the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual network interfaces:

    • FTDv Management interface, attached to Nic0 in Azure, the “First subnet”

    • FTDv Diagnostic interface, attached to Nic1 in Azure, the “Second subnet”

    • FTDv Outside interface, attached to Nic2 in Azure, the “Third subnet”

    • FTDv Inside interface, attached to Nic3 in Azure, the “Fourth subnet”

  7. Click OK.

Step 6

View the configuration summary, and then click OK.

Step 7

View the terms of use and then click Purchase.

Deployment times vary in Azure. Wait until Azure reports that the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual VM is running.

What to do next

Your next steps depend on what management mode you chose.

See How to Manage Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual Device for an overview of how to choose your management option.

Deploy from Azure Using a VHD and Resource Template

You can create your own custom Firewall Threat Defense Virtual images using a compressed VHD image available from Cisco. To deploy using a VHD image, you must upload the VHD image to your Azure storage account. Then, you can create a managed image using the uploaded disk image and an Azure Resource Manager template. Azure templates are JSON files that contain resource descriptions and parameter definitions.

Before you begin

  • You need the JSON template and corresponding JSON parameter file for your Firewall Threat Defense Virtual template deployment. You can download these files from the Github repository.

  • This procedure requires an existing Linux VM in Azure. We recommend that you use a temporary Linux VM (such as Ubuntu 16.04) to upload the compressed VHD image to Azure. This image will require about 50GB of storage when unzipped. Also, your upload time to Azure storage is faster from a Linux VM in Azure.

    If you need to create a VM, use one of the following methods:

  • In your Azure subscription, you should have a storage account available in the location in which you want to deploy the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual.

Procedure

Step 1

Download the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual compressed VHD image from the Cisco Download Software page:

  1. Navigate to Products > Security > Firewalls > Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) > Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual.

  2. Click Firepower Threat Defense Software.

    Follow the instructions for downloading the image.

    For example, Cisco_Secure_Firewall_Threat_Defense_Virtual-X.X.X-xxx.vhd.bz2

Step 2

Copy the compressed VHD image to your Linux VM in Azure.

There are many options that you can use to move files up to Azure and down from Azure. This example shows SCP or secure copy:

# scp /username@remotehost.com/dir/Cisco_Secure_Firewall_Threat_Defense_Virtual-7.1.0-92.vhd.bz2 <linux-ip>

Step 3

Log in to the Linux VM in Azure and navigate to the directory where you copied the compressed VHD image.

Step 4

Unzip the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual VHD image.

There are many options that you can use to unzip or decompress files. This example shows the Bzip2 utility, but there are also Windows-based utilities that would work. 

# bunzip2 Cisco_Firepower_Threat_Defense_Virtual-7.1.0-92.vhd.bz2

Step 5

Upload the VHD to a container in your Azure storage account. You can use an existing storage account or create a new one. The storage account name can only contain lowercase letters and numbers.

There are many options that you can use to upload a VHD to your storage account, including AzCopy, Azure Storage Copy Blob API, Azure Storage Explorer, Azure CLI, or the Azure Portal. We do not recommend using the Azure Portal for a file as large as the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual VHD.

The following example shows the syntax using Azure CLI:

azure storage blob upload \
       --file <unzipped vhd> \
       --account-name <azure storage account> \
       --account-key yX7txxxxxxxx1dnQ== \
       --container <container> \
       --blob <desired vhd name in azure> \
       --blobtype page

Step 6

Create a Managed Image from the VHD:

  1. In the Azure Portal, select Images.

  2. Click Add to create a new image.

  3. Provide the following information:

    • Subscription—Choose a subscription from the drop-down list.

    • Resource group—Choose an existing resource group or create a new one.

    • Name—Enter a user-defined name for the managed image.

    • Region—Choose the region in which the VM Is deployed.

    • OS type—Choose Linux as the OS type.

    • VM generation—Choose Gen 1.

      Note

       

      Gen 2 is not supported.

    • Storage blob—Browse to the storage account to select the uploaded VHD.

    • Account type—As per your requirement, choose Standard HDD, Standard SSD, or Premium SSD, from the drop-down list.

      When you select the VM size planned for deployment of this image, ensure that the VM size supports the selected account type.

    • Host caching—Choose Read/write from the drop-down list.

    • Data disks—Leave at default; don't add a data disk.

  4. Click Create.

    Wait for the Successfully created image message under the Notifications tab.

Note

 

Once the Managed Image has been created, the uploaded VHD and upload Storage Account can be removed.

Step 7

Acquire the Resource ID of the newly created Managed Image.

Internally, Azure associates every resource with a Resource ID. You’ll need the Resource ID when you deploy new Firewall Threat Defense Virtual firewalls from this managed image.

  1. In the Azure Portal, select Images.

  2. Select the managed image created in the previous step.

  3. Click Overview to view the image properties.

  4. Copy the Resource ID to the clipboard.

    The Resource ID takes the form of:

    /subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resourceGroup>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/<container>/ <vhdname>

Step 8

Build a Firewall Threat Defense Virtual firewall using the managed image and a resource template:

  1. Select New, and search for Template Deployment until you can select it from the options.

  2. Select Create.

  3. Select Build your own template in the editor.

    You have a blank template that is available for customizing. See Github for the template files.

  4. Paste your customized JSON template code into the window, and then click Save.

  5. Choose a Subscription from the drop-down list.

  6. Choose an existing Resource group or create a new one.

  7. Choose a Location from the drop-down list.

  8. Paste the Managed Image Resource ID from the previous step into the Vm Managed Image Id field.

Step 9

Click Edit parameters at the top of the Custom deployment page. You have a parameters template that is available for customizing.

  1. Click Load file and browse to the customized Firewall Threat Defense Virtual parameter file. See Github for the template parameters.

  2. Paste your customized JSON parameters code into the window, and then click Save.

Step 10

Review the Custom deployment details. Make sure that the information in Basics and Settings matches your expected deployment configuration, including the Resource ID.

Step 11

Review the Terms and Conditions, and check the I agree to the terms and conditions stated above check box.

Step 12

Click Purchase to deploy a Firewall Threat Defense Virtual firewall using the managed image and a custom template.

If there are no conflicts in your template and parameter files, you should have a successful deployment.

The Managed Image is available for multiple deployments within the same subscription and region.

What to do next

  • Update the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual’s IP configuration in Azure.

Firewall Threat Defense Virtual Image Snapshot

You can create and deploy the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual using a snapshot image in the Azure portal. The image snapshot is a replicated Firewall Threat Defense Virtual image instance with no state data.

Firewall Threat Defense Virtual Snapshot Overview

The process of creating a snapshot image of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance helps to minimize the initial system init time by skipping the first boot procedures done for the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual and FSIC. The snapshot image consists of prepopulated database and the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual initial boot process, which enables the image to regenerate unique IDs (UUIDs, Serial number) that is related to the system identity in the Firewall Management Center or any other management center. This process helps in faster boot time of Firewall Threat Defense Virtual, which is essential in auto scale deployment.


Note

Snapshot image creation is used to minimize the initial system init time on a non-registered Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual. It should not be used for the purpose of backup/restore.


Note

Currently, Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) licensing is not supported for instances deployed using a snapshot image of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual. PAYG licensing is only available for instances that you deploy directly from the Marketplace. You can use Smart Licensing for such new Firewall Threat Defense Virtual deployments with PAYG licensing.

Create the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual Snapshot Image from Managed Image

Firewall Threat Defense Virtual image snapshot creation is a process of replicating an existing managed image of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance in the Azure portal.

Before you begin

You must have created a managed image of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual version 7.2 or later by uploading the resized VHD image to a container in your Azure storage account of a Linux VM in the Azure portal. For information on creating resized VHD image, see Deploy from Azure Using a VHD and Resource Template.

You must not register the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance you are preparing for image snapshot to any manager such as the Firewall Management Center or the Firewall Device Manager.

Procedure

Step 1

Go to Azure portal where you have created the managed image of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance.

Note

 
Ensure that the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance which you are planning to replicate is not registered to the Firewall Management Center or configured to any other local manager or applied with any configuration.

Step 2

Go to Resource Group and select the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance.

Step 3

Click the Serial Console on the navigation page of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance.

Step 4

Use the following scripts to run the pre-snapshot process from the expert shell:


> expert
admin@FTDvbaseimg:~$ Sudo su
root@firepower:/ngfw/var/common# prepare_snapshot
Do you want to continue [Y/N]:
When you use prepare_snapshot command in the script, an intermediate message appears prompting for confirmation to execute the script. Press Y to run the script.

Alternatively, you can append -f to this command, such as root@firepower:/ngfw/var/common# prepare_snapshot -f to skip the user confirmation message and directly execute the script.

This script removes all the line configurations, deployed policies, configured manager, UUIDs associated with the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance. After the processing is done, the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance is shut down.

Step 5

Click Capture.

Step 6

In the Create an image page, choose an existing resource group or create a new one from the Resource Group drop-down list.

Step 7

Click No, capture only a managed image in the Instance Details section to create only a managed image.

Step 8

Provide name for the snapshot image you are creating using the managed image of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance.

Step 9

Click Review+Create to create a new snapshot image of the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance.

What to do next

Deploy the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance using snapshot image. See Deploy Secure Firewall Threat Defenece Virtual using snapshot image.

Deploy the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual Instance using Image Snapshot

Before you begin

Cisco recommends the following:

  • Confirm that a snapshot image is available for the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to Azure portal.

Step 2

Copy the Resource ID of the newly created snapshot image.

Note

 
Azure associates every resource (snapshot image) with a Resource ID. The Resource ID of the snapshot image is required for deploying the new Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance.

  1. In the Azure Portal, select Images.

  2. Select the snapshot image you have created by using a managed image.

  3. Click Overview to view the image properties.

  4. Copy the Resource ID to the clipboard. The Resource ID syntax is represented as: /subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resourceGroup>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/<container>/ <vhdname>

Step 3

Continue deploying the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance using the snapshot image. See Deploy from Azure Using a VHD and Resource Template.

Note

 
You can run the CLI commands show version and show snapshot detail from the Firewall Threat Defense Virtual console to know about the version and details of the newly deployed Firewall Threat Defense Virtual instance.