What is the difference between running configuration and candidate configuration?
52286
Created On 09/26/19 21:06 PM - Last Modified 10/09/19 21:32 PM
Question
What is the difference between running configuration and candidate configuration?
Environment
- Any PAN-OS.
- Any Palo Alto Firewall.
Answer
The running configuration is the actual configuration controlling the operation of the firewall. It is maintained in a file on the firewall named running-config.xml.
Candidate configuration is the copy of running configuration. Configuration changes are only made to the candidate configuration. Commit operation causes running configuration to be overwritten by candidate configuration activating all configuration changes.
Firewall saves previous running configuration and labels these configuration by date and timestamps so that at any time an older running configuration can be loaded.
Additional Information
Refer Backing up and Restoring configuration for managing configuration changes.