Setting up a Palo Alto VM-Series firewall on VMware Workstation
If you do not have the hypervisor installed, you can download it from the official site. VMware Workstation Pro: Available for Windows and Linux. palo alto vm download vmware workstation
Important: The VM-Series is resource intensive. Do not try to run this on a laptop with 4GB of RAM. Setting up a Palo Alto VM-Series firewall on
If you do not have an account:
From the Content Type filter, select PAN-OS for VM-Series Base Images. Do not try to run this on a laptop with 4GB of RAM
Access to the software image typically requires an active support contract or an organization account.
| Image Format | Works with Workstation? | Notes |
|--------------|------------------------|-------|
| ESXi (.ovf, .vmdk) | ✅ Yes | Import via File > Open or OVF Tool |
| KVM (.qcow2) | ⚠️ Convert required | Use qemu-img to convert to .vmdk |
| Hyper-V (.vhdx) | ❌ No | Not directly supported |