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Strata Cloud Manager CLI

PyPI version Python versions License

A command-line interface for managing Palo Alto Networks Strata Cloud Manager (SCM) configurations. This tool simplifies the management of security policies, objects, and configurations through an intuitive CLI.

Quick Start

# Install
pip install pan-scm-cli

# Set credentials
export SCM_CLIENT_ID="your_client_id"
export SCM_CLIENT_SECRET="your_client_secret"
export SCM_TSG_ID="your_tsg_id"

# Create an address object
scm set object address --folder Texas --name web-server --ip-netmask 10.1.1.100/32 --description "Web server"

# List all addresses
scm show object address --folder Texas

# Create a security rule
scm set security rule --folder Texas --name allow-web \
  --source-zones trust --destination-zones dmz \
  --source-addresses any --destination-addresses web-server \
  --services any --action allow

Table of Contents

Key Features

  • Comprehensive Object Management: Create, update, and delete security configurations
  • Bulk Operations: Import/export configurations using YAML files
  • Smart Updates: Automatically handles existing objects without errors
  • Container Support: Work with folders, snippets, and devices
  • Mock Mode: Test commands without making API calls
  • Input Validation: Prevents errors before they reach the API

Installation

Requirements

  • Python 3.10 or higher
  • An active Strata Cloud Manager account

Install via pip

pip install pan-scm-cli

Getting Started

1. Set Up Authentication

Choose one of these methods to configure your credentials:

Option A: Context-based Authentication (Recommended for Multiple Tenants)

# Create a context for each SCM tenant
$ scm context create production \
  --client-id "[email protected]" \
  --client-secret "your-secret-key" \
  --tsg-id "123456789"
✓ Context 'production' created successfully
✓ Context 'production' set as current

# Create another context (with custom log level)
$ scm context create development \
  --client-id "[email protected]" \
  --client-secret "your-dev-secret" \
  --tsg-id "987654321" \
  --log-level DEBUG
✓ Context 'development' created successfully

# View all available contexts
$ scm context list
                       SCM Authentication Contexts
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Context     ┃ Current ┃ Client ID                                       ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ production  │ ✓       │ prod-app@[email protected] │
│ development │         │ dev-app@[email protected] │
└─────────────┴─────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

# Show details of a specific context
$ scm context show production
Context: production

Configuration:
  Client ID: [email protected]
  TSG ID: 123456789
  Log Level: INFO
  Client Secret: ***** (configured)

# Switch between contexts
$ scm context use development
✓ Switched to context 'development'

Client ID: [email protected]
TSG ID: 987654321

# Check current context
$ scm context current
Current context: development

Client ID: [email protected]
TSG ID: 987654321

Option B: Environment Variables (For CI/CD and Automation)

export SCM_CLIENT_ID="your_client_id"
export SCM_CLIENT_SECRET="your_client_secret"
export SCM_TSG_ID="your_tenant_service_group_id"

Note: Environment variables take precedence over contexts when both are set.

2. Verify Your Setup

# Test current context authentication
$ scm context test
Testing authentication for context: development
✓ Authentication successful!
  Client ID: [email protected]
  TSG ID: 987654321
✓ API connectivity verified (found 42 address objects in Shared folder)

# Test a specific context without switching
$ scm context test production
Testing authentication for context: production
✓ Authentication successful!
  Client ID: [email protected]
  TSG ID: 123456789
✓ API connectivity verified (found 15 address objects in Shared folder)

# Test without API calls (mock mode)
$ scm context test --mock
Testing authentication for context: development
✓ Authentication simulation successful (mock mode)
  Client ID: [email protected]
  TSG ID: 987654321

3. Try Your First Commands

# Create a tag
scm set object tag --folder Texas --name production --color Red --comments "Production resources"

# Create an address
scm set object address --folder Texas --name web-server --ip-netmask 10.1.1.100/32

# List all addresses
scm show object address --folder Texas

Common Use Cases

Managing Network Objects

Create Address Objects

# Single IP address
scm set object address --folder Texas --name web-server-1 --ip-netmask 10.1.1.100/32 --description "Production web server"

# Subnet
scm set object address --folder Texas --name dmz-subnet --ip-netmask 10.0.0.0/24 --description "DMZ network"

# FQDN
scm set object address --folder Texas --name external-site --fqdn example.com --description "External website"

Create Address Groups

# Static group with multiple members
scm set object address-group --folder Texas --name web-servers --type static --members "web-server-1,web-server-2"

# Dynamic group based on tags
scm set object address-group --folder Texas --name dynamic-web-servers --type dynamic --filter "'web' and 'production'"

Security Policy Management

Create Security Zones

# Layer 3 zone
scm set network zone --folder Texas --name dmz --mode layer3

# Zone with user ID enabled
scm set network zone --folder Texas --name trust --mode layer3 --enable-user-id

Create Security Rules

# Basic allow rule
scm set security rule --folder Texas --name allow-web-traffic \
  --source-zones trust \
  --destination-zones dmz \
  --source-addresses any \
  --destination-addresses web-servers \
  --services any \
  --action allow \
  --log-end

# Application-specific rule
scm set security rule --folder Texas --name allow-database \
  --source-zones app-zone \
  --destination-zones db-zone \
  --source-addresses app-servers \
  --destination-addresses database-servers \
  --applications "mysql,postgresql" \
  --action allow

Service Management

Create Custom Services

# TCP service
scm set object service --folder Texas --name custom-web --protocol tcp --port "8080,8443" --description "Custom web ports"

# UDP service
scm set object service --folder Texas --name custom-dns --protocol udp --port 5353 --description "mDNS"

# Service with timeout override
scm set object service --folder Texas --name long-running-db --protocol tcp --port 3306 --timeout 7200

Service Groups

# Group related services
scm set object service-group --folder Texas --name web-services --members "http,https,custom-web"

Tag Management

Tags help organize and categorize your objects:

# Environment tags
scm set object tag --folder Texas --name production --color Red --comments "Production environment"
scm set object tag --folder Texas --name development --color Green --comments "Development environment"
scm set object tag --folder Texas --name staging --color Blue --comments "Staging environment"

# Category tags
scm set object tag --folder Texas --name database --color Orange --comments "Database resources"
scm set object tag --folder Texas --name web --color Cyan --comments "Web resources"

Bulk Operations

Work with multiple objects at once using YAML files:

Export Configuration

# Export all addresses from a folder
scm backup object address --folder Texas
# Creates: address_folder_texas_20250602_143000.yaml

# Export with custom filename
scm backup object address-group --folder Texas --file my-groups.yaml

# Export from different containers
scm backup object tag --snippet automation
scm backup object service --device austin-01

Import Configuration

Create a YAML file for bulk import:

# addresses.yaml
addresses:
  - name: web-01
    description: "Production web server"
    ip_netmask: 10.1.1.10/32
    folder: Texas
    tags:
      - web
      - production

  - name: web-02
    description: "Production web server"
    ip_netmask: 10.1.1.11/32
    folder: Texas
    tags:
      - web
      - production

  - name: db-01
    description: "Database server"
    ip_netmask: 10.2.1.10/32
    folder: Texas
    tags:
      - database
      - production

Import the configuration:

# Preview changes
scm load object address --file addresses.yaml --dry-run

# Import to original locations
scm load object address --file addresses.yaml

# Override location for all objects
scm load object address --file addresses.yaml --folder Production

Context Management Examples

Working with Multiple Tenants

# Create contexts for different environments
$ scm context create prod-us \
  --client-id "[email protected]" \
  --client-secret "prod-secret" \
  --tsg-id "111111111" \
  --log-level WARNING
✓ Context 'prod-us' created successfully

$ scm context create prod-eu \
  --client-id "[email protected]" \
  --client-secret "prod-secret" \
  --tsg-id "222222222" \
  --log-level WARNING
✓ Context 'prod-eu' created successfully

# List all contexts
$ scm context list
                           SCM Authentication Contexts
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Context     ┃ Current ┃ Client ID                                       ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ production  │         │ prod-app@[email protected] │
│ development │ ✓       │ dev-app@[email protected] │
│ prod-us     │         │ us-prod@[email protected] │
│ prod-eu     │         │ eu-prod@[email protected] │
└─────────────┴─────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

# Work with US production
$ scm context use prod-us
✓ Switched to context 'prod-us'

$ scm show object address --folder Texas
[INFO] Using authentication context: prod-us
Addresses in folder 'Texas':
...

# Switch to EU production
$ scm context use prod-eu
✓ Switched to context 'prod-eu'

$ scm show object address --folder London
[INFO] Using authentication context: prod-eu
Addresses in folder 'London':
...

# Delete a context you no longer need
$ scm context delete old-dev
Are you sure you want to delete context 'old-dev'? [y/N]: y
✓ Context 'old-dev' deleted

Docker Container Support

The SCM CLI is available as a Docker image, providing a consistent environment across different platforms. The Docker image integrates seamlessly with the context management system:

Running with Contexts

# Pull the official image
docker pull ghcr.io/cdot65/pan-scm-cli:latest

# Run with context volume mounting
docker run -d \
  --name pan-scm \
  -v ~/.scm-cli:/home/scmuser/.scm-cli \
  ghcr.io/cdot65/pan-scm-cli:latest

# Your contexts are now available in the container
docker exec pan-scm scm context list

# Switch contexts in the container
docker exec pan-scm scm context use production

# Run commands with the active context
docker exec pan-scm scm show object address --folder Texas

Benefits of Docker with Contexts

  1. Consistent Environment: Same CLI version and dependencies across all systems
  2. Context Portability: Your contexts work identically on host and in containers
  3. Security: Credentials stay on the host, never baked into images
  4. Multi-tenant Isolation: Run multiple containers with different contexts simultaneously
  5. CI/CD Ready: Perfect for automated workflows with environment variable overrides

Multi-tenant Example

# Run containers for different environments
docker run -d --name scm-prod -v ~/.scm-cli:/home/scmuser/.scm-cli ghcr.io/cdot65/pan-scm-cli:latest
docker run -d --name scm-dev -v ~/.scm-cli:/home/scmuser/.scm-cli ghcr.io/cdot65/pan-scm-cli:latest

# Use different contexts in each container
docker exec scm-prod scm context use production
docker exec scm-dev scm context use development

# Now each container operates on different tenants
docker exec scm-prod scm show object address --folder Production
docker exec scm-dev scm show object address --folder Development

Building Docker Images

For developers who want to build their own images:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/cdot65/pan-scm-cli.git
cd pan-scm-cli

# Build for your local platform
./docker/docker-build.sh --local

# Build AMD64 image (for Intel/AMD systems)
./docker/docker-build.sh --amd64

# Force rebuild without cache
./docker/docker-build.sh --no-cache --local

Platform-specific images are available:

  • AMD64: ghcr.io/cdot65/pan-scm-cli:latest
  • ARM64: ghcr.io/cdot65/pan-scm-cli:apple (for Apple Silicon)

SASE Deployment

Service Connections

Service connections establish secure tunnels between your branch locations and Prisma Access:

# Create a service connection
scm set sase service-connection \
  --name branch-primary \
  --ipsec-tunnel ipsec-tunnel-1 \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --subnets "10.1.0.0/24,10.1.1.0/24"

# Enable BGP for dynamic routing
scm set sase service-connection \
  --name datacenter-connection \
  --ipsec-tunnel dc-tunnel \
  --region us-west-2 \
  --bgp-enable \
  --bgp-peer-as 65000 \
  --bgp-peer-ip 192.168.1.1 \
  --bgp-local-ip 192.168.1.2

# List all service connections
scm show sase service-connection

Remote Networks

Remote networks define your branch office or data center locations:

# Create a remote network
scm set sase remote-network \
  --name branch-office-1 \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --license-type FWAAS-AGGREGATE \
  --spn-name us-east-spn \
  --ipsec-tunnel branch-tunnel-1 \
  --subnets "10.1.0.0/16"

# Remote network with BGP
scm set sase remote-network \
  --name datacenter-west \
  --region us-west-2 \
  --spn-name us-west-spn \
  --ipsec-tunnel dc-tunnel \
  --bgp-enable \
  --bgp-peer-as 65000 \
  --bgp-peer-ip 192.168.1.1

# List all remote networks
scm show sase remote-network

Complete Workflow Example

Here's a complete example of setting up a web application security policy:

# Step 1: Create tags
scm set object tag --folder Texas --name web --color Cyan --comments "Web resources"
scm set object tag --folder Texas --name database --color Orange --comments "Database resources"
scm set object tag --folder Texas --name production --color Red --comments "Production environment"

# Step 2: Create addresses
scm set object address --folder Texas --name web-01 --ip-netmask 10.1.1.10/32 --tag web,production
scm set object address --folder Texas --name web-02 --ip-netmask 10.1.1.11/32 --tag web,production
scm set object address --folder Texas --name db-01 --ip-netmask 10.2.1.10/32 --tag database,production

# Step 3: Create address groups
scm set object address-group --folder Texas --name web-servers-group --type static --members "web-01,web-02"
scm set object address-group --folder Texas --name database-servers --type static --members "db-01"

# Step 4: Create custom services
scm set object service --folder Texas --name custom-web --protocol tcp --port 443
scm set object service --folder Texas --name custom-db --protocol tcp --port 3306

# Step 5: Create service group
scm set object service-group --folder Texas --name app-services --members "custom-web,custom-db"

# Step 6: Create security zones
scm set network zone --folder Texas --name trust --mode layer3
scm set network zone --folder Texas --name dmz --mode layer3
scm set network zone --folder Texas --name database --mode layer3

# Step 7: Create security rule
scm set security rule --folder Texas --name allow-web-to-db \
  --source-zones dmz \
  --destination-zones database \
  --source-addresses web-servers-group \
  --destination-addresses database-servers \
  --services custom-db \
  --action allow \
  --log-end \
  --description "Allow web servers to access database"

# Step 8: Verify configuration
scm show security rule --folder Texas --name allow-web-to-db

Command Reference

Basic Command Structure

scm <action> <object-type> <object> [options]

Actions

  • set: Create or update an object
  • show: Display objects (lists all by default, use --name for specific object)
  • delete: Remove an object
  • load: Import from YAML file
  • backup: Export to YAML file
  • context: Manage authentication contexts

Object Types

  • objects: Address, service, tag, application configurations
  • network: Security zones
  • security: Security rules and profiles
  • sase: Service connections, remote networks, bandwidth allocations

Common Options

  • --folder: Specify folder location (default: "Shared")
  • --snippet: Use snippet instead of folder
  • --device: Use device instead of folder
  • --mock: Run without API calls
  • --help: Show command help

Advanced Features

External Dynamic Lists (EDLs)

Integrate threat intelligence feeds:

# Palo Alto Networks predefined lists
scm set object external-dynamic-list --folder Texas \
  --name bulletproof-ips --type predefined_ip \
  --url "panw-bulletproof-ip-list"

# Custom threat feed with hourly updates
scm set object external-dynamic-list --folder Texas \
  --name threat-feed --type ip \
  --url "https://example.com/threats.txt" \
  --recurring hourly

# Domain blocklist with authentication
scm set object external-dynamic-list --folder Texas \
  --name malicious-domains --type domain \
  --url "https://secure.example.com/domains.txt" \
  --username api_user --password secure_pass \
  --recurring daily --hour 3

Application Management

Define custom applications:

# Create custom application
scm set object application --folder Texas --name internal-portal \
  --category business-systems --subcategory general-business \
  --technology browser-based --risk 2 \
  --ports "tcp/443" --description "Internal employee portal"

# High-risk application filter
scm set object application-filter --folder Texas --name high-risk-apps \
  --category "file-sharing,peer-to-peer" --risk 4 --risk 5 \
  --has-known-vulnerabilities

HIP (Host Information Profile) Compliance

Enforce endpoint compliance:

# Windows compliance check
scm set object hip-object --folder Texas --name windows-compliance \
  --description "Windows security requirements" \
  --host-info-os Microsoft --host-info-os-value All \
  --host-info-managed \
  --disk-encryption-enabled \
  --patch-management-enabled

# Create HIP profile
scm set object hip-profile --folder Texas --name secure-endpoints \
  --match '{"windows-compliance": {"is": true}}' \
  --description "Require compliant Windows endpoints"

Log Forwarding

Configure log collection:

# Syslog server profile
scm set object syslog-server-profile --folder Texas --name central-syslog \
  --servers '[{"name": "primary", "server": "10.0.1.50", "port": 514, "transport": "TCP", "format": "BSD", "facility": "LOG_USER"}]'

# HTTP server profile for SIEM
scm set object http-server-profile --folder Texas --name splunk-hec \
  --servers '[{"name": "splunk", "address": "10.0.1.100", "protocol": "HTTPS", "port": 8088, "http_method": "POST"}]'

# Log forwarding profile
scm set object log-forwarding-profile --folder Texas --name security-logs \
  --match-list '[{"name": "threats", "log_type": "threat", "send_to_panorama": true}]'

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Authentication Errors

# Check current authentication
scm context test

# If fails, verify credentials
echo $SCM_CLIENT_ID
echo $SCM_CLIENT_SECRET
echo $SCM_TSG_ID

Object Already Exists

The CLI handles existing objects gracefully:

# This will update if exists, create if not
scm set object address --folder Texas --name server --ip-netmask 10.1.1.1/32

Rate Limiting

If you encounter rate limits:

# Use mock mode for testing
scm set object address --folder Texas --name test --ip-netmask 10.1.1.1/32 --mock

# Or add delays in scripts
sleep 1

Debug Mode

For detailed logging:

# Set log level
export SCM_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG

# Run command
scm show object address --folder Texas

Examples Directory

The examples/ directory contains ready-to-use templates:

  • addresses.yml - Common address objects
  • rfc1918-addresses.yml - Private IP ranges
  • security-rules.yml - Security policy examples
  • tags.yml - Tag organization system
  • services.yml - Custom service definitions
  • hip-objects.yml - HIP compliance configurations
  • SASE_COMMANDS_EXAMPLES.md - Service connection and remote network examples

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

Development Setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/cdot65/pan-scm-cli.git
cd pan-scm-cli

# Install dependencies
make setup

# Run tests
make tests

# Check code quality
make quality

License

Apache 2.0 - see LICENSE for details.

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CLI application for Palo Alto Networks Strata Cloud Manager

cdot65.github.io/pan-scm-cli/

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