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CBT Nuggets

Palo Alto Networks Certified: Network Security Professional (PCNSP) Online Training

Prepare for the Palo Alto Certified Network Security Professional (PCNSP) exam, and learn to deploy and support Palo Alto’s full network security ecosystem. This course teaches you how Strata firewalls, Prisma Access, and Prisma SD-WAN fit together in real-world on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments. You'll learn about deployment, policy management, decryption, and remote user security. This Palo Alto network security professional training helps you learn practical skills with hardware and cloud tools including local Firewall management, as well as cloud management via tools like Strata Cloud Manager (SCM), helping you stand out as a certified network security professional.

Updated March 2026

17Skills
129Videos
16h 47mTotal
129 videos16h 47m

Who This Course Is For

This course is for network and security professionals eager to move into operational cybersecurity roles with Palo Alto technologies. If you already deploy firewalls, manage hybrid networks, or secure remote users with Prisma tools, this Palo Alto certification helps formalize your skills and prepare you for more substantial operational responsibilities.

Skills Your Team Will Gain

  • [
  • 'Install and configure PA-Series, VM-Series, and Cloud NGFW firewalls',
  • 'Implement application layer inspection and decryption policies',
  • 'Understand Prisma Access for remote user security',
  • 'Describe SD-WAN in a SASE framework',
  • 'Manage environments using Strata Cloud Manager',
  • 'Apply network hardening and industry best practices for security'
  • ]

Course Curriculum

  • Premium skill.Palo Alto FW Factory Reset & Setup52m
  • Premium skill.Palo Alto FW Setup Using Trunking1h 5m
  • Premium skill.Traffic Flow & Forwarding Logic1h 5m
  • Premium skill.Security Policy Evaluation1h 5m
  • Premium skill.PA FW Log and Session Correlation1h 17m
  • Premium skill.PA FW Source Address Translation1h 1m
  • Premium skill.Palo Alto Destination NAT1h 5m
  • Premium skill.Palo Alto Networks App-ID1h 4m
  • Premium skill.Palo Alto User-ID59m
  • Premium skill.SSL Forward Proxy Essentials59m
  • Premium skill.Protecting Public-Facing Apps46m
  • Premium skill.Security Profiles and Updates52m
  • Premium skill.Keeping the Lights On51m
  • Premium skill.Meet Strata Cloud Manager (SCM)60m
  • Premium skill.Authoring Policies in the Cloud1h 5m
  • Premium skill.SSL Decryption at Scale with SCM45m
  • Premium skill.Palo Alto Zero Trust54m

For IT leaders

What IT leaders need to know before assigning this course

Misconfigured firewalls create outage risk, inconsistent access control, and gaps in security visibility. This intermediate Palo Alto training helps IT Directors standardize how network and security teams deploy, manage, and troubleshoot Palo Alto Networks firewalls across on-prem and cloud-managed environments. The course is best assigned to firewall administrators, network engineers, security engineers, and Team Leads responsible for routing, NAT, policy enforcement, logging, SSL decryption, and public-facing application protection.

Plan for about 16 hours, 45 minutes per learner. For change management, this course is well suited as a structured rollout before firewall refreshes, policy cleanup projects, Strata Cloud Manager adoption, or Zero Trust initiatives. Teams build a shared operating model for traffic flow, forwarding logic, policy evaluation, log correlation, App-ID, User-ID, security profiles, and updates. CBT Nuggets Playlists can sequence the training by role or project phase, while Team Reporting helps Training Managers and IT Directors track completion and readiness across the team.

Team Impact

How this training helps your team succeed

IT teams complete this training to reduce firewall-related downtime and improve consistency in Palo Alto operations. The course maps to real scenarios teams face when deploying, migrating, or maintaining Palo Alto firewalls.

  • Faster firewall onboarding: Teams practice core setup concepts including factory reset, management and data-plane configuration, VLAN trunking, and sub-interfaces.
  • More predictable traffic handling: Engineers learn how traffic flow, forwarding logic, routing decisions, zones, and security policy evaluation affect allow/deny outcomes.
  • Stronger troubleshooting workflows: Teams correlate firewall logs and sessions to isolate policy, NAT, routing, and application-identification issues faster.
  • Improved security operations: Practitioners work through Source NAT, Destination NAT, App-ID, User-ID, SSL forward proxy, public-facing app protection, security profiles, updates, and cloud-based policy authoring with Strata Cloud Manager.

After completion

Knowledge & ability your team will gain

Knowledge

  • How Palo Alto firewalls process traffic through forwarding logic, routing decisions, zones, and policy evaluation.
  • How VLAN trunking, 802.1Q tagging, and sub-interfaces support segmented firewall deployments.
  • How security policy rules, logging, sessions, App-ID, and User-ID contribute to access control and visibility.
  • How Source NAT, Destination NAT, and public-facing application protection fit into firewall design.
  • How SSL forward proxy, SSL decryption at scale, security profiles, updates, Strata Cloud Manager, and Zero Trust concepts support modern firewall operations.

Ability

  • Set up and verify foundational Palo Alto firewall configurations, including reset and initial deployment tasks.
  • Configure trunk-based firewall connectivity for segmented networks.
  • Troubleshoot traffic flow using routing, session, and log correlation methods.
  • Build and evaluate security policies with application and user context.
  • Apply NAT, SSL inspection concepts, security profiles, and cloud-managed policy workflows to operational firewall scenarios.

This course is included with every subscription

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