PBF Rule

The PbfRule class manages Policy-Based Forwarding (PBF) rule objects in Palo Alto Networks' Strata Cloud Manager. It extends from BaseObject and offers methods to create, retrieve, update, list, fetch, and delete PBF rules. These rules allow you to override the routing table and forward traffic based on source zones/interfaces, source and destination addresses, applications, services, and users, directing matching traffic through specific egress interfaces or nexthops.

Class Overview

from scm.client import ScmClient

# Initialize client
client = ScmClient(
   client_id="your_client_id",
   client_secret="your_client_secret",
   tsg_id="your_tsg_id"
)

# Access the PBF Rule service directly through the client
pbf_rules = client.pbf_rule

Method	Description	Parameters	Return Type
create()	Creates a new PBF rule	data: Dict[str, Any]	PbfRuleResponseModel
get()	Retrieves a PBF rule by its unique ID	object_id: str	PbfRuleResponseModel
update()	Updates an existing PBF rule	rule: PbfRuleUpdateModel	PbfRuleResponseModel
list()	Lists PBF rules with optional filtering	folder: Optional[str], snippet: Optional[str], device: Optional[str], exact_match: bool = False, plus additional filters	List[PbfRuleResponseModel]
fetch()	Fetches a single PBF rule by name within a container	name: str, folder: Optional[str], snippet: Optional[str], device: Optional[str]	PbfRuleResponseModel
delete()	Deletes a PBF rule by its ID	object_id: str	None

PBF Rule Model Attributes

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
name	str	Yes	None	PBF rule name
id	UUID	Yes*	None	Unique identifier (*response/update only)
description	str	No	None	Description of the PBF rule
tag	List[str]	No	None	Tags associated with the PBF rule
schedule	str	No	None	Schedule for the PBF rule
disabled	bool	No	None	Whether the PBF rule is disabled
from_	PbfRuleFrom	No	None	Source zone or interface. API field name: from
source	List[str]	No	None	Source addresses
source_user	List[str]	No	None	Source users
destination	List[str]	No	None	Destination addresses
destination_application	Dict[str, Any]	No	None	Destination application configuration
service	List[str]	No	None	Services
application	List[str]	No	None	Applications
action	PbfRuleAction	No	None	Action configuration (forward, discard, or no_pbf)
enforce_symmetric_return	PbfRuleEnforceSymmetricReturn	No	None	Enforce symmetric return configuration
folder	str	No**	None	Folder location. Max 64 chars
snippet	str	No**	None	Snippet location. Max 64 chars
device	str	No**	None	Device location. Max 64 chars

* Only required for update and response models ** Exactly one container (folder/snippet/device) must be provided for create operations

Note

The from_ attribute uses a Python alias because from is a reserved word in Python. In the model, the field is defined as from_ with alias="from". When providing data as a dictionary to create(), use the API field name "from". When accessing the attribute on a model instance, use rule.from_.

Exceptions

Exception	HTTP Code	Description
InvalidObjectError	400	Thrown when provided data or parameters are invalid
MissingQueryParameterError	400	Thrown when required query parameters (e.g., name or folder) are missing
NameNotUniqueError	409	Rule name already exists
ObjectNotPresentError	404	Rule not found
ReferenceNotZeroError	409	Rule still referenced by other objects
AuthenticationError	401	Authentication failed
ServerError	500	Internal server error

Methods

List PBF Rules

# List all PBF rules in a folder
rules = client.pbf_rule.list(
   folder="Texas"
)

# Process results
for rule in rules:
   print(f"Name: {rule.name}, Disabled: {rule.disabled}")

Filtering Responses

The list() method supports additional parameters to refine your query results even further. Alongside basic filters, you can leverage the exact_match, exclude_folders, exclude_snippets, and exclude_devices parameters to control which objects are included or excluded after the initial API response is fetched.

Parameters:

• exact_match (bool): When True, only objects defined exactly in the specified container (folder, snippet, or device) are returned. Inherited or propagated objects are filtered out.
• exclude_folders (List[str]): Provide a list of folder names that you do not want included in the results.
• exclude_snippets (List[str]): Provide a list of snippet values to exclude from the results.
• exclude_devices (List[str]): Provide a list of device values to exclude from the results.

Examples:

# Only return rules defined exactly in 'Texas'
exact_rules = client.pbf_rule.list(
   folder='Texas',
   exact_match=True
)

for rule in exact_rules:
   print(f"Exact match: {rule.name} in {rule.folder}")

# Exclude all rules from the 'All' folder
no_all_rules = client.pbf_rule.list(
   folder='Texas',
   exclude_folders=['All']
)

for rule in no_all_rules:
   assert rule.folder != 'All'
   print(f"Filtered out 'All': {rule.name}")

Controlling Pagination with max_limit

The SDK supports pagination through the max_limit parameter, which defines how many objects are retrieved per API call. By default, max_limit is set to 2500. The API itself imposes a maximum allowed value of 5000. If you set max_limit higher than 5000, it will be capped to the API's maximum. The list() method will continue to iterate through all objects until all results have been retrieved. Adjusting max_limit can help manage retrieval performance and memory usage when working with large datasets.

Example:

from scm.client import ScmClient

# Initialize client
client = ScmClient(
   client_id="your_client_id",
   client_secret="your_client_secret",
   tsg_id="your_tsg_id"
)

# Configure max_limit using the property setter
client.pbf_rule.max_limit = 4000

# List all rules - auto-paginates through results
all_rules = client.pbf_rule.list(folder='Texas')

Fetch a PBF Rule

# Fetch by name and folder
rule = client.pbf_rule.fetch(
   name="redirect-to-wan2",
   folder="Texas"
)
print(f"Found rule: {rule.name}")

# Get by ID
rule_by_id = client.pbf_rule.get(rule.id)
print(f"Retrieved rule: {rule_by_id.name}")

# Access the 'from' field using the Python attribute name 'from_'
if rule.from_:
   print(f"Source zones: {rule.from_.zone}")

Create a PBF Rule

from scm.client import ScmClient

# Initialize client
client = ScmClient(
   client_id="your_client_id",
   client_secret="your_client_secret",
   tsg_id="your_tsg_id"
)

# Create a PBF rule with forward action
rule_data = {
   "name": "redirect-to-wan2",
   "description": "Forward specific traffic through WAN2 interface",
   "from": {
      "zone": ["trust"]
   },
   "source": ["10.0.0.0/24"],
   "destination": ["any"],
   "application": ["web-browsing", "ssl"],
   "service": ["application-default"],
   "action": {
      "forward": {
         "egress_interface": "ethernet1/2",
         "nexthop": {
            "ip_address": "203.0.113.1"
         },
         "monitor": {
            "profile": "default",
            "ip_address": "203.0.113.1",
            "disable_if_unreachable": True
         }
      }
   },
   "folder": "Texas"
}

new_rule = client.pbf_rule.create(rule_data)
print(f"Created PBF rule with ID: {new_rule.id}")

# Create a PBF rule with discard action
discard_rule = {
   "name": "block-p2p-traffic",
   "description": "Discard peer-to-peer traffic",
   "from": {
      "zone": ["trust"]
   },
   "source": ["any"],
   "destination": ["any"],
   "application": ["bittorrent"],
   "action": {
      "discard": {}
   },
   "folder": "Texas"
}

discard = client.pbf_rule.create(discard_rule)
print(f"Created discard PBF rule with ID: {discard.id}")

Update a PBF Rule

# Fetch existing rule
existing_rule = client.pbf_rule.fetch(
   name="redirect-to-wan2",
   folder="Texas"
)

# Modify the description and disable the rule
existing_rule.description = "Updated WAN2 redirect rule"
existing_rule.disabled = True

# Perform update
updated_rule = client.pbf_rule.update(existing_rule)

Delete a PBF Rule

# Delete by ID
rule_id = "123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000"
client.pbf_rule.delete(rule_id)

Use Cases

Performing Commits

# Prepare commit parameters
commit_params = {
   "folders": ["Texas"],
   "description": "Updated PBF rule configurations",
   "sync": True,
   "timeout": 300  # 5 minute timeout
}

# Commit the changes directly on the client
result = client.commit(**commit_params)

print(f"Commit job ID: {result.job_id}")

Monitoring Jobs

# Get status of specific job directly from the client
job_status = client.get_job_status(result.job_id)
print(f"Job status: {job_status.data[0].status_str}")

# List recent jobs directly from the client
recent_jobs = client.list_jobs(limit=10)
for job in recent_jobs.data:
   print(f"Job {job.id}: {job.type_str} - {job.status_str}")

Error Handling

from scm.client import ScmClient
from scm.exceptions import (
   InvalidObjectError,
   MissingQueryParameterError,
   NameNotUniqueError,
   ObjectNotPresentError,
   ReferenceNotZeroError
)

# Initialize client
client = ScmClient(
   client_id="your_client_id",
   client_secret="your_client_secret",
   tsg_id="your_tsg_id"
)

try:
   # Create PBF rule
   rule_config = {
      "name": "test-pbf-rule",
      "description": "Test PBF rule",
      "from": {
         "zone": ["trust"]
      },
      "source": ["any"],
      "destination": ["any"],
      "action": {
         "forward": {
            "egress_interface": "ethernet1/2",
            "nexthop": {
               "ip_address": "10.0.0.1"
            }
         }
      },
      "folder": "Texas"
   }

   new_rule = client.pbf_rule.create(rule_config)

   # Commit changes
   result = client.commit(
      folders=["Texas"],
      description="Added PBF rule",
      sync=True
   )

   # Check job status
   status = client.get_job_status(result.job_id)

except InvalidObjectError as e:
   print(f"Invalid rule data: {e.message}")
except NameNotUniqueError as e:
   print(f"Rule name already exists: {e.message}")
except ObjectNotPresentError as e:
   print(f"Rule not found: {e.message}")
except ReferenceNotZeroError as e:
   print(f"Rule still in use: {e.message}")
except MissingQueryParameterError as e:
   print(f"Missing parameter: {e.message}")

Related Topics

• PbfRuleBaseModel
• PbfRuleCreateModel
• PbfRuleUpdateModel
• PbfRuleResponseModel