What’s New in SonicOS 7.1.1
A first look at the latest SonicOS release, featuring superior threat protection, customer experience and cloud enablement.
by Tiju Cherian
The SonicOS 7 operating system was already the most secure, versatile and easy-to-use operating system SonicWall has ever produced. But the latest release, SonicOS 7.1.1, offers improved security and performance, a superior customer experience and cloud enablement features.
These features are designed to provide a superior customer experience through ease of use, deployments, policy management and day-to-day operations. Here's a high-level look at SonicOS 7.1.1 benefits:
Superior Threat Protection:
- New CFS 5.0 engine
- Advanced DNS filtering
- Secure boot
- Enhanced filesystem security
- Storage enhancements
- Virtual TPM
- OS hardening with new toolchain
- Improved console application
- Maintenance key for both virtual and hardware firewalls
Enhanced Usability:
- Firewall-managed Wi-Fi 6 APs
- More intuitive user experience
- Turnkey integrations with third-party NAC solutions
- Storage enhancements
- Automatic firmware updates
- No more separate SonicOS and SonicCore upgrades
New Multi-Cloud Deployment:
- NSv Bootstrapping
- Support for virtual TPM on-cloud firewall
- Token-based registrations
- New driver and increased performance for NSv
SonicOS 7.1.1 Common Use Cases:
| Feature | Use Case | Business Outcome |
| Wi-Fi 6 unified authentication and security | MSP requires the current SonicWave 621, 641 and 681 access points to be managed by SonicWall firewalls in order to avoid using multiple management solutions (for example, having to use NSM to manage firewalls and WNM to manage SonicWave APs) | Ease of management and seamless integration with SonicWall wireless products |
| NAC integration, offering synergy between SonicWall and Aruba solutions and providing health posture telemetry | Need to apply enhanced user and device context (including role, device health and more) to next-generation firewall rules and policies for protection against unsanctioned traffic
Need to protect users on the network from threats such as phishing, malware and exploits Need to stop unauthorized users and devices by implementing a single policy of authorization and enforcement for users and IoT devices across wired and wireless networks, up to the application level Need to enable closed-loop attack detection via next-generation firewall and policy-based response with ClearPass | Enable enterprises and educational segments to integrate with their Aruba solutions and get more value from their Gen 7 firewall with Health Posture |
| DNS security that enables blocking websites at DNS layer without enabling TLS/SSL decryption | Admin wishes to maximize performance by blocking bad websites at DNS layer without enabling TLS decryption.
MSP – Actively looking to help their customers avoid malicious domains ISP – Wanting to safeguard against DoS and DDoS attacks Enterprises – Wish to protect users without affecting user experience or speed K-12 – Required to provide safe browsing experiences for students and staff while controlling what domains can be accessed Government – To safeguard systems from malware and bad actors | Delivering DNS layer protection without the need to enable TLS decryption |
| Stronger content filtering solution with additional categories and reputation-based filtering | Defining which websites are malicious or undesirable within a web filtering gateway requires the use of static lists of known bad URLs and IP—which can’t keep up with websites and IPs with statuses that switch from benign to malicious and back very quickly | Improved content filtering capabilities for Gen7, resulting in more accurate website/URL rating |
| Secondary storage enhancements to support PCAP (Packet Captures), TSR (Tech-Support Reports) and Logs | Limited primary storage space restricts the ability of diagnostics and troubleshooting on Gen 7 firewalls
Customer must purchase secondary storage to have additional abilities beyond just saving settings and image Admins require logs, TSR and PCAP storing ability on the firewall | Added secondary storage so customers don’t have to purchase separate secondary storage
Enhanced diagnostics and troubleshooting experience Enables logging and reporting on local firewall |
| Policy mode profiles for gateway antivirus and anti-spyware to simplify rule creations from security rule page | Enterprises require ability to have security profile for antivirus and anti-spyware when using policy mode in order to simplify security policy creation at layer 7 | Simplifies unified policy on enterprise deployments using 15700 and NSv firewalls |
| Virtual TPM and enhanced security | Users require not just the OS but also the underlying kernel to be secure | Improved security and performance |
| Automated SonicOS image upgrade | MSPs require automatic SonicOS upgrade notifications so they can easily identify and schedule new OS upgrade | Offers MSPs and others a more convenient user experience |
The SonicOS 7.1.1 release is now available for installation on any SonicWall Gen 7 NGFW. Learn more about what makes Gen 7 our most secure, stable and scalable lineup yet, or reach out to your SonicWall partner or sales rep to upgrade today.
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Tiju Cherian
Tiju Cherian