• About SonicOS
  • What is SonicOS?
  • Where Do I Find Information About SonicOS?
  • SonicOS Web Interface to Administration Guide Reference
  • Guide Conventions
• Firewall Management Methods
• About the SonicOS Management Interface
  • Logging Into SonicOS
  • Logging Out of SonicOS
  • Contemporary vs Classic Web Interface
  • Global Search
  • Online Help
  • Notification Center
  • SonicOS Guides (Wizards)
    • Public Server Guide
    • VPN Guide
    • Wireless Guide
    • SDWAN Guide
  • SSH Terminal Access
  • About the Top Menu Views
  • About the API and CLI
  • Legal Information
• What's New in SonicOS 7.1
• Features of SonicOS
  • Features Available in Policy Mode
    • About Unified Policies in SonicOS
    • About the Shadow Feature
    • About Action Profiles
  • Features Available on TZ Series, NSa Series, and NSsp Series
    • Switch Management
    • PortShield Groups
    • Access Points Management
    • WWAN and 4G/LTE
    • Storage Device Configuration
  • Features Available on NSv Series
    • Feature Support on NSv Series
    • Changing Between Classic Mode and Policy Mode
      • Choosing the Mode in Fresh Deployments or Upgrades
      • Changing From Classic to Policy Mode
      • Changing From Policy to Classic Mode
  • Features Available on NSsp 15700
    • About Multi-Instance
• SonicWall Support
  • About This Document

What is SonicOS?

SonicOS<![CDATA[ ]]>7.1 runs on SonicWall network security appliances (firewalls) and provides the web management interface for configuring the features, policies, and security services, updating the firmware, managing connected devices such as switches and access points, monitoring traffic/users/threats, investigating events, and much more. SonicOS runs on top of SonicCore, SonicWall's secure underlying operating system.

SonicOS are two modes of the same operating system, differing mainly in the areas of policy and object configuration. (Undefined variable: Book_Variables.Product_Name) Policy Mode provides a unified policy configuration workflow combining Layer 2 to Layer 7 policy enforcement for security policies and optimizing the workflow for other policy types. This unified policy workflow gathers many security settings into one place, which were previously configured on different pages of the management interface in SonicOS 6.5. SonicOS 7.1 is more consistent with earlier releases, but is also redesigned with the new look and feel.

• SonicOS Policy Mode is supported on SonicWall NSv series and NSsp 15700 firewalls. SonicOS 7.1
• SonicOS Classic Mode is supported on SonicWall TZ series, NSa series, NSsp series (except for NSsp 15700), and NSv series firewalls. Refer to the SonicOS 7.1 Release Notes for the specific supported platforms.

SonicOS provides a modern graphical management interface that facilitates:

• Setting up and configuring your security appliance
• Monitoring the health and status of the security appliance, network, users, connections and the status of the incoming and outgoing traffic
• Configuring external devices, such as access points or switches

SonicOS also provides full-featured API and a command-line interface (CLI) in addition to the graphical management interface. For more information, see About the API and CLI.

For information about the SonicOS management interface, see About the SonicOS Management Interface.