SonicWall Migration Tool to Sophos Firewall

The SonicWall Migration Tool or the SonicWall Migration Assistant helps with the migration from a SonicWall to a Sophos Firewall.

Firewall: The heart of the network

Firewalls are at the heart of every network and many companies follow the motto “Never Touch a Running System”. But firewalls make a significant contribution to security. Whether Fortinet, SonicWall, Palo Alto or Sophos – around 80 % of the functions are the same for all providers. Price, performance, ecosystem, operation, marketing or the hope that things will go better with the other provider drive admins to switch. However, the last 20% of functions can make all the difference if they are configured correctly.

Migration planning

As the firewall is a central point in the network, many are reluctant to switch to another manufacturer due to the effort, costs and downtime involved. Often you take the easy way and buy the new hardware, import the configuration and voilà, it runs again for 4-6 years. But if the migration is well planned, the network downtime is not much longer than when switching to a new model of the same brand. Thanks to the new Sophos Firewall SonicWall Migration Assistant, the costs and time required for migration can be minimized.

SonicWall Migration Tool

The SonicWall Migration Tool does a lot of the work for you. You can import the backup of the Sophos Firewall and get a Sophos Firewall configuration. This then only needs to be imported and the hardware replaced. It’s that simple 😜. At least that’s how it would be in a perfect world, but the reality is different. The SonicWall Firewall to Sophos Firewall Wizard only takes over parts of the configuration and the rework should not be underestimated.

First download the 2.5 GB OVA file and start the VM. You can then start the wizard via a web interface, which guides you through the individual steps. Only Sophos partners can download the OVA file, so please contact us if you are interested.

The Sophos Firewall SonicWall Migration Assistant supports migration to the latest Sophos Firewall platforms, including all XGS Series models as well as virtual and software deployments. The import supports backups from SonicWall 6.5.X and 7.X. The wizard migrates:

• Interfaces
• Address objects (hosts)
• Service objects
• SD-WAN routes
• NAT Rules
• Threat Prevention Enablement
• Content/Web Filter Lists
• Firewall rules

Among other things, users, groups, authentication, VPN, dynamic routes, administrative settings, Wi-Fi, application rules, syslog, alarms, certificates and passwords are not migrated.

Striving for perfection

Most administrators do not have the time to constantly maintain the firewall and scrutinize the rules. It is therefore often easier to transfer existing settings to the new system. However, a change offers the opportunity to question everything, use new approaches and rebuild the configuration. New technologies and extended security functions of the Sophos Firewall offer considerable potential for improving network security.

Step 1 is to make the migration as smooth as possible, but step 2, the fine-tuning, should always be in the back of your mind.

A well-thought-out migration plan that takes these aspects into account can not only improve security, but also increase network performance and administrative efficiency. A continuous improvement process should be established to ensure that the firewall always remains state of the art and meets the highest security standards.

Migration from any firewall to Sophos Firewall

The SonicWall to Sophos Firewall Migration Assistant has been available for some time, there is currently no tool available for other manufacturers.

Our technicians are happy to provide support for any migration to a Sophos Firewall. They offer training so that internal IT can operate the firewall themselves or offer a full service with a managed firewall. Contact

If it is not yet possible to change the firewall, it is also possible to pump the SonicWall logs to Sophos Central in order to have this data evaluated there by your own security team using XDR or by the Sophos MDR team.