Technical Tip: Behavior in Transferring Administrative Configuration Manually via CLI to Different Firmware Version

For testing purposes, create the following admin user:

• Create an admin user on v7.6.3 | Username: test1 | Password: fortinet1.

config system admin
    edit "test1"
        set accprofile "super_admin"
        set vdom "root"
        set password ENC PB2Dky05bndlaRdtHMtqK4FFikjWuf718J4fnVyHA7d4EIR1fejTIWzyQ+GdUQzE1PDsZI914NOpqi8jJjaW0jjWhFwqZY1RgZIfOzN8gxznfs=
    next
end

• Create an admin user on v7.6.2 | Username: test2 | Password: fortinet2:

config system admin
    edit "test2"
        set accprofile "super_admin"
        set vdom "root"
        set password ENC PB2QzGSIX987AHc+GPIisapUTBoju0mALuA6Tx8TtV0V+8t+CmAZG5px9oC1fnPoyW5j4/mBkdgl6/qa5tlPKXAUMH0fqRjWabKZVY/YnaZsIA=
    next
end

• Create an admin user on v7.4.7 | Username: test3 | Password: fortinet3:

config system admin
    edit "test3"
        set accprofile "super_admin"
        set vdom "root"
        set password ENC SH2ytSAMkURk9cMFBsA+0QzpCu70il3w+qN78rDxciqTx+rKlKzVrPKMWd+sdw=
    next
end

• Create an admin user on v7.4.6 | Username: test4 | Password: fortinet4:

config system admin
    edit "test4"
        set accprofile "super_admin"
        set vdom "root"
set password ENC SH2/LRTb1NCZOjDb1QBtVE7ELrNG4jcxtJxVjqb1vK5f+I5rhu+xMAHeEPkBPg=
    next
end

Once all the other test users are manually transferred (copied and pasted on CLI) to other FortiGates that have different firmware, here are the results when test users tried to log in:

• test1 admin configuration encounters an Authentication Failure when logging in to v7.4.7, v7.4.6
• test2 admin configuration encounters an Authentication Failure when logging in to v7.4.7, v7.4.6
• test3 admin configuration did not encounter an Authentication Failure when logging in to v7.6.3, v7.6.2, v7.4.7, v7.4.6
• test4 admin configuration did not encounter an Authentication Failure when logging in to v7.6.3, v7.6.2, v7.4.7, v7.4.6

It is possible to transfer the CLI admin configuration manually from v7.4 to v7.6, and it will work. But it will not work the other way around (from v7.6 to v7.4).