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rmetzger
Staff
Staff
August 25, 2009

Technical Tip: Changing the HTTPS administrative port of Firewall GUI to avoid conflict when using a VIP with same external IP address as the FortiGate

  • August 25, 2009
  • 0 replies
  • 19134 views

Description

 

This article describes a precaution to take when configuring VIP (Virtual IP) with the same external IP address and port as the FortiGate HTTPS administrative port, and no port forwarding is set.

 

Scope

 

FortiGate.

 

Solution


External IP :                     
a.b.c.d.
[ Internet ] ===  { FortiGate } ===  WEB server.
VIP --> a.b.c.d to the WEB server.
No port forwarding set.

 

In this situation, when accessing http://a.b.c.d  or https://a.b.c.d, the FortiGate would forward all the traffic to the WEB server, and HTTPS administration access to the FortiGate itself will be impossible.

 

The problem is the conflict between the VIP and the FortiGate administrative access port.

This can be resolved by first changing and releasing the default HTTPS ports used by the FortiGate, and then, by configuring Port Forwarding on the VIP.
 
Step 1: Changing the administration ports from the GUI :

Navigate to System -> Settings -> Administration Settings, and change the port numbers, as shown below :

 

KB1.png

 

From CLI :
 
config system global
    set admin-sport 1443  
end
 
Step 2: Configuring port forwarding on the VIP :
 
Navigate to Policy & Objects -> Virtual IPs, and edit the VIP to add port forwarding:
 
KB2.png

 

From CLI:
 
config firewall vip
    edit "VIP_port3"
        set portforward enable
        set extport 443
        set mappedport 443
    next
end
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