Technical Tip: Hardware Switch Interface fails to receive DHCP IP after upgrading to v7.6.3

In an Active-Passive HA setup, a hardware switch interface configured with set mode dhcp does not receive a DHCP IP address.

However, if the same configuration is applied in Standalone mode, or when the secondary device did not join the HA cluster, the DHCP IP address is correctly assigned to the interface.

Sample config:

config system interface
    edit "HW-SW"
        set vdom "root"
        set mode dhcp
        set allowaccess ping
        set type hard-switch
    next

config system virtual-switch
    edit "HW-SW"
        set physical-switch "sw0"
            config port
                edit "port10"
                next
end

The following errors may appear in the console, indicating issues with the virtual-switch and the DHCP client process:

<pid-9054 9054> [shmf_filemap_add:225] access(/dev/shmfile/system.virtual-switch.29113) failed: 2(No such file or directory)
<pid-9054 9054> [shmf_ptr_from_slabid:450] shmf_filemap_add(fileid=29113, pageid=1) failed: access(/dev/shmfile/29113) failed, error=2(No such file or directory)

fnsysctl ps
9054 65533 65533 S /bin/dhcpcd

This issue has been resolved in versions:

• v7.6.4 (available to download from the Fortinet support portal).
• v8.0.0 (scheduled to be released in February 2026).

These timelines for firmware release are estimates and may be subject to change.