Technical Tip: How to schedule fabric-upgrade through CLI on FortiGate

CLI configuration:
Run the command below to initialize the fabric upgrade.

execute federated-upgrade initialize 

Preparing for federated upgrade...

After running the first command, it will ask for the date and time when the upgrade will be performed.

When should the upgrade run? [immediate | hh:mm YYYY/MM/DD] 01:00 2025/10/18  

After specifying the date and time, it will ask which firmware version the FortiGate needs to be upgraded to. In the example below, the version is 7.4.9.

(Use comma-separated versions with format M.m.p. For example, 1.2.3) 7.4.9
Include FortiGates in upgrade? (y/n)y    <----- Press Y to upgrade all FortiGates, which is the fabric.

Press 'Y' if the FortiSwitches also need to be upgraded.
If there is any specific switch that should not be upgraded, press 'Y' and then enter the FortiSwitch serial number to exclude it from the upgrade.

Include FortiSwitches in upgrade? (y/n)y
Please enter the serial numbers of any FortiSwitches that should be excluded from the upgrade, one on each line.

Press 'Y' if the FortiAPs also need to be upgraded.
If there is any specific FortiAP that should not be upgraded, press 'Y' and then enter the FortiAP serial number to exclude it from the upgrade.

Include FortiAPs in upgrade? (y/n)y
Please enter the serial numbers of any FortiAPs that should be excluded from the upgrade, one on each line.

Press 'Y' if the FortiExtenders also need to be upgraded.

Include FortiExtenders in upgrade? (y/n)n

It will show a summary of a fabric upgrade configuration. Press 'confirm' to schedule.

Summary:

Upgrade time: 19:03 2025/10/25 UTC
1 FortiOS versions in path:
7.4.7
Devices to be upgraded:
1 FortiGate
1 FortiSwitches
1 FortiAPs
Please confirm the upgrade. [confirm|cancel]
Please type "confirm" to confirm the upgrade.confirm

Run the command below to verify the fabric-upgrade status. 
 

execute federated-upgrade status
    Global devices:
    1 FortiGate
    1 FortiSwitch
    1 FortiAP
    Local devices:
    1 FortiSwitch
    1 FortiAP
    Includes this FortiGate: yes
    Local status: Ready

Note: 'Local status:' from the command above will show as 'downloading' when all required firmware images are being fetched from Fortiguard servers. It will change to 'Ready' only after all required firmware images have downloaded.

Related document: 
Upgrading all devices - FortiGate administration guide