Technical Tip: How to verify the NIC driver version used by a FortiGate-VM network interface

When running FortiGate-VM in a virtualized environment, there may be situations where the underlying hypervisor physical NICs are upgraded or replaced, for example, migrating from Mellanox to Intel cards or updating a NIC firmware/driver version on the host.

In such cases, it is often necessary to confirm which NIC driver FortiGate-VM is using internally to handle the virtual or passthrough interface.

Verify NIC Driver and Version from the FortiGate-VM CLI.

FortiGate provides an internal hardware diagnostic command that displays the underlying NIC information for each interface.

Run the following command:

diagnose hardware deviceinfo nic <interface_name> 

Example output:

FGT-VM_FW (global) # diagnose hardware deviceinfo nic port2 Name:            port2 Driver:          net_ice         <----- Driver used by FortiGate-VM Version:         0.1             <----- Driver version Bus:             0000:03:00.0 HWaddr:          30:3e:a7:0a:90:64 Permanent Hwaddr:30:3e:a7:0a:90:64 State:           up Link:            up Mtu:             1500 Speed:           25000full Auto:            enabled 

Interpretation:

• Driver: Identifies which NIC driver FortiGate-VM is using.
  Example: net_ice indicates Intel 100G-class NIC (ICE driver).

• Version: The internal driver version FortiGate is using.

• This confirms whether the FortiGate-VM is running on the correct NIC model after a hypervisor-level hardware change.

Common NIC drivers supported by FortiGate-VM.
FortiGate-VM includes built-in drivers to support common SR-IOV and passthrough NICs across hypervisors.

• Intel cards compatible with igb, ixgbe, and i40e drivers (1/10/25/40 Gbps).
• Intel cards compatible with the ice driver (100 Gbps) (FortiOS v6.4.1 and later versions). Shown as an example in the above CLI output.
• Mellanox 100G cards (mlx_4 and mlx_5).
• Broadcom 100G cards (P2100G) (FortiOS v6.4.3 and later versions).  
  

Example mapping :

• If Driver: net_ice → Intel ICE driver → 100G NIC (or 25G if presented by the host).

• If Driver: mlx_5 → Mellanox ConnectX-5 NIC.

Note: 

Versions 5.0 through 7.0 are no longer under engineering support. These commands may differ in higher versions. Consider upgrading the firmware level on the device to a supported version (v7.2 up to v7.6). Check the firmware path and compatibility depending on the hardware on the following link: Upgrade Path Tool Table.