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July 7, 2026
Question

helping with the network

  • July 7, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 36 views

good morning

The requirement is to create two physical ports for the firewall: one dedicated to the entire internal network, from which all data flows, and the other one dedicated solely to the Fortigate firewall's settings, updates, databases, and communications with its servers and online services.

How can I properly isolate these two ports to prevent any data leakage from the first port to the second?

 

Can I get a detailed, practical guide to the process?

    2 replies

    Toshi_Esumi
    SuperUser
    SuperUser
    July 7, 2026

    I think you’re saying separating local-in/local-out management interface from user interface. But there are two directions for those traffic; internet side and internal admin access side. The internal admin access side is relatively simple by setting up “dedicated-to management” interface described in the KB.
     

    But for the internet side, like downloading firmware to upgrade it automatically, FortiGuard access and getting IPS/AV database updates, DNS, NTP and so on, first, you need to have a second internet circuit. Then you can either specify each service to use that circuit or use SD-WAN rule to steer it.
    Either way, you need to have a default route to both circuits.
     


    Toshi

    sjoshi
    Staff
    Staff
    July 8, 2026

    Hi ​@bahaa33 

     

    To properly isolate two physical ports on a FortiGate — one for internal user traffic (e.g., port2) and one for management, updates, and FortiGuard communications (e.g., port1) — configure each port in a separate VDOM or use policy-based isolation with static routes.
    First, assign each port a distinct IP subnet and disable any overlapping administrative access (e.g., set allowaccess on the management port to ping https ssh and on the internal port to none or only ping). 
    Then, create firewall policies that explicitly deny any traffic between the two ports unless required (e.g., config firewall policy, edit 1, set srcintf "port2", set dstintf "port1", set action deny). 
    For outbound internet access from the internal port, configure a default route via the WAN interface (not the management port), and for FortiGate services (updates, FortiGuard, DNS), use a separate static route pointing to the management port's gateway.
    To prevent data leakage, ensure no inter-VDOM link or policy allows traffic from the internal VDOM to the management VDOM, and verify with diagnose debug flow and packet captures (diagnose sniffer packet any 'host <mgmt-server-ip>' 4).

    Thanks, Salon