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Liza1
Liza1
Explorer II
January 8, 2026
Question

Virtual FortiGate HA and Licensing Clarification

  • January 8, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 355 views

Hello,

I have the following setup and would like your clarification.

We have a virtual FortiGate firewall deployed, with multiple services running behind it. In case this virtual machine experiences an issue or goes down, we would like to have a backup / failover–like solution, similar to what we normally implement with hardware FortiGate HA.

Is it possible to implement such a setup using two virtual FortiGate instances?

Additionally, I have a licensing-related question. We currently have only one license purchased for a single virtual FortiGate instance.
In a hypothetical scenario where:

the primary FortiGate has an issue, and

a secondary FortiGate VM exists but is powered off,

would it be possible to use the same license on the secondary VM?

More specifically:

If the primary FortiGate fails, can traffic automatically fail over to the secondary VM?

Or is it mandatory to configure HA, which would require purchasing an additional license?

As far as I understand, FortiGate licenses are tied to the serial number, and if both virtual machines do not share the same serial number, HA synchronization would not be possible.

Please help clarify the correct and supported approach and share your recommendation.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

 

2 replies

Jean-Philippe_P
Staff & Editor
Jean-Philippe_P
Staff & Editor
January 11, 2026

Hello Liza1, 

 

Thank you for using the Community Forum. I will seek to get you an answer or help. We will reply to this thread with an update as soon as possible. 

Jean-Philippe - Fortinet Community Team
AEK
SuperUser
AEK
SuperUser
January 11, 2026

Hi Liza

License sharing in HA is only applicable for entry level models.

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.6.5/administration-guide/246857/single-fortiguard-license-for-fortigate-a-p-ha-cluster

When you install VM, if you need real time HA (without any downtime) then you need a second VM with an additional license for it.

Otherwise, if your business tolerates some downtime on your network in case you FGT VM crashes and can't start anymore, then you can just restore it from VM backup. This is one clear advantage of virtual appliance against physical appliance.

AEK
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