Powering Down Fortinet Appliances

[JohnKall]

Hi,

I was assigned to make a power down plan for the Fortinet Appliances that we use in the data center.

We have FortiManager, FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer and LoadBalancer for equipment.

How do I power them down?

Is there a specific order that I should follow?

How do I take the configuration backup?

Thanks 

John

[AndrKuhn]

Hi John,

Create Backup (OS 5.2):

For FortiManager + FortiAnalyzer go to tab System Settings > Dashboard > Widget System Information > System Configuration > klick Backup

For FortiGate go to Dashboard > Status > System Information > System Configuration > klick Backup

For Power-Down: just unplug or push the button (if existing)

Kind regards,
Andreas

[DrWolfgangBeneicke1]

Uh-oh.

I strongly recommend against "just pull the plug". Depending on the FGT model used they may be equipped with an internal disk (SSD) which will take offense in being switched off without proper shutdown.

Next time the FGT is booted a warning will be displayed that a file system check is due - with reboot. And you are well advised to permit it asap.

Same for FAZ or FMG with internal disk(s).

So, before switching off the power you shut the appliances down. In the GUI, on Dashboard/Resources widget, hit 'Shutdown'. You may enter a reason for it, later to be seen in the logs. It only takes a couple of seconds to stop all services and 'halt' the OS. Unfortunately, you cannot notice...except for on the console (serial) port.

In the CLI, just 'exec shutdown' and confirm with 'y'.

Per se, shutdown does not need to be preceeded by a backup operation. It surely never hurts but is not mandatory. Changes to the configuration always are written to flash. With the 'auto-config-save' option set, point-in-time backups are saved to flash every time you change the config.

Ede

[JohnKall]

Thanks Ede,

I will follow your advice.

By the way, do you have in mind any video training tutorials for fortinet products? Especially FortiManager, FortiADC and FortiGate, not just only Fortinet provides?

John

[DrWolfgangBeneicke1]

Check out the Fortinet Video Library - http://video.fortinet.com . They feature a lot of products there, and even Cookbook recipes on video.

[AndrKuhn]

Uh - didn´t have this disk thing in my mind, you´re of course correct, and proper shutdown doesn´t cost that much amount of time...   thanks for notice!