FG140D-POE VIP configuration issue

[Pandalist]

Dear All

I have been battling for some time already with a point of configuration and i feel i am missing something (certainly silly) to make it work. I hope you can help me see what i am missing

The HW: 1 Fortigate 140D-POE (V5.2.6, build 711)

The setup: I have 2 servers, both are in a /30 subnet (with LACP configured) I have another /24 subnet with a very stupid piece of HW that needs to have access to the 2 servers. The problem is that said HW can only see the servers if they are in the same subnet In order to keep the LACP redundancy of the servers i wanted to create a VIP for each server: I created Object VIP-Server1 with "External IP Address" the IP of the Server1 and "Mapped IP" a free IP on the desired subnet; i left the Port Forwarding option deactivated. I did the same for VIP-Server2 and then created a group VIP-Servers Next i went to the IPv4 Policy and created a new rule From subnet desired; To subnets of the servers; source all; destination VIP-Servers; Accept

This method (that i borrowed from the YouTube vids) doesn't seem to be working The HW in the desired subnet cannot see the servers (it can see them only when i attach one of the interfaces of the servers inside the desired subnet)

I am fairly certain i am close to the solution but i feel i am missing something essential

Can someone show me my mistake?

Thank you in advance Andy