FortiAuthenticator 6.5.0

[Toshi_Esumi]

I just saw an RSS feed announcing FAC 6.5.0 release. Since other products around FortiGate has version numbering scheme 6.4, 7.0, 7.2 so far, it's a little surprise for me to see 6.5.0 as the FAC's new version number. Then also realize the FAC generally doesn't have any direct functional connections with FortiGate features, so no reason to go to 7.0.x after 6.4.x.

Is this the reason of 6.5.0 for new FAC version? And would it continue to 6.6->6.7->... consecutively without jumping these in the future?

Toshi

[Debbie_FTNT · Accepted solution]

Hey Toshi,

FortiAuthenticator firmware version doesn't directly relate to FortiGate and other products' firmware version, as you noticed. Integration between FortiAuthenticator and Fabric devices is somewhat limited, essentially boiling down to RADIUS/LDAP/FSSO.
The firmware convention of 6.2/6.4/7.0/7.2 for various products is used largely with products that participate in Security Fabric: FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer/Manager, EMS, etc.

As for the next major firmware version of FortiAuthenticator, I can't say whether that would be 6.6 or 7.0 or something else; for example, FortiAuthenticator jumped from 5.5 to 6.0 a few years back with a major overhaul of the GUI (to be more in line with GUI in other Fortinet products), and then continued on with 6.1/6.2/etc as new features were added.

That is to say, the FortiAuthenticator developers decide on how the product will evolve in the future, and what major firmware version is the correct one to signal how new versions relate to older ones, or possibly relate to other Fortinet products.

I hope that answers your question!

[Toshi_Esumi]

Thanks Debbie for your detailed explanation as usual. I'm hoping the FAC will adopt the true multi-tenancy and separate "global" and "ADOMs" in the future with a jumped major version.

Toshi

[lmarinovic]

Hi Toshi,

On this link you can also see Product integration and support of FortiOS for example:

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortiauthenticator/6.5.0/release-notes/869439/product-integration...

Best regards,

Lazar

[Toshi_Esumi]

Thank you for the info, Lazar.    -Toshi