Fortigate Firewall firmware upgradation query

[Umesh]

Dear all,

I am planning to upgrade Fortigate Firewall from 6.4.4 to 6.4.14 and above. request you all provide recommended steps for it. Also guide me which firmware is stable currently.

Below are the recommended firmware which I have found from Fortinet upgraded path.

I would like to tell you what I know for upgradation.

Step 1: Take backup

Step 2: Follow upgrade path of FortiGate

Step 3: upgraded firmware one by one.

Step 4: Once one firmware upgraded then wait 5 min then proceed next firmware.

Kindly verify If above procedure not  correct.

Thank you.

[srajeswaran]

Hi Umesh,

The upgrade steps mentioned are correct, please try to do this during a maintenace window or non-peak hours.

Also, you can find the recommended release for each model on https://community.fortinet.com/t5/FortiGate/Technical-Tip-Recommended-Release-for-FortiOS/ta-p/22717...

Additionally, make sure you have console access to device if required (in case any unexpected issue like device hang/not-responding etc).

[fricci_FTNT]

Hi @Umesh,

In addition to my colleague Suraj's update, I would suggest you to run a couple of commands to double check the correct upgrade and the health of the FortiGate before and after each upgrade path step:
# get system status  <------to verify the correct firmware
# get system performance status  <------run this x3 times to verify the performances
# get system ha status  <------if you have  a HA cluster and verify that both units are in-sync

Please find in article below a list of health check commands that might be handy in future:
https://community.fortinet.com/t5/FortiGate/Troubleshooting-Tip-FortiGate-Fundamental-Health-Assessm...

Best regards,

[Toshi_Esumi]

Not directly related to your question. But 6.4 has already reached the End of Engineering support. Then will be the end of support next year. You should consider upgrading it to at least 7.0.x fairly soon. 

Toshi