Fortigate - Hardware switch

[rajamanickam]

Hi, What are the models of Fortigate has internal hardware switch which can be used as one switching layer.. I am not seeing this in the device spec. 

[Vando_Pereira]

Hello,

Do you mean, software switch ? where you can create a L2 domain between the fortigate ports ?

Best Regards

[rajamanickam]

Hi , As you said There are two options to create L2 domain between the Fortigate ports .. Hardware switch and software switch. I understand hardware switch has internal switch fabric and software switch is a virtual form built on software..

I would like to know what are the models support Hardware switch?. (I understand 600E model doesn’t have option to create hardware switch)

Regards

Raja

[Vando_Pereira]

You are correct, the 600E (and also 500E) model does not have a HW Switch capability.

But these models all have the HW Switch:

100/101F
200/201F
300/301E
400/401E
800D
1100/1101E
1200D
1500D

If you need to know about a specific model, just ask and I will check it out for you.

Best Regards,

Vando Pereira

[rajamanickam]

Does 40F,60F,80F boxes have hardware switch ?. If so whether these ports can be used for WAN link extension in HA cluster scenario ? or is it always a separate WAN switch is recommended for WAN link extension to Fortigate HA cluster ..

[ChrisH_atos]

From own expericene i can say that the 1500D does not have a hardware switch.

(also documented here on page 2, 5th to last column - https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/6.4.0/fortios-feature-...

(same goes for 7.0.x or 7.2.x)

[Toshi_Esumi]

All those smaller 2-digit number models have hard-switch built-in, and all internal ports are configured as members of the hard-switch by default. You can break each of those ports from the hard-switch and use it independently whatever you want, like WAN or DMZ or whatever.

Toshi

[rajamanickam]

Thank you for the reply. I was earlier informed by Fortinet that only smaller boxes from 40f to 100f has internal hardware switch and rest of the higher end has only software switch which can be used for bridging ports. Is it so?

Regards

Raja

[Vando_Pereira · Accepted solution]

Depending on the model, as you mentioned above the 40F, 60F and 80F, they all have the Integrated Fabric Switch. On the high end models, depends on the model.

Best Regards,

Vando Pereira

[rajamanickam]

Thank you