Fortigate VM ESXi

[jhuizi]

Hello all

I am new to Fortigate, having some experience with Cisco ASA. But my company has switched to Fortinet and we are now a Fortinet partner.

In my home LAB I have a Cisco ASA 5505 which is EOL for some years now, so I want to switch to Fortigate. I have installed the ESXi 7.4.2 and this seems OK.

Now I am notified that there is a new version (7.4.3) but it seems I can't upgrade, or even re-install, is this correct?

As already mentioned, I am new to this, so this could be a rule

My company is going to buy a Fortigate F40 for my home LAB, so the ESXi is only temporary

Thanks 

Jan H.

[rtanagras]

Hi @jhuizi - Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I understand, you would like to upgrade the FortiOS from 7.4.2 to 7.4.3. If so, yes, that's possible for ESXi. You can get the VM image from support.fortinet.com > support > VM Images. Select the platform (VMWare ESXi) and then choose 7.4.3. The file that you can download is FGT_VM64-v7.4.3.F-build2573-FORTINET.out.

Full upgrade instructions can be found here: https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.4.2/administration-guide/596131

Simply log in to the FortiGate and navigate to System > Firmware & Registration. Select the FortiGate, and click Upgrade. Since this method is manual, select the File Upload Tab to upload the downloaded image, then press Confirm and Backup Config to proceed.

An alternative method is quite simple: navigate to the same path System > Firmware & Registration. Then click either Latest or All Upgrades. Select a firmware version and click Confirm and Backup Config.

Hope this helps!

[jhuizi]

Hello Ricky

I tried that before, but I get an error like this:

*******

This is a FortiOS v7.4.3-build2573 firmware image that cannot be installed because the device's FortiGuard license for firmware upgrades could not be verified or may have expired. Verify or renew the license to install upgrades.

******

I am using a trial license, and I see that the status is: Online and the Registration status is: Registered

I do probably something wrong, or the trial license does not allow upgrades

Thank you for your help

Jan

[Jakob-AHHG]

Hi,
I just upgraded a ESXi VM FG 7.4.2 to 7.4.3 via GUI and it fetched the upgrade from FortiCloud by itself, no need to manually upload image.

[jhuizi]

Hi Jakob

You run Fortigate with an official license, or a trial license?

Reagrds

Jan

[Jakob-AHHG]

Official, valid until jan. 2025

[jhuizi]

OK, that might be the problem, I have a trial license

Anyway, not a big issue, I familiar myself with the current version of Fortigate and wait for the company to buy me a Fortigate F40 for my home LAB

Thank you all for the quick replies!

Jan

[Jakob-AHHG]

That, or it has simply not gotten the updated list with the new verison yet.
Give it a try in a few hours.

[jhuizi]

THanks!

Shall do that

Regards

Jan

[Jakob-AHHG]

That said, our FortiManager can now assign both 7.2.7 & 7.4.3 for Gates and Switches - that was not possible friday afternoon, where those releases was only available for manual download.
But give a bit of time, and check again.