Fortiswitch questions

[cristineg]

Hello everyone.

I have around 20 Cisco sg500x switches that I would like to slowly move over to 248E-FPOE and 248E-POE. Right now the sg500Xs are doing L3. I plan to move L3 to my two FG100Es.

Here are my questions:

1. The "Advanced licensing feature" is only needed if I want to use dynamic routing, right? Is it a perpetual license or is it a subscription?

2. Do I need to buy any other licensing or support for the switches or are they covered under the Fortigate's UTM bundle?

3. If I have the switches connected to the gate with fortilink, can I still manage the individual switches with Web or CLI if needed?

4. With fortilink, can I daisy chain switches together? Like Gate -> switch -> another switch and still manage both switches from the Gate?

5. If a switch is first set up in standalone mode, does adding it to the Gate wipe its config?

Are there any gotchas I should prepare for or anything else I should be planning for?

Thanks for reading.

[amouawad]

1. That's correct, and only needed if you are not going to be managing the switches via the FortiGate. If you manage the switches from the FGT you won't need the advanced license as the FGT will be doing the dynamic routing. The advanced feature license is perpetual, so only need to get once per switch (if you want standalone switches).

2. You'd still need to purchase the FortiCare support for the switches if you want to get support and get replacement switches if one fails. But nothing else in regards to licensing.

3. You can still manage the switches from the CLI using the FGT's GUI. Most things will be done through the FGT, but if there's anything that needs to be configured in the switch you can still access it's CLI.

4. Yes definitely. You just connect the switches and they will automatically form the topology once authorised. Below I've got three switches daisy chained.

5. Once a switch connects to the FGT then it's not longer in standalone mode and the config will be wiped and the switch will reboot.