Learning Fortigate

[sagvan]

Hello, dears!
I hope everyone is having a great day.

I recently got a job, which involves Fortigate. What would any Fortigate admin need to learn to be able to do the daily activities on Fortigate. Is there any advice for beginners?

I have already finished Introduction to the Threat Landscape, Technical Introduction in Cybersecurity, and Fortigate Operator courses, but without taking any exams as they are just too expensive for me now.

Are the Fortinet Training courses enough in case I already am not familiar with some networking concepts, for example? If I take the Fortiet courses, shall I also look at some other resources, and what do you recommend?

Thank you all!

[funkylicious]

It's always good to read about the Admin Guide or Best Practices of FortiOS/FortiGate and other documents related to that.

[sagvan]

I feel like I need some hands-on experience. Is there an emulator or or practical labs in another form so that I can test things?

[ebilcari]

Fortinet introduced a permanent trial license that you can use on any hypervisor you are familiar with. It has some limitations but from testing purposes fulfills most of the tasks. You can read more about it on this section of Administration guide. 

[dbu]

Hi @sagvan ,
I believe a good start for you will be NSE4 Study Guide . 

Regarding practical experience you can setup a lab with a VM and install the FortiOS there. 

[sagvan]

Does Fortinet have such a solution? Can I actually install Fortigate in a virtual machine?

[ramadas]

First, congratulations for getting the new job. Wishing you success and more success. I believe and trust that developping a good carrer with Fortinet is win-win for all..

Second; and this advise is not only for you, but to any Security Specialist looking to go deeper in the Security Field. There are some major things to go for:

1) Understand the Networking Part of the Fortigate (Routing, NAT...)

2) Do master the Firewall Policy

3) Then help that Policy with other Security Profiles (IPS, AV, .Web Filtering, SSL Decrypt.....) and you are good to Go.

4) And this is the Most IMPORTANT Part in the FortiGate. Do read the Loggs and read them carfefully. In your New Position, the FortiGate will be your only Friend to do your Job better; It will speak to you, conceal what is flowing arround your Network, SO please do listen to it by reading the.Logs and Logs and Logs....

Good Luck

Ramada

[sagvan]

Thank you. This is good advice.
I am still a bit confused as there are tons of courses offered on Fortigate, which include repeated content. I feel like I need more real hands on experience, but I cannot find a good emulator. The others also mentioned it, but do you personally know any that are easy to set up and work on?