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Aleksee
New Contributor

Licensing for Cold-Standby Unit

Hey Guys,

In case I have an active FortiGate unit and am planning to acquire a similar unit in cold-standby mode, what do you recommend in terms of Licensing? Should I acquire a UTM Bundle License for the first unit and simply a FortiCare contract for the cold-standby one?

 

In case the active unit with the UTM Bundle license is down, as I understood, I should be doing the following:

 

1- Open a ticket with Fortinet to transfer the license from the active one to the cold-standby one and get in touch with the TAC unit to proceed accordingly

2- Proceed with an RMA to exchange the defected one

3 - As a result, the cold-standby unit will become the primary unit and the exchanged unit will become the cold-standby unit.

 

Appreciate your feedback.

 

Thanks.

6 REPLIES 6
Toshi_Esumi
Esteemed Contributor III

No, that's not going to work. Licenses need to match between all units in a cluster. HA wouldn't form without the condition. You can ask TAC with the current unit you have if you have any doubt.

Toshi_Esumi
Esteemed Contributor III

Ok, you said cold-standby. Now definitely you need to ask TAC if they allow license transfer without writing off the serial number from the book for the "dead" device.

hohosecure

I would think that if you transfer the contract from the "broken" unit to the cold-standby then you will not be able to create an RMA request for the "broken" unit as it will no longer have a contract.

ede_pfau
Esteemed Contributor III

Why bother to transfer the licence just for a few days? Are you using webfilter? If yes, you could disable it for a while. If not, you won't need the full UTM package for just some days. When the RMA replacement arrives, you exchange the serial numbers in Service&Support and recover the licenced status for the new hardware. But, YMMV.


Ede

"Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!"
Ede"Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!"
rwpatterson
Valued Contributor III

Get two 8x5 contracts and run them both simultaneously. If one goes south, you have the other unit up. That should provide ample coverage.

Bob - self proclaimed posting junkie!
See my Fortigate related scripts at: http://fortigate.camerabob.com

Bob - self proclaimed posting junkie!See my Fortigate related scripts at: http://fortigate.camerabob.com
ede_pfau
Esteemed Contributor III

@Bob, don't you get it...this is all about 'how to cheap out', not 'how to do it right'. Many roads lead to Rome...


Ede

"Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!"
Ede"Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!"
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