Managed fortiswitch >> third party Firewall

[rmehunro]

Hi (New to Fortinet )

I am hoping i can get some feedback regarding a project that i am currently working on,

In our data center, we are replacing the switches with a managed fortiswiches 2048s. The firewall is a 3rd party appliance and will not be replaced at this moment.

Proposed topology

 I would like to manage the switches via the firewall as the controller. is this even possible?  Is this a best practice? are there any potential issue with routing/config that i should be aware of ?

Thanks in advance!

[amrit]

 If you want to manage the fortiswitch via fortigate you can use this document :https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortiswitch/7.4.4/fortilink-guide/173260/configuring-fortilink and it is the best practice as well for fortiswitches but if the firewall is not fortigate then I don't think you can manage it via a non-Fortinet vendor

[rmehunro · Accepted solution]

Thank you

[ede_pfau]

What @amrit is really telling you is, you need a FGT as a switch controller as this software is not embedded in 3rd party firewalls of any other vendor, AND yes, the way you have depicted a FortiLink connection to your switches from your FGT (be it local or remote) will allow you to manage the FortiSwitches.

You will have to find out if/how a FortiLink connection is made over a routed connection, if this is really the case in your setup.

Best practice? Nope, but why not. If your FGT is remote, there might be a way.

[rmehunro]

Thanks!