New license subscription on a used fortigate 61e

[Bananapunk]

Hey guys, 

sorry if this has been answered before, I searched the forums and couldn’t find my case. I’m about to purchase a used fortigate 61e for a very atractive price. The owner is willing to transfer account to me. Current subscription expired in june 2023. My question is whether I can purchase a new subscription now? Would I have to pay for the gap  of 8 months?

[AEK · Accepted solution]

Hello

As per my knowledge.

• If you renew with 1 year subscription, it will start from the last license expiration, in your case from June 2023, so you will lose about 8 months (not interesting at all. Edit: it seems the correct answer is that you will lose a maximum of 6 months).
• If you renew with 2 years subscription, it will be 2 years from the date of renewal, so you will lose nothing

This is not official information and it may be obsolete, so in all cases and in order to confirm the above info you need to contact your Fortinet account manager, as he has the right info and he is the one who can help on this.

[Bananapunk]

Thank you, thats very useful info. Who do you mean by account manager? Do all fortinet accounts have one assigned? Sorry i’m new to this ecosystem.

[AEK]

I guess either contact the old FG owner so he sends you the contact info of his Fortinet account manager, or contact directly your local Fortinet office so they guide you.

[ede_pfau]

Backdating is capped at 6 months. Otherwise, nobody would ever renew a FGT which has got some dust on it...

And yes, I can tell from experience that Fortinet will not backdate an expired contract if the renewal is for 2 years or more, as a courtesy.

Regarding the account manager, as your are not corporate I guess the Internal Regional Account Mgr would take care of your questions. Just contact Fortinet in your country, say the headquarter, and ask for the person in charge. I could help you if you were in Germany, just PM me.

[sahmed_FTNT]

Hello, your local Sales team should be able to guide you through this with all the details

[amrit]

Yes, it is correct that backdating of contracts is capped at 6 months. You may lose a maximum of six months if you don't renew your contract even after 6 months of the expiry. In case you buy a multiyear contract example 2 years or more you will not lose any time because backdating is not applicable in multiyear contracts.