What happens if one Fortigate device expires license on an HA pair

[kgcppublic]

Newbie question here, I'm working in an MSP, and one of our clients Fortigate FW license expired which caused web browsing to be blocked. I've look into this and was able to get things working before we renewed the license.

Our team is planning to give recommendations on purchasing a similar fortigate appliance with identical license but with different expiry dates. I just want to be sure if this will work, if the primary FW loses its subscription will the 2nd device take over if the subscription on it are still active?

[johnathan · Accepted solution]

Each device in the HA cluster needs to be licensed in order for the features to work. The cluster will always take the lowest expiry date on any device. See this article for details: https://community.fortinet.com/t5/FortiGate/Technical-Tip-The-HA-Cluster-requirements/ta-p/325375

[johnathan · Accepted solution]

Each device in the HA cluster needs to be licensed in order for the features to work. The cluster will always take the lowest expiry date on any device. See this article for details: https://community.fortinet.com/t5/FortiGate/Technical-Tip-The-HA-Cluster-requirements/ta-p/325375

[dingjerry_FTNT · Accepted solution]

Hi @kgcppublic ,

If one of the HA cluster members expires the licenses, the whole HA cluster will show the expired information for the licensing.