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Ordering FortiGate Virtual Appliance

Ordering FortiGate Virtual Appliance

You can include the FortiGate® Virtual Appliance service with a new VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic - Automated instance or add the service to your existing instance.

You can deploy the service on a single-zone (new or existing) or multizone (existing only) instance. For multizone instances, three FortiGate Virtual Appliances are installed, one for each of the three gateway clusters.

Considerations when you install FortiGate Virtual Appliance

Review the following considerations before you install the FortiGate Virtual Appliance service:

  • The FortiGate VMs are deployed on the management cluster or gateway cluster.

  • If you want to deploy FortiGate-VM16 or FortiGate-VM32, it is recommended that you consider deploying on a gateway cluster instead of a management cluster because of resource requirements. For more information about Fortinet® sizing, see FortiGate-VM on VMware ESXi data sheet.

  • You cannot install Juniper® vSRX and FortiGate Virtual Appliance on the same gateway cluster.

  • The initial memory allocation is determined by your initial CPU selection. However, you can change the memory allocation after deployment.

  • For larger deployment sizes, such as FortiGate-VM16 and FortiGate-VM32, the initial CPU allocation is set to half the deployment size limit to ensure successful deployment. After deployment, you can change the CPU allocation up to the deployment size limit.

  • When you deploy FortiGate Virtual Appliances to your instance, SNAT and firewall rules are defined on the Management NSX Edge™ Services Gateway (ESG). In addition, static routes on the FortiGate Virtual Appliances are defined to allow outbound HTTPS communications from your instance to the public network. These communications are needed for license activation and for acquiring the most updated security policies and content.

  • For high CPU licenses, make sure that you have enough CPUs available on the consolidated cluster.

    • At least 2 VMware ESXi™ servers are available and each active host has sufficient resources to host a single FortiGate VM.
    • VMware® vSphere HA has enough resources to host two FortiGate VMs.

    Because of the requirements, you must plan carefully for the space that is needed for the FortiGate Virtual Appliance. If needed, before you order FortiGate Virtual Appliance, add 1 - 2 ESXi servers to your instance, or reduce the vSphere HA CPU reservation for failover, or both.

The following table shows the configuration of network and storage for your FortiGate Virtual Appliance, depending on where they are deployed.

Table 2. Network and storage configuration
Component Management cluster Gateway cluster
Management IP Existing management subnet IBM Cloud® primary subnet
Storage Management data store (vSAN or NFS) Local data store

Ordering FortiGate Virtual Appliance for new instances

  1. When you order the instance, scroll down to the Add-on services section. FortiGate Virtual Appliance is in the Security and compliance category.
  2. Open the category, locate FortiGate Virtual Appliance, and toggle its switch on.
  3. Click Edit to review and specify the configuration information, then click Save.

You cannot install Juniper® vSRX and FortiGate Virtual Appliance on the same gateway cluster.

Ordering FortiGate Virtual Appliance for existing instances

  1. On the instance details page, click the Services tab.
  2. Click Add to add the service.
  3. On the Add services page, locate the FortiGate Virtual Appliance service in the Security and Compliance section and toggle its switch on.
  4. Click Edit to review and specify the configuration information, then click Save.

Ordering FortiGate Virtual Appliance for private instances

When you order FortiGate Virtual Appliance for instances that are not configured with public interfaces, you must provide a proxy server to complete the installation. The HTTP proxy server must be configured and available through Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) before the FortiGate Virtual Appliance installation can start.

To ensure continued operation, FortiGate Virtual Appliance must have persistent access to the FortiGate license server through the internet. The virtual appliance can access any of the following hostnames:

  • update.fortiguard.net
  • service.fortiguard.net
  • support.fortinet.com
  • guard.fortinet.com

FortiGate Virtual Appliance service configuration

When you order the service, provide the following settings.

Name

Enter the service name.

FortiGuard network connection

Select either Public network or Private network for FortiGuard. If the target cluster is configured with private-only network interfaces or the deployment is for a multizone instance, only the Private network option is available. This selection determines how FortiGuard contacts the Fortinet license server to activate the license and to download security fixes, and it doesn't impact the workload data plane.

If you select Private network, specify the following settings:

  • Proxy IP address - The IPv4 address of the proxy server.
  • Proxy port number - The port number of the proxy server, usually 8080 or 3128.
  • Proxy user name - If you require proxy authentication, enter the username of the proxy server.
  • Proxy password - If you require proxy authentication, enter the password of the proxy server.

Deployment size

IBM Cloud® provides the following deployment size options. For deployment on a multizone instance, only FortiGate-VM16 and FortiGate-VM32 are available.

  • FortiGate-VM02 (2 vCPUs)
  • FortiGate-VM04 (4 vCPUs)
  • FortiGate-VM08 (8 vCPUs)
  • FortiGate-VM16 (16 vCPUs)
  • FortiGate-VM32 (32 vCPUs) The FortiGate-VM32 deployment size requires Cascade Lake 5218 or higher.

Monthly subscription license model

The monthly subscription license model for FortiGate Virtual Appliance offers the following options:

  • Standard FW - This bundle includes the following.
    • Stateful packet inspection
    • VLAN protection and advanced logging
    • Ingress and egress FW rules
    • SSL/IPsec VPN termination
    • Continuous support
  • Standard FW + UTM - This bundle includes all standard firewall services in addition to the Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) service.
    • Advanced malware protection
    • NGFW IPS and web filtering
    • Antispam
    • Application control
  • Standard FW + Enterprise This bundle includes all standard firewall and UTM services in addition to the following services:
    • CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) - This service provides visibility, compliance, data security, and threat protection for cloud-based services.
    • Industrial security - This service provides signatures for common ICS/SCADA protocols.
    • Security rating - This service provides audit capabilities to identify critical vulnerabilities and configuration weaknesses and implement best practice recommendations.

You can't change the monthly subscription license model after service installation. To change the monthly subscription license model, you must delete the existing service and reinstall the service by selecting a different license option.