FortiGate-7000 overview

A FortiGate-7000 product consists of a FortiGate-7000 series chassis (for example, the FortiGate-7040E) with FortiGate-7000 modules installed in the chassis slots. A FortiGate-7040E chassis comes with two interface modules (FIM) to be installed in slots 1 and 2 to provide network connections and session-aware load balancing to two processor modules (FPM) to be installed in slots 3 and 4.

FortiGate-7000 products are sold and licensed as packages that include the chassis as well as the modules to be included in the chassis. When you receive your FortiGate-7000 series product the chassis has to be installed in a rack and the modules installed in the chassis. Interface modules always go in slots 1 and 2 and processor modules in slots 3 and up.

If your FortiGate-7000 product includes two different interfaces modules, for optimal configuration you should install the module with the lower model number in slot 1 and the module with the higher model number in slot 2. For example, if your chassis includes a FIM-7901E and a FIM-7904E, install the FIM-7901E in chassis slot 1 and the FIM-7904E in chassis slot 2. This applies to any combination of two different interface modules.

As an administrator, when you browse to the FortiGate-7000 management IP address you log into the interface module in slot 1 (the primary or master interface module or FIM) to view the status of the FortiGate-7000 and make configuration changes. The FortiOS firmware running on each module has the same configuration and when you make configuration changes to the primary interface module, the configuration changes are synchronized to all modules.

The same FortiOS firmware build runs on each module in the chassis. You can upgrade FortiGate-7000 firmware by logging into the primary interface module and performing a firmware upgrade as you would for any FortiGate. During the upgrade process the firmware of all of the modules in the chassis upgrades in one step. Firmware upgrades should be done during a quiet time because traffic will briefly be interrupted during the upgrade process.

Licenses, Device Registration, and Support

A FortiGate-7000 product is made up of a FortiGate-7000 series chassis, one or two FIM interface modules and two to four FPM processor modules. The entire package is licensed and configured as a single product under the FortiGate-7000 chassis serial number. When you receive a new FortiGate-7000 product you register it on https://support.fortinet.com using the chassis serial number. Use the chassis serial number when requesting support from Fortinet for the product.

All Fortinet licensing, including FortiCare Support, IPS, AntiVirus, Web Filtering, Mobile Malware, FortiClient, FortiCloud, and additional virtual domains (VDOM) is for the entire FortiGate-7000 product and not for individual components.

If an individual component, such as a single interface or processor fails you can RMA and replace just that component.