Preparing for deployment

This documentation assumes that before deploying the FortiGate-VM on the Xen virtual platform, you have addressed the following requirements:

Virtual environment

You have installed the Xen software on a physical server with sufficient resources to support the FortiGate-VM and all other VMs deployed on the platform.

If you configure the FortiGate-VM to operate in transparent mode, or include it in a FortiGate clustering protocol high availability cluster, configure any virtual switches to support the FortiGate-VM's operation before you create the FortiGate-VM.

Management software

If you plan to use the GUI to manage the Xen server, ensure to install the appropriate management software.

Connectivity

The FortiGate-VM requires an Internet connection to contact FortiGuard to validate its license. A FortiGate-VM in a closed environment must be able to connect to a FortiManager to validate the FortiGate-VM license. See Validating the FortiGate-VM license with FortiManager.