Connecting to the FortiGate-VM

To connect to the FortiGate-VM, you need your login credentials and its public DNS address.

1. Choose the instance from the list of instances on the VM Instances page.
2. Depending on how you provisioned the instance, you must use the instance ID or the fortigate_user_password as the password. The instance ID is represented as a number that can be found after locating the instance in the GCP Compute Engine console.
   1. There are two methods to obtain the instance ID. To use the instance ID as the password, do one of the following:
      1. Open Serial port 1 (console) as seen.

         

         The first time you access the serial console, you will find the instance ID, represented as a number. This is the login password.

         

      2. Do the following:
         1. Select View gcloud command on the VM instance details.

            

         2. Click RUN IN CLOUD SHELL.

            

         3. By default, a command is shown as underlined in the following example. Delete the command shown underlined.

            

         4. Enter the following command: gcloud compute instances describe <instance_name>.

            

         5. You will see a line starting with id: ‘<number>’. This is the FortiGate initial login password.

            

            You can also enter gcloud compute instances describe <instance_name> | grep id: This number is the login password.

            

   2. To use the fortigate_user_password as the password, go to the VM instance details page and find the fortigate_user_password under Custom metadata.

      

3. Open an HTTPS session using the FortiGate-VM's public DNS address in your browser (https://<public_DNS>). You can find the FortiGate-VM's public IP address on the VM instance details page.

   

4. Access the FortiGate in your browser.

   

5. You will see a certificate error message from the browser. This is expected since browsers do not recognize the default self-signed FortiGate certificate. Proceed past the error message.
6. Log into the FortiGate-VM with the username admin and the password (the instance ID or fortigate_user_password, depending on how you provisioned this instance).
7. Upload your license (.lic) file to activate the FortiGate-VM. The FortiGate-VM automatically restarts. After it restarts, wait about 30 minutes until the license is fully registered at Fortinet, and log in again.

   

   You now see the FortiOS dashboard. The information in the main dashboard varies depending on the instance type.

   

   You are encouraged to change the initial password at the top right corner of the FortiGate management GUI.