Creating a support account

FortiGate for GCP supports both pay as you go (PAYG) and bring your own license (BYOL) licensing models. See Order types.

To make use of Fortinet technical support and ensure products function properly, you must complete certain steps to activate your entitlement. Our support team can identify your registration in the system thereafter.

First, if you do not have a Fortinet account, you can create one at Customer Service & Support.

BYOL

You must obtain a license to activate the FortiGate. If you have not activated the license, you see the license upload screen when you log into the FortiGate and cannot proceed to configure the FortiGate.

You can obtain licenses for the BYOL licensing model through any Fortinet partner. After you purchase a license or obtain an evaluation license (60-day term), you receive a PDF with an activation code.

To activate a BYOL license:

1. Go to Customer Service & Support and create a new account or log in with an existing account.
2. Go to Asset > Register/Activate to start the registration process.
3. In the Registration page, enter your license activation code, then select Next to continue registering the product.
4. If you register the S-series subscription model, the site prompts you to select one of the following:
   1. Click Register to newly register the code to acquire a new serial number with a new license file.
   2. Click Renew to renew and extend the licensed period on top of the existing serial number, so that all features on the VM node continue working uninterrupted upon license renewal.
5. At the end of the registration process, download the license (.lic) file to your computer. You upload this license later to activate the FortiGate-VM.

   After registering a license, Fortinet servers may take up to 30 minutes to fully recognize the new license. When you upload the license (.lic) file to activate the FortiGate-VM, if you get an error that the license is invalid, wait 30 minutes and try again.

PAYG

To activate a PAYG license:

1. Deploy and boot the FortiGate PAYG VM and log into the FortiGate GUI management console.
2. From the Dashboard, copy the VM's serial number.
3. Go to Customer Service & Support and create a new account or log in with an existing account.
4. Go to Asset > Register/Activate to start the registration process.
5. In the Registration page, enter the serial number, and select Next to continue registering the product. Enter your details in the other fields.
6. After completing registration, contact Fortinet Customer Support and provide your FortiGate instance's serial number and the email address associated with your Fortinet account.