FortiGate registration and basic settings
After installing a FortiGate in your network, there are some basic administrative tasks which you should complete. In this recipe, you will complete these tasks to get your FortiGate ready for use:
- Registering your FortiGate with a Fortinet Support account
- Setting the correct system time
- Adding a password to the default administrative account
- (optional) Restricting administrative access to a trusted host PC
1. Registering your FortiGate
Registering your FortiGate allows you to receive FortiGuard updates and is required for firmware upgrades and access to Fortinet Support.
Before registering your FortiGate unit, it must have Internet connectivity.
Go to the Dashboard and locate the License Information widget.
Next to Support Contract, select Register.
Either use an existing Fortinet Support account or create a new one. Select your Country and Reseller. To allow the Support site to keep a complete listing of your devices, we recommend that you use one account to register all of your Fortinet products.
The License Information widget now displays the unit as Registered.
A Launch Portal button also appears, which allows you to quickly access the Fortinet Support Portal.
2. Setting the system time
Go to the Dashboard and locate the System Information widget.
Next to System Time, select Change.
Select your Time Zone and either set the time manually or select Synchronize with NTP Server. Since not all time zones have names, you may need to know how many hours ahead (+) or behind (-) you are from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The image displayed here is from FortiOS 5.4.0; the GUI for FortiOS 5.4.1 differs slightly.
The System Information widget now displays the correct time.
3. Changing the default admin password
Go to System > Administrators and edit the default admin account.
Select Change Password. Leave Old Password blank and enter the New Password.
You will be automatically signed out after changing the password.
It is also recommended to change the user name of this account; however, since you cannot change the user name of an account that is currently in use, a second administrator account will need to be created in order to do this.
4. Results
Attempt to log in using the admin account without a password. Access is denied.
Log in using the admin account with your new password. Access is granted.
Go to the Dashboard and locate the Alert Message Console widget, which indicates the failed authentication attempt.
5. (Optional) Restricting administrative access to a trusted host
If desired, you can configure an administrative account to only be accessible to someone using a trusted host. The host can be either a particular device, or any device on a particular subnet.
Go to System > Administrators and edit the default admin account.
Enable Restrict login to trusted hosts. Set Trusted Host #1 to the static IP address of the PC you will use to administer the FortiGate unit.
If required, set additional trusted hosts.
For further reading, check out Basic Administration in the FortiOS 5.4 Handbook.
