4 thoughts on “How To Manage A FortiSwitch via FortiGate”
Jamie D.
Hello there.
We just replaced our Dell N series switches with 4 248E-FPOE switches. It is cabled in a ring and connected to x1 & x2 on a 100F. I’m experiencing a couple of problems that I can’t seem to figure out.
1. The fortilink interface on the 100F remains down, even with the 4 switches connected to it via SFP cables to x1 & x2, yet we have internet so I know the traffic is going through that interface. If you go to WiFi & Switch Controller | Managed FortiSwitch, it’s constantly scanning and never stops, even if you reboot the 100F. If you manually add a switch using as S/N, it just adds it and it’s in an offline state. I do have the fortilink interface set to auto authorize & split interface is enabled.
2. As soon as I set the switches to FortiLink managed, we lose internet and it never comes back and I can’t reach our firewall without connecting to the MGMT interface. The only way to get the internet back is to reset the switches to locally managed via console cable, which makes them not operate as a stack.
FortiNet support won’t help since it’s a new setup, they’d rather me pay someone to come connect them than offer assistance. Any thoughts or ideas? Thanks in advance.
If the interface is configured as a FortiLink interface and the fortiswitch has recent firmware it should reboot in managed mode. From there you have to assign your VLANs the way you intend etc.
I have a FG500E with x1 & x2 connected to Cisco 3850 – 10gig 24port switches that run port-channel. Those switches have multiple VLAN’s hanging off of them. I want to add FortiSwitch 248 FPOE behind the 3850 via SFP. How can I accomplish this so I could get to use Fortigate switch controller and span the VLAN’s onto Fortiswitch from the redundant ports that are directly connected to Cisco 3850 without destroying the current production config. I don’t mind letting current config evolve but I need to maintain mixed hardware and still have the ability to manage fortiswitch and span same vlan across both Cisco and Fortinet.
Hello there.
We just replaced our Dell N series switches with 4 248E-FPOE switches. It is cabled in a ring and connected to x1 & x2 on a 100F. I’m experiencing a couple of problems that I can’t seem to figure out.
1. The fortilink interface on the 100F remains down, even with the 4 switches connected to it via SFP cables to x1 & x2, yet we have internet so I know the traffic is going through that interface. If you go to WiFi & Switch Controller | Managed FortiSwitch, it’s constantly scanning and never stops, even if you reboot the 100F. If you manually add a switch using as S/N, it just adds it and it’s in an offline state. I do have the fortilink interface set to auto authorize & split interface is enabled.
2. As soon as I set the switches to FortiLink managed, we lose internet and it never comes back and I can’t reach our firewall without connecting to the MGMT interface. The only way to get the internet back is to reset the switches to locally managed via console cable, which makes them not operate as a stack.
FortiNet support won’t help since it’s a new setup, they’d rather me pay someone to come connect them than offer assistance. Any thoughts or ideas? Thanks in advance.
If the interface is configured as a FortiLink interface and the fortiswitch has recent firmware it should reboot in managed mode. From there you have to assign your VLANs the way you intend etc.
Hi Mike,
I have a FG500E with x1 & x2 connected to Cisco 3850 – 10gig 24port switches that run port-channel. Those switches have multiple VLAN’s hanging off of them. I want to add FortiSwitch 248 FPOE behind the 3850 via SFP. How can I accomplish this so I could get to use Fortigate switch controller and span the VLAN’s onto Fortiswitch from the redundant ports that are directly connected to Cisco 3850 without destroying the current production config. I don’t mind letting current config evolve but I need to maintain mixed hardware and still have the ability to manage fortiswitch and span same vlan across both Cisco and Fortinet.
You will need to utilize the FortiLink over Layer 3 feature set to execute what you are wanting.
Fortilink Over Layer 3