Best Practices Fortigate FirewallFirst of all, the idea here is to share with the readers of the blog some important tips from the manufacturer in order for you to get the most out of your firewall.
Summary
Initial Considerations
For security reasons, NAT mode is preferred because all internal networks or DMZ can have secure private addresses. Recommendation found in the manufacturer's documentation Fortinet.
If you still have questions about NAT mode, check out this other post we created to help you, by clicking on this link here.
Another important tip from the firewall manufacturer Fortinet: in principle try using virtual domains (VDOMs) to group related interfaces or VLAN sub-interfaces together.
Not only the use of VDOMs, but also transparent mode when a network is complex and does not allow changes to the IP addressing scheme.
Deactivate Management Resources
Deactivate all the management features you don't need.
Above all, if you you don't have to of SSH or SNMP, try to disable it.
Since, SSH also offers another possibility for possible hackers to infiltrate.
Primarily put the most used firewall rules at the top from the list of interfaces. Also register only the necessary traffic.
Certainly logging, especially if it is to an internal hard drive, decreases performance. In contrast, there are some alternatives from the manufacturer itself in the cloud or with appliances.
Activate only the necessary inspections
Enable only the necessary application inspections in the Fortigate Firewall
First, keep alert systems to a minimum. If you send logs to a syslog server, you may not need SNMP or email alerts, as this makes processing redundant.
Second, set up scheduled FortiGuard updates at a reasonable rate.
Help Function
Help Function in FortiGate Firewall (Help)
According to the cookbook (manufacturer material), to display brief help during command entry, press the question mark (?) key on the firewall management screen.
- First press the question mark (?) key at the command prompt to display a list of available commands and a description of each one.
- Then press the question mark (?) key After a command keyword to display a list of objects available with that command and a description of each.
- Finally, type a word or part of a word, and press the question mark (?) key to display a list of valid word conclusions or subsequent words and to display a description of each.
Main Shortcuts and Commands
Shortcuts and key commands FortiGate Firewall
| Action | Keys |
| List valid word completions or subsequent words. If multiple words could complete your entry, display all possible completions with helpful descriptions of each. | ? |
| Complete the word with the next available match. Press the key multiple times to cycle through available matches. | Tab |
| Recall the previous command. Command memory is limited to the current session. | Up arrow, or Ctrl + P |
| Recall the next command. | Down arrow, or Ctrl + N |
| Move the cursor left or right within the command line. | Left or Right arrow |
| Move the cursor to the beginning of the command line. | Ctrl + A |
| Move the cursor to the end of the command line. | Ctrl + E |
| Move the cursor backwards one word. | Ctrl + B |
| Move the cursor forwards one word. | Ctrl + F |
| Delete the current character. | Ctrl + D |
| Abort current interactive commands, such as when entering multiple lines. If you are not currently within an interactive command such as config or edit, this closes the CLI connection. | Ctrl + C |
| Continue typing a command on the next line for a multi-line command. For each line that you want to continue, terminate it with a backslash ( { ). To complete the command line, terminate it by pressing the spacebar and then the Enter key, without an immediately preceding backslash. | \ and then Enter |
