Fortinet Products Compatibility and Product Numbers

Product compatibility

It is important to note that the upgrade path information for FortiOS does not include any references to release compatibility between Fortinet products. The compatibility between models is listed in the Release Notes for each product, which will help you plan out your environment as a whole. The administrator will need to weigh the pros and cons of all of the variables and decide what the most important requirements are for the environment.

For instance, a specific version of FortiManager may be compatible with a range of  FortiGate versions. Before you upgrade, you must verify which FortiManager is compatible with them. Otherwise, a situation could arise where the FortiManager is not able to manage those newly upgraded FortiGates. It is also possible to upgrade a FortiManager beyond the compatibility range of some of the FortiGate models.

If you have older FortiGate models that you cannot upgrade to current firmware releases, and a brand new FortiGate model that cannot run older firmware, a single FortiManager will not be able to manage all of the different FortiGates in the environment.

Release numbers

Over the life of the firmware, the designation of the individual releases has changed. This article tries to make these designations as consistent and as easy to understand as possible.

Originally, the version designation was made up of a Version, possibly a major release within that version and possible a patch number within that major release. If one was trying to refer to one of the later patches in a later release of version 4 of the firmware it could be described as Version 4 MR 3 Patch 18.

To make the release name simpler, a ‘shorthand’ developed using the pattern x.x.x. The numbers shown below are an abbreviated form of the firmware version names.

1st Number Version Number
2nd Number Release Number
3rd Number Patch Number
Example: 3.7.10 = Version 3.0 MR7 Patch 10

The longer version of describing the release was eventually dropped in favor of the simplified format. Within the described paths, the simplified version is always used when describing the path.

Build numbers

In cases where there is no indication in the Web-based Manager what the version or build number is, you can get the build number from the CLI by entering the command:

 get system status

The value of the command output for “Branch point” is the build number.