Learn from industry professionals who bring real-world experience and expertise into the classroom. This training provides practical guidance, hands-on exposure, and real-world insights to help you build confidence in FortiGate firewall administration.

DISCLAIMER:

This training material was independently developed and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sourced from Fortinet, Inc. It is intended for educational purposes only and is based on real-world scenarios, hands-on experience, and publicly available FortiGate knowledge.

We are not an authorized Fortinet Training Center, nor are we affiliated with Fortinet, Inc. in any official capacity. This content is not part of any Fortinet-approved curriculum and does not use or reproduce any proprietary Fortinet training material, lab manual, or certification content.

All product names, logos, and trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are used strictly for identification and reference purposes.

 

Prerequisites

Participants are expected to have basic knowledge of networking and cybersecurity concepts before attending this training.

Recommended background:

• Basic TCP/IP networking concepts
• IP addressing and subnetting
• VLANs and routing fundamentals
• Firewall and NAT concepts
• Basic VPN concepts
• General cybersecurity awareness
• Familiarity with Windows or basic system administration

This training is ideal for IT support staff, network technicians, system administrators, cybersecurity beginners, and IT professionals who want to build practical FortiGate firewall administration skills.

Lab Equipment

• 1 x FortiGate Appliance Firewall
• 1 x Managed Switche
• 1 x Printed Lab Guide

Course Overview

Take your IT career in any direction by building practical FortiGate administration skills. This training covers a broad range of network security fundamentals, including firewall policies, NAT, routing, VPN, authentication, threat protection, logging, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

Students will gain hands-on experience in configuring, securing, and managing FortiGate firewalls in real-world network security scenarios.

Course Topics

Module 1: Initial Setup & Administration

• Hardware Access, Initial Setup, and Lab Topology
• System, Interfaces, VLANs, and Administrator Settings

Module 2: Network Infrastructure

• Routing, Static Routes, ECMP, and Failover Verification
• Inter-VLAN Routing and Network Segmentation

Module 3: Firewall Policies & Authentication

• Firewall Policies and NAT
• Firewall Authentication, LDAP, RADIUS, and User Groups
• Fortinet Single Sign-On (FSSO) and AD-Based Authentication

Module 4: Threat Protection & Content Security

• Certificate Operations and SSL/SSH Inspection
• Antivirus, Flow-Based and Proxy-Based Scanning
• Web Filtering, DNS Filtering, Video Filter, and Rating Overrides
• Application Control and Application Signatures
• Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and Attack Simulation

Module 5: VPN & Secure Connectivity

• IPsec VPN and FortiClient Remote Access
• SD-WAN Configuration and Monitoring

Module 6: High Availability & Resilience

• High Availability Configuration and Failover Testing

Module 7: Monitoring, Cloud & Troubleshooting

• Logging, Monitoring, FortiView, and UTM Log Review
• Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
• FortiGate Cloud, FortiSASE, and Final Challenge

Hands-On Labs:

Lab 01: Hardware Access, Initial Setup, and Lab Topology

Students will access the FortiGate firewall, perform initial setup, and understand the lab topology.

Lab 02: System, Interfaces, VLANs, and Administrator Settings

Configure system settings, interfaces, VLANs, administrator access, and basic management options.

Lab 03: Routing, Static Routes, ECMP, and Failover Verification

Configure routing, static routes, ECMP, and verify basic failover behavior.

Lab 04: Inter-VLAN Routing and Network Segmentation

Configure inter-VLAN routing and apply segmentation using firewall policies.

Lab 05: Firewall Policies and NAT

Create firewall policies, address objects, services, and NAT rules for controlled traffic flow.

Lab 06: Firewall Authentication, LDAP, RADIUS, and User Groups

Configure user authentication, user groups, and integration concepts for LDAP and RADIUS.

Lab 07: Fortinet Single Sign-On and AD-Based Authentication

Understand FSSO concepts and how FortiGate can use Active Directory-based authentication.

Lab 08: Certificate Operations and SSL/SSH Inspection

Work with certificates and understand SSL/SSH inspection behavior.

Lab 09: Antivirus, Flow-Based and Proxy-Based Scanning

Configure antivirus profiles and compare flow-based and proxy-based inspection.

Lab 10: Web Filtering, DNS Filtering, Video Filter, and Rating Overrides

Configure content filtering features including web filter, DNS filter, video filter, and rating overrides.

Lab 11: Application Control and Application Signatures

Configure application control profiles and review application signature behavior.

Lab 12: Intrusion Prevention System and Attack Simulation

Configure IPS profiles and observe security events from simulated attacks.

Lab 13: IPsec VPN and FortiClient Remote Access

Configure IPsec VPN and FortiClient remote access for secure connectivity.

Lab 14: SD-WAN Configuration and Monitoring

Configure SD-WAN members, rules, performance SLA, and monitoring.

Lab 15: High Availability Configuration and Failover Testing

Configure HA and test firewall failover behavior.

Lab 16: Logging, Monitoring, FortiView, and UTM Log Review

Analyze logs, review FortiView, and monitor UTM security events.

Lab 17: Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

Use diagnostic tools to troubleshoot firewall policies, routing, sessions, and traffic flow.

Lab 18: FortiGate Cloud and Final Challenge

Review FortiGate Cloud and FortiSASE concepts, then complete a final hands-on challenge.