This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
How to Configure BGP on Fortinet FortiGate is one lab change on a Fortinet FortiGate device you administer. BGP here is a session with a peer you are allowed to speak to, for prefixes you are allowed to originate. It is not a way to announce someone else's network. The browser tool drafts text. It does not log in. You still choose the device.
FortiGate policy is from zone to zone. Backup the configuration before the rule. A VDOM, if you use one, is named in the ticket. Any/any is not the lab rule. One policy, one service. One neighbor address, your ASN if you have one, and a prefix you own or a lab prefix that must not leave the lab.
A session to an address you do not have an agreement with does not get opened. A prefix you do not originate does not get advertised. The session is established, and the advertised list is the list in the ticket. The backup file is the rollback. Do not restore it over a different firewall.
192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft. example.com is not your hostname. A second session stays open if the change can lock you out.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Write the hostname and confirm you administer it.
- Save the current config before any draft is applied.
- Generate the draft and delete every line this ticket did not name.
- Remove any 0.0.0.0/0 and any secret.
- Apply one change only when the lab window is open.
- Read the result back and compare it with the ticket.
- Stop. The next feature is a different page.
Mistakes that outlive the command
BGP on Fortinet FortiGate goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- Pasting a draft you did not read.
- The wrong hostname.
- A default password left in place.
- 0.0.0.0/0 kept from a sample.
- A secret in the ticket or in git.
- Two features in one window.
- No saved config before the change.
- A documentation prefix applied on a production device.
- A session to an address you do not have an agreement with does not get opened. A prefix you do not originate does not get advertised.
- Calling the generator output a finished production config.
Decisions to write down
One decision for BGP on Fortinet FortiGate: The hostname matches the ticket. The feature is only BGP. The vendor habit was followed: Fortinet FortiGate. A current config was saved first. No 0.0.0.0/0 remains. No secret is in the note. The proof you expect is: The session is established, and the advertised list is the list in the ticket. And the parent pillar still owns the design.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The hostname was read from the device. The saved rollback exists. The draft was edited. One change was applied, or none yet because this was the writing hour. The read-back matches the ticket. A second person can say what changed. Management still works. And the next feature is not started. If one of those fails, stop.
# Fortinet FortiGate lab. Review before you paste.
# Feature: BGP.
# FortiGate policy is from zone to zone. Backup the configuration before the rule. A VDOM, if you use one, is named in the ticket.
# Delete 0.0.0.0/0.
# prompt-for-this is not a password.
# 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.Before you leave the device
How to Configure BGP on Fortinet FortiGate ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.