Fortinet FortiManager Reviews

The primary use case is internal security domain protection in corporate sites.

The most valuable feature is intrusion protection.

Everybody is quite happy with the way that the graphical user interface works.

The redundancy and resiliency are quite good.

We have experienced a series of minor bugs that necessitated contacted technical support on several occasions.

I have been dealing with Fortinet FortiManager for about four years.

This is a resilient product. There are bugs in the system but the vendor has been very responsive in terms of fixing them or looking to them. None of the bugs were major, so we just had to use work-arounds until a new version came out that fixed them.

Scalability with FortiManager is fine.

The ability to upgrade, or downgrade if necessary, is very good.

We have made quite a lot of support calls to deal with bugs and other issues. The technical support is very responsive and there was no problem with it. I would say that they are excellent. My only problem is that we needed them perhaps slightly too often.

The initial setup is very straightforward.

Our deployment took about six months in total, although we were limited in resources and the requirements of operational handover. My engineering group has to stick to documentation and testing and requirements from the operations team. There were no issues with the deployment. Rather, that is how long it generally takes.

Our in-house team is responsible for deployment and maintenance. We have about 10 engineers, although they support all of our networking products.

There are features that come at a cost that is in addition to the standard license.

In general, I have no serious concerns about this product so I have no problems recommending it. It has all of the features that I need, as far as I'm concerned. Certainly, there's nothing that would cause me to suggest that people not use it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use it on a virtual machine in our data center. We are not using a box.  

We have many types of clients so there are many types of use cases for our clients who we are deploying FortiGate for on-site to create the local network. Many sites are using FortiGate firewalls like 60E, 100E, 200E and 500E and some 3100D.  

We are using what we call zero-touch deployment. It is a very important technology or process that helps us to make the deployments efficiently. It is called zero-touch deployment or ZTD. It helps us to implement our configuration on these client sites by using FortiManager. Zero-touch deployment is the central piece here and it is made possible by the use of FortiManager. What happens is we prepare our configuration in the FortiManager. After that, the technicians who are doing the installation just need to connect the instance of FortiGate to the internet. They only have to do that and FortiGate automatically downloads the configuration from FortiManager. So this is the way we can optimize the implementation and reduce the duration of the setup time involved.  

It would normally take us a handful of days to install one FortiGate instance on one site. But with this technology, zero-touch deployment, we need just one hour or maybe as little as 30 minutes to install one site. It is much more efficient. We reduce the time further by installing the configuration in all the FortiGate instances that we are managing at the same time. For example, say we need to install a new policy to deny or to allow something to connect to the internet. We can create this configuration in the FortiManager and we can push it out to 100 or 200 FortiGate instances at the same time. So it helps us to reduce the time it takes to install and to perform maintenance as well as to minimize the errors. We are human so errors are more frequent than a deployment managed by a machine. With this process, if anything is wrong it is also easier to correct.  

The most valuable feature in FortiManager is the ability to automate the deployment processes and maintenance.  

Not just in FortiManager, but in any Fortinet project in general, the troubleshooting is very hard. If you compare it with other products from other vendors like Cisco or like Palo Alto, it is just more difficult. Say we are in a situation where we need to do some debugging. It is very hard to understand and to use the CMD and the CLI commands because there is not very much documentation. There is no description when you are using the CLI and there are no examples to follow. So it is hard to do some troubleshooting to find a problem. There is FortiAnalyzer that can help with this but it is not real-time. It is too hard to view real-time inbound and outbound traffic. Because we are network engineers and network administrators, we always need to have some time real-time traffic to view what is happening now, as it happens, to know what is really going on.  

I have been using Fortinet FortiManager for about two years.  

I would say that the product is not stable all the time. Sometimes, I need to reboot the virtual machine after we do some configuration. The configuration changes will only take place after a reboot. It is something that should not normally happen this way. We should not have to reboot it, but sometimes it happens that we are forced to.  

I think the product is very scalable. We can add a new instance of FortiGate with a simple click. We can configure it with high availability using two VMs active-backup. It is a very good product from the scalability point of view.  

There are now more than five people who are currently using FortiManager in our company and we are counting on more as we grow. We are a growing company of integrators. We have been on a mission for three years in our region to service our clients — all of them have more than 500 employees. We also have built up to more than 5000 employees total. These same five people using FortiManager are also what we need for the maintenance of the systems.  

The technical support is very good when I work with them. In reality, I give them seven or eight-out-of-ten. This is because sometimes you have a very good engineer; sometimes you do not get a very good engineer. This is the reason for the lower score. Last time we created a ticket, it took two months to resolve the problem. For the first month, I was working with someone who did not have a very good understanding and methods for resolving the problem. But, after that, I was allowed to work with another engineer who was very good. He was very good both technically and his methods.  

I work mostly with Fortinet now. I work with FortiGuard and FortiGate firewalls. I work with FortiExtender to connect with the 4G network. I work with FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager to manage the FortiGate firewalls. I use FortiManager with the network administrator on top to manage many firewalls at the same time. I can use FortiAnalyzer to analyze our network, to give us a lot of information about the stability of the network. And also to get reports like what are the top 10 hosts who are using the network.  

Before using FortiManager, generally, I worked with other vendors like Cisco, with FireSIGHT to manage the Firepower firewalls from Cisco installations. It was essentially the equivalent to FortiManager. It managed Firepower firewalls. I worked with around 700 Firepower firewalls and one other FireSIGHT appliance which was not VMware. But I found that Cisco was a little bit hard to manage. It is not very stable and we had some problems with it. We opened a ticket and I could see now that we did not get a good solution from the technical support. We just made a workaround which is not a good way to resolve issues. But in general, FortiManager is better than the FireSIGHT as a technology and as a solution.  

The initial setup is simple. It is not complex at all. We are using Fortinet FortiManager in our main data center and it publishes via virtual IT, or VIT, to our facility to connect to us from our spoke site. It is very simple, I think.  

Generally, what I know about the pricing is that Fortinet FortiManager is not expensive at all if you compare it with other vendors like Check Point and like Cisco. Fortinet products are the least expensive on the market in the category of firewalls.  

Really, it is not me who chose this solution. It was the staff before I come here. I do know the staff chose it as one of many potential options to be presented to the clients.  

I personally have a specialty using Fortinet but also SolarWinds — although not so much. But I am quite a bit more familiar in working with Cisco and Fortinet.

My advice to other people considering this solution is that they have to read about the product and they have to make an effort to pass the NSE 5 (Network Security Analyst) certification. It is for FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager products. Fortinet NSE 4 (Network Security Professional) certification talks about FortiGate and prepares your solution in a global sense. It is also very good to have. The main certification to have in my opinion is to pass the NSE 7 (Network Security Architect) certification because it talks about what I think is the negative part of Fortinet products, the troubleshooting. So my advice is that it is very important to pass the minimum of these three certifications to manage the solution with some level of expertise.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate FortiManager as an eight. Additional features I would like to see included in the next release of FortiManager to make it a nine or a ten is to be compatible with the management of other products like not just FortiGate. For example, it might work with FortiExtender.  

Our use case is for management and back up configuration. I work in the IT security division. 

This is a good product if you're looking for a central management solution. FortiManager provides good log management and more details than other solutions for logs.

I'd like to see the improvement of wizards when it comes to pushing policies and copying, VPNs, etc. Sometimes Fortinet changes its subscriptions. A few years ago Fortinet Firewall had capabilities for use in the cloud environment; they then changed the subscription and it was no longer part of the subscription, forcing the customer to buy an additional license. The technical support needs to improve. They moved their call center to India and although I have a special PIN code for the support team, they hang up after a minute or so and I need to redial. 

I've been using this solution for five years. 

The solution is stable but it does require regular upgrades. 

We can scale but it requires the purchase of additional licenses.

We deploy this solution for our clients. It's a pretty straightforward process for us. 

The price is reasonable, especially when compared to Cisco or Palo Alto. It also has a free version for smaller organizations. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

We are using FortiManager to manage all the equipment. We have a hybrid deployment.

We are managing a research and education network, and we have about 200 Fortinet FortiGate devices dispatched in the country. We are managing all of them with FortiManager. It has simplified the management and reduced the time to configure the devices.

It is easy to manage a large number of devices with FortiManager. 

Its licensing model should be improved.

We started using it this year.

It is a stable solution.

It is scalable.

Their support is very good. I don't have any issues with their technical support. 

It is very easy.

We did it ourselves.

For us, it is a little bit expensive.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

There is something called zero-touch provisioning, where you can add a new device without any configuration. You just add it to FortiManager and then forget about it.

FortiManager could be simpler.

I'm not using FortiManager at this company, but I've been using it with different organizations for maybe five years. So haven't been using it continuously. Sometimes it's a different solution.

I would say that FortiManager is stable.

It's fairly easy to scale up FortiManager. I think it's suitable for large businesses. 

Fortinet's support is good. 

Setting up FortiManager can be complex because it involves changes from other devices and a lot of configuration. The time needed for deployment depends on the environment and size. For a small environment, it takes two or three days if it's the environment.

FortiManager is not too expensive.

I rate FortiManager seven out of 10. I would recommend it to others.

FortiManager
Automation-Driven Centralized Management
Manage all your Fortinet devices in a singleconsole
central management system.
FortiManager provides full visibility of your
network, offering streamlined provisioning and
innovative automation tools.
Integrated with Fortinet’s Security Fabric, the
security architecture and FortiManager’s
Automation Driven Network Operations
capabilities provide a foundation to secure and
optimize network security, such as
provisioning and monitoring SD-WAN.

FortiManager VM-S
The new FortiManager Subscription license model consolidates the VM product SKU and the FortiCare Support SKU into one single SKU,
to simplify the product purchase, upgrade and renewal.
The FortiManager S-Series SKUs come in stackable subscriptions to manager 10, 100 and 1000 devices/vdoms, so that multiple units of
this SKU can be purchased at a time to increase the number of devices/vdoms as needed. This SKU can also be purchased together with
other FMG VM-S SKUs to expand the total number of devices/vdoms.

FortiManager VM
Fortinet offers the FortiManager VM in a stackable license model. This software-based version of the FortiManager hardware appliance
allows you to expand your virtual solution as your environment expands and is designed to run on many virtualization platforms. The
FortiManager virtual appliance family minimizes the effort required to monitor and maintain your network and offers all the features of the
FortiManager hardware appliance.

Key Features

Single console management

§ Manage all Fortinet products, including firewalls,

FortiAnalyzers, switches, wireless infrastructure and Endpoints

Security automation

§ Reduces complexity and costs by leveraging automated REST

API, scripts, connectors, and automation stitches

Centralized policy and device management

§ Centrally manage up to 100,000+ devices and policies such as

firewalls, switches, and access points

Zero-touch provisioning

§ Automate workflows and configurations for Fortinet firewalls,

switches and wireless infrastructure

Secure SD-WAN provisioning and monitoring

§ Provision and monitor Secure SD-WAN from one console

across your network, branch offices or campuses

Multi-tenancy and administrative domains (ADOMs)

§ Separate customer data and manage domains leveraging

ADOMs to be compliant and operationally effective

Enterprise-grade high availability and integration

§ Automated backups to up to 5 nodes (1 Primary, and 4

secondary) with streamlined software and security updates for

all managed devices

Feature Highlights

Single Pane Automation and Orchestration

FortiManager provides insight into network traffic and threats through a single-pane-of-glass and offers enterprise-class features and

sophisticated security management for unified, end-to-end protection to contain advanced threats. FortiManager also delivers the industry’s

best scalability to manage up to 100,000 Fortinet devices. FortiManager, coupled with the FortiAnalyzer family of centralized logging and

reporting appliances, provides a comprehensive and powerful centralized management solution for your organization.

Central Management of Network Infrastructure
Centrally manage FortiGate, FortiSwitch, FortiExtender & FortiAP.
The VPN manager simplifies the deployment and enables centrallyprovisioned
VPN community and connection monitoring. FortiAP
Manager allows configuring, deploying and monitoring FortiAPs
from a single console.

Configuration and Settings Management
Collectively configure the device settings - using the provisioning
templates and advance CLI templates improves management of a
large number of devices. Automatic device configuration backup
with revision control and change audit make it easier for daily
administrative tasks. Use Management extensions to add SD-WAN
Orchestrator, Wireless Manager and other modules.

API for Automation and Orchestration
RESTful API allows MSSPs/large enterprises to create customized,
branded web portals for policy and object administration. Automate
common tasks such as provisioning FortiGates and configuring
existing devices. Join Fortinet Developer Network (FNDN) to
access exclusive articles, how-to content for automation and
customization, community-built tools, scripts and sample code.

Management Extensions
FortiManager’s management extensions allow rapid expansion of
Single Pane to manage more Security Fabric products. The built-in
engine runs containerized extensions to support trusted containers,
which are pulled from the FortiGuard. FortiManager is notified when
new containers are made available and users can easily choose to
opt in our out of each of the management extensions. It includes
modules like SD-WAN Orchestrator, Wireless Manager and more.

Security Policy Management
Per Policy Lock has been added to 6.4, which allows admins to
control the policy change by implicitly lock a policy rule when he/
she does the change to the policy. Group commonly used security
policies in a policy block and insert as needed in different Policy
Packages. Global policy feature that allows companies such as:
Telecom, MSSP and SAAS providers to apply a header/footer
policy at the ADOM level to all policy packages or select packages.

SD-WAN Orchestration & Analytics
Powerful SD-WAN management capabilities using intuitive
workflow and simplified provisioning at scale. Enhanced SD-WAN
analytics to monitor application performance and bandwidth
utilization per WAN link. Leverage application centric SD-WAN
business policies to fine-tune traffic steering decisions based on
performance SLA targets for each WAN provider. Provide flexible
deployment options for SD-WAN orchestrator, an add-on to

Multi-Tenancy & Role Based Administration
FortiManager equips admins with granular device and role based
administration for deploying zero-trust, multi-tenancy architecture
to large enterprises, with a hierarchical objects database to
facilitate re-use of common configurations and serve multiple
customers. ADOMs are used to manage independent security
environments, each with its own security policies and configuration
database, and the intuitive GUI makes it easy to view, create, clone
and manage ADOMs. The zero-touch deployment uses templates
to provision devices for quick mass deployment, and also supports
firmware version enforcement. Define global objects such as
Firewall Objects, Policies and Security Profiles to share across
multiple ADOMs. Granular permissions allow assigning ADOMs,
devices and policies to users based on role and responsibilities.
FortiManager’s new IPS admin is a restricted user role for
performing only IPS related object configuration and install.

The solution is very good; I'm not sure if I can think of any features that are lacking.

The GUI could be updated. It's not as good as it could be and is something the solution should improve in an upcoming release.

It would be nice if there could be more reporting included in the solution so that we could get more details about an individual user's profile.

I've been working with the solution for about six years now.

In terms of stability, the solution is very good. We haven't faced any bugs or glitches. It's quite reliable.

The licensing is very easy, which makes it quite scalable. A company shouldn't have any trouble expanding the solution. If they have, for example, 50 devices and suddenly need 100, they just need to scale up.

Whether the solution is used regularly depends on the organization. 

We've been in touch with technical support on the past. In India, they're quite good. We've found them to be very helpful and have been satisfied with their level of support.

The solution is easy to set up. Users shouldn't have any problems doing so.

FortiManager is for the syncing of devices. Therefore, when companies are using multiple devices from Fortinet, such as FortiGate, FortiSwitches, FortiAP, etc., then it's required to have FortiManager. That way, companies can manage central lines in all of the devices via a single person. It's a very useful application.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. It's got all of the features we need to manage our FortiGate products and doesn't seem to be lacking anything. It does exactly what we need it to do and we find it quite easy to use.

We're a Fortinet distributor. My clients are the ones that actually use the product. Most of our clients are SMEs or large businesses. This solution, however, is more suited to large and medium-sized businesses.

FortiManager is used for centrally managing many FortiGate firewalls. It is a very good solution if you are using several of them.

The most valuable feature is the central configuration for firewall policies. This simplifies the management of many devices and acts as a central firewall policy object. It is sometimes used to deploy a VPN, where that is used to connect many FortiGate instances.

You don't need to log in to the devices many times. Instead, you can locally manage and copy the configuration to several of them.

Fortinet develops many different solutions but only some of them can be managed using FortiManager. For example, if you have a load balancer then you have to have a separate manager. Having FortiManager work with all of the Fortinet products would be a good improvement.

Some older versions of FortiManager, perhaps three or four years ago, had some issues with instability due to bugs. However, now, it is a very stable product.

It is easy to scale, although it can be costly. There is a limit to the number of devices that it can support, but additional FortiManagers can be used in this case.

I have been in contact with the Fortinet technical support several times, and the support is good. The people are nice and they will also help you online.

Until you have experience with it, this device is not simple to set up. You have to spend perhaps five to seven days to configure it properly, including the automation of certain tasks.

If you have a single person for the implementation, it will take approximately two weeks to deploy.

Overall, I find that this is a good solution and it gives me everything that I want. I would recommend it and people should definitely try it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case is to analyze the internal traffic to see what's happening in the network. We can analyze the logs and push policies. In case something happens, after rebooting it, we can push the configuration back into the appliance. 

The most valuable feature is analyzing the traffic. When we call ISP and we do an upgrade, the performance is down and we can look into it and see where we're lacking and analyze the data and decide how to go about it - if it is from the firewall or the connection. 

We look at the traffic to segment the network and it improves and increases the performance. When we have a mobile connection and local laptops are on the same network. We have seen a big performance upgrade.  

Performance issues should be improved. We have problems when we have more mobile connections than local devices. Most of us have two to three devices. 

Finetuning and performance tuning need improvement.

I have been working with FortiManager for around fifteen years. 

The stability is very good. Throughout my career, my failure rates have been low. Some models have bugs on the flash drive. But it's usually from carelessness from the client's side. It's very stable.

If you go above your box, you have to update it. It's not so scalable. But most firewalls are like this. Throughput makes a difference. We have to upgrade boxes every three to four years. 

Their support is good. They respond well. Their response time is good and they can usually resolve the problem. 

The initial setup is not very complex. I've been in this field for a long so I don't find it very complex. 

The pricing is reasonable. It's not very expensive, it is reasonably priced. 

I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

In the next release, I would like to see more performance-tuning. If they could work on that, that would be great.