Deploying and Activating a FortiGate VM Trial License: A Step-by-Step Guide

Meet Alex, a network engineer tasked with setting up a lab to test new security policies. Instead of buying a new appliance, Alex decides to use a . Here is the story of how Alex navigated the process. The Setup: Starting from Scratch

Yes, but it’s generous (e.g., 1 Gbps for VM01). Enough for lab environments with 100-200 Mbps traffic.

No – cloud marketplaces have separate "pay-as-you-go" trials (e.g., 30-day free credits). The BYOL trial license is for on-prem hypervisors only.

Wait for the boot sequence to complete until you see the FortiGate-VM64 Login: prompt.

Expected output: License Status: Valid and Valid: yes .

Click and choose Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file . Name your virtual machine (e.g., FortiGate-VM-Trial ).

To activate the trial, your VM must have to communicate with FortiGuard servers.

As of FortiOS 7.4+, typical trials are 15 days. Always check the license file details: execute license info .