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You can migrate supported FortiGate firewall rules and objects with Cisco’s Secure Firewall Migration Tool, then review and deploy them through Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) to Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD). “Cisco Firepower” is the familiar search term; Cisco’s current documentation uses Secure Firewall, FTD, and FMC. This is a guided conversion—not a universal import or a guarantee that every rule will behave identically on the new platform.
What the migration tool moves—and what it does not
Cisco’s tool parses a FortiGate configuration, reports what it recognized, and converts supported policies and objects for use in the Cisco management environment. Cisco describes one-to-one mappings for supported objects and rules, but that does not mean every FortiGate feature is supported or that the converted policy has been validated against your live traffic.
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The tool itself is free and does not require a license, according to Cisco’s Fortinet-specific Getting Started documentation. The FMC still needs the licenses required for the FTD features, device registration, and deployment you intend to use.
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The tool does not migrate FortiGate system configuration. Some configuration may be omitted, while unsupported access-control rules (ACLs) are added to FMC as disabled rules. Plan to account for every omitted or disabled item rather than assuming the conversion preserves its effect.
#1 Best Overall
- Compact and Efficient Design: The FortiGate 40F is designed for small to mid-sized businesses and enterprise branch offices, featuring a compact, fanless desktop form factor that ensures quiet operation and minimizes space usage.
- Robust Connectivity Options: Equipped with 5 GE RJ45 ports, including 1 WAN port and 4 internal ports, this model provides essential connectivity and flexibility for various network configurations in a small-scale environment.
- High-Performance Security: Offers up to 1 Gbps IPS throughput and 600 Mbps threat protection throughput, using Fortinet’s purpose-built security processor technology to deliver industry-leading performance and protection for SSL encrypted traffic.
- Advanced Threat Protection: Integrated with Fortinet’s AI-powered FortiGuard Labs, the FortiGate 40F offers comprehensive cybersecurity, identifying and mitigating both known and unknown threats to maintain robust security across your network.
- Simplified Management and Deployment: Features a user-friendly management console that provides comprehensive network automation and visibility, coupled with Zero Touch Integration with Fortinet’s Security Fabric for easy deployment.
Choose the migration scope and workflow
Cisco documents both a desktop application and a cloud-hosted workflow through Security Cloud Control. The cloud-hosted workflow uses the tenant’s cloud-delivered FMC. Which path is eligible depends on the current tool release, target management environment, and supported versions; check Cisco’s current workflow guide before choosing.
| Decision | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Management environment | Whether you will use the desktop tool with the intended FMC or the cloud-hosted workflow with your tenant’s cloud-delivered FMC. |
| Migration scope | Whether the job includes device-specific configuration such as interfaces and routes, or is limited to shared policies and objects. |
| Target readiness | The destination device, required access, prerequisites, and supported FortiOS, tool, FMC, and FTD versions for the selected workflow. |
| Unsupported configuration | Who will configure, replace, or otherwise account for each item the tool cannot migrate. |
Cisco’s Fortinet workflow notes that proceeding without an FTD device can allow migration of shared configurations such as supported NAT, ACLs, and port objects, while interfaces, routes, and site-to-site VPN settings need manual configuration. Confirm that behavior for your current software versions and selected workflow before using it as a scope boundary.
Rank #2
- INTEGRATED FIREWALL APPLIANCE AND SECURITY SERVICES: Comes with FortiGate-40F Firewall Appliance, 3 years of FortiCare Premium, and FortiGuard Unified Threat Protection.
- UTP SECURITY FEATURES: Offers protection from advanced threats with DNS filtering, URL filtering, video filtering, and controls against botnets.
- IDEAL FOR SMALLER SETTINGS: Best suited for small to mid-sized businesses needing reliable security without the complexity of larger systems.
- CONTINUOUS SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE: FortiCare Premium ensures that technical help is readily available to manage and troubleshoot issues.
- COMPACT AND EFFECTIVE: Provides a powerful, yet compact security solution that effectively protects against a wide range of cyber threats.
Prepare the FortiGate configuration
Inventory dependencies before exporting
Record the FortiGate model and FortiOS version, whether VDOMs are in use, and the configuration items that policies depend on. Include interfaces, routes, address and service objects, access policies, NAT, VPNs, and integrations. This inventory gives you a baseline for mapping and later validation; the conversion report alone is not a complete description of the source environment.
Export the correct scope
- On the FortiGate, go to Admin > Configuration > Backup.
- Choose the global configuration or the specific VDOM you intend to migrate. Do not assume an export for one scope includes another.
- Save the configuration as an unencrypted file. Cisco’s documented workflow expects a FortiGate configuration file with a
.confextension. - Keep the export associated with the inventory and change plan so the source policy can be compared with the converted result.
Convert, inspect, and resolve differences
- Open the desktop migration tool or the cloud-hosted workflow, as appropriate, and provide the FortiGate configuration export.
- Connect to the intended FMC and select the applicable destination context or device when prompted. Follow the current Cisco guide for prerequisites and supported releases.
- Review the pre-migration report. Separate fully migrated, partially migrated, unsupported, and ignored configuration instead of treating the report as a single pass/fail result.
- Inspect parsed rules and objects, interface and zone mappings, and every rule marked unsupported or disabled. Compare the output with the source inventory and authoritative source policy.
- Manually configure or otherwise address unsupported items, and explicitly decide how each omitted or disabled rule should affect traffic on the destination.
Common FortiGate items requiring attention
- Interfaces: Cisco lists virtual-wire, redundant, tunnel, VDOM-link, and SD-WAN interfaces or zones among unsupported interface types.
- Objects: Wildcard FQDN, Wildcard IP, dynamic objects, and exclusion groups are listed as unsupported.
- Rules and other configuration: Unsupported ACL rules are inserted into FMC disabled; unsupported objects, NAT rules, and routes are not migrated. System configuration is not migrated.
- Object handling: Unused objects may be excluded through the tool’s optimization feature. Nested service object-groups and port groups are expanded during conversion; some extended service objects or groups are split across objects or lines while preserving the meaning of the cited rules.
Do not interpret an omitted rule as safe to leave unaddressed. Cisco warns that a rule not migrated can affect traffic, and recommends configuring an appropriate rule in FMC to ensure traffic is blocked where needed. Reconcile every omission with the intended security policy.
Rank #3
- Extensive Connectivity Options: The FortiGate 60F is designed with 10 GE RJ45 ports, including 2 WAN ports, 1 DMZ port, and 7 internal ports, offering broad flexibility and high-density connections for diverse enterprise networking needs.
- Superior Performance for Secure Networks: Features powerful system-on-a-chip acceleration to deliver top-tier security with 1.4 Gbps IPS throughput and 700 Mbps threat protection throughput, ensuring effective defense against advanced threats.
- Enhanced SSL Inspection and SD-WAN Capabilities: Utilizes purpose-built security processor technology to provide the industry's highest SSL inspection performance and robust SD-WAN functionality for secure, high-speed network operations.
- Simple and Effective Management: Comes equipped with a user-friendly management console that supports comprehensive network automation and visibility, alongside Zero Touch Integration with Fortinet's Security Fabric for streamlined deployment.
- Advanced Security Features: Leverages continuous threat intelligence from AI-powered FortiGuard Labs, identifying and mitigating both known and unknown threats, enhancing security across all network traffic, whether encrypted or not.
Protect the target before deployment
Before pushing the converted configuration, check whether the target already has device-specific settings you need to retain. Cisco warns that pushing migration configuration can clean and overwrite existing device-specific target configuration, and recommends manually cleaning the target to avoid undesired loss. Back up the target and define a rollback plan appropriate to your environment before making changes.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Deploy and validate the migration
A successful push only shows that configuration was deployed; it does not establish traffic equivalence or prove that every dependency works. Use a planned change window and validate against the source inventory and the requirements for the destination.
Rank #4
- INTEGRATED FIREWALL APPLIANCE AND SECURITY SERVICES: Comes with FortiGate-40F Firewall Appliance, 1 year of FortiCare Premium, and FortiGuard Unified Threat Protection.
- UTP SECURITY FEATURES: Offers protection from advanced threats with DNS filtering, URL filtering, video filtering, and controls against botnets.
- IDEAL FOR SMALLER SETTINGS: Best suited for small to mid-sized businesses needing reliable security without the complexity of larger systems.
- CONTINUOUS SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE: FortiCare Premium ensures that technical help is readily available to manage and troubleshoot issues.
- COMPACT AND EFFECTIVE: Provides a powerful, yet compact security solution that effectively protects against a wide range of cyber threats.
- Check representative allowed and blocked traffic against the intended access rules, including rules that were disabled or required manual replacement.
- Verify NAT behavior and route reachability for the relevant traffic paths.
- Test site-to-site and remote-access VPNs that are in scope.
- Confirm logging and integrations, including syslog, SNMP, NTP, DNS, and monitoring where used.
- Review device health before migration and freeze FortiGate configuration changes while the migration is in progress, as Cisco’s best-practices guide recommends.
Use Cisco’s latest Secure Firewall Migration Tool release notes and workflow documentation to verify compatibility for the actual FortiOS, FMC, and FTD versions involved. Cisco’s supported features and prerequisites are version-sensitive.
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Quick Recap
Best Value
- HARDWARE PLUS SECURITY SERVICES: FortiGate-60F Firewall Appliance bundled with 1 year of FortiCare Premium and FortiGuard Unified Threat Protection.
- UNIFIED THREAT PROTECTION (UTP): Secures against advanced online threats with comprehensive web filtering and anti-botnet technologies.
- OPTIMIZED FOR MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES: Tailored for businesses needing robust security without the infrastructure of larger enterprises.
- RELIABLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT: FortiCare Premium ensures high-quality support and service continuity.
- EFFECTIVE PROTECTION: Employs advanced filtering technologies to safeguard against sophisticated threats.
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