Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Fortigate: Password recovery

To reset the FortiGate unit password:
  1. Connect the terminal to the FortiGate unit using the null modem cable.
  2. Log on at the console with the user name "maintainer" and password "bcpb" followed immediately by the unit serial number. You must enter the alphabetic characters of the serial number in upper case.
  3. Enter the following commands:
    config system admin
    edit admin
    set password mypassword
    end

Special Notes:
  • You must first power down the FortiGate unit, and power it up again.
  • Follow the above steps within one minute of the restart

If the maintainer login is initially unsuccessful, try the following two tips to ensure successful login:
  • You many not have the correct serial #. Copy the serial # displayed on the console during initial boot-up and paste it into a terminal editor window.
  • In the terminal editor window, finish composing the full password by adding "bcpb" before the serial # and then copy & paste the entire password into the console.