Administration

Configure administrative settings for the FortiAuthenticator device. This section includes: l GUI access

• High availability l Firmware l Automatic backup
• SNMP
• Licensing l FortiGuard l FTP servers
• Administrator profiles

GUI access

To adjust GUI access settings, go to System > Administration > GUI Access. The Edit GUI Access Settings page will open.

The following settings are available:

Idle timeout	Enter the amount of time before the GUI times out due to inactivity, from 1 to 480 minutes.
HTTPS Certificate	Select an HTTPS certificate from the drop-down list.
Certificate authority type	Select the selected certificate’s authority type, either Local CA or Trusted CA.
CA certificate that issued the server certificate	Select the issuing server certificate from the drop-down list.
Additional allowed hosts/domain names	Specify any additional hosts that this site can serve, separated by commas or line breaks.

Select OK to apply any changes. See Certificate Management on page 132 for more information about certificates.

High availability

Multiple FortiAuthenticator units can operate as a cluster to provide even higher reliability, called HA.

There are three HA roles:

• Cluster member l Standalone master l Load-balancing slave

The FortiAuthenticator can operate in two separate HA modes:

• Cluster : Active-passive clustered fail-over mode where all of the configuration is synchronized between the devices. l Load-balancing: Active-active HA method in which one device acts as a standalone master with up to two additional, geographically separated load-balancing slaves. The load can be distributed across the devices using round-robin DNS, Auth/NAS client load distribution, or external load balancing devices. Load-balancing mode is intended for two-factor authentication deployments, as only a subset of the configuration is synchronized between the devices.

Both HA modes can be combined with a HA cluster acting as a standalone master for geographically distributed load-balancing slaves.

If a HA cluster is configured on an interface (such as port 2) and then disabled, it will not be possible to re-enable HA.

This is because, when disabled, the interface’s IP address is reconfigured to the interface to allow the administrator to access the newly standalone device. To allow the port to be available for use again in a HA cluster, the IP address must be manually removed.

Cluster member role

In the cluster member role, one unit is active and the other is on standby. If the active unit fails, the standby unit becomes active. The cluster is configured as a single authentication server on your FortiGate units.

Authentication requests made during a failover from one unit to another are lost, but subsequent requests complete normally. The failover process takes about 30 seconds.

Cluster mode uses Ethernet broadcasts through TCP port 720 as part of its master/slave election mechanism and for ongoing communication. Layer 2 connectivity is required between the two devices in a HA cluster, preferably via a crossover cable, as some network devices might block such Ethernet broadcasts.

To configure FortiAuthenticator HA

1. On each unit, go to System > Administration > High Availability
2. Enter the following information:

Enable HA	Enable HA.
Role	Select Clustermember.
Interface	Select a network interface to use for communication between the two cluster members. This interface must not already have a IP address assigned and it cannot be used for authentication services. Both units must use the same interface for HA communication.
Cluster member IP address	Enter the IP address this unit uses for HA-related communication with the other FortiAuthenticator unit. The two units must have different addresses. Usually, you should assign addresses on the same private subnet.
Admin access	Select the types of administrative access to allow from: Telnet, SSH, HTTPS, HTTP, and SNMP.
Priority	Set to Low on one unit and High on the other. Normally, the unit with High priority is the master unit.
Password	Enter a string to be used as a shared key for IPsec encryption. This must be the same on both units.

3. Select OK to apply the settings.

When one unit has become the master, reconnect to the GUI and complete your configuration. The configuration will automatically be copied to the slave unit.

Standalone master and Load-balancing slave roles

The load-balancing HA method enables active-active HA across geographically separated locations and layer 3 networks. Only the following authentication related features can be synchronized:

l Token and seeds l Local user database l Remote user database l Group mappings l Token and user mappings

Other features, such as FSSO and certificates, cannot be synchronized between devices.

The standalone master is the primary system where users, groups, and tokens are configured. The loadbalancing slave is synchronized to the master.

To improve the resilience of the master system, an active-passive master cluster with up to two load-balancing slave devices can be configured.

To configure load-balancing HA

1. On each unit, go to System > Administration > High Availability
2. Enter the following information:

Enable HA	Enable HA.
Role	Select Standalone master on the master device, and Load-balancing slave on the slave device or devices.
Password	Enter a string to be used as a shared key for IPsec encryption. This must be the same on both units.
Load-balancing slaves	On the master, enter IP address or IP addresses of the load-balancing slave devices. Up to two can be added.

3. Select OK to apply the settings.

Administrative access to the HA cluster

Administrative access is available through any of the network interfaces using their assigned IP addresses or through the HA interface using the ClustermemberIP address, assigned on the System > Administration > High Availability page. In all cases, administrative access is available only if it is enabled on the interface.

Administrative access through any of the network interface IP addresses connects only to the master unit. The only administrative access to the slave unit is through the HA interface using the slave unit’s ClustermemberIP address.

Configuration changes made on the master unit are automatically pushed to the slave unit. The slave unit does not permit configuration changes, but you might want to access the unit to change HA settings, or for firmware upgrades, shutdown, reboot, or troubleshooting.

FortiAuthenticator VMs used in a HA cluster each require a license. Each license is tied to a specific IP address. In a HA cluster, all interface IP addresses are the same on the two units, except for the HA interface. Request each license based on either the unique IP address of the unit’s HA interface or the IP address of a non-HA interface which will be the same on both units.

If you disable and then re-enable HA operation, the interface that was assigned to HA communication will not be available for HA use. You must first go to System > Network > Interfaces and delete the IP address from that interface.

Restoring the configuration

When restoring a configuration to a HA cluster master device, the master will reboot and in the interim the slave device will be promoted to master. When the previous master returns to service, it will become a slave and the existing master will overwrite its configuration, defeating the configuration restore. To avoid this, use the following process when restoring a configuration:

1. Shutdown the slave unit.
2. Restore the configuration on the master unit.
3. Wait until the master unit is back online.
4. Turn on slave unit — it will synchronize to the restored configuration after booting up.

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