FortiOS 5.6 Beta 3

FortiOS 5.6 Beta 3 was released. They are steadily improving upon it. There are some glaring bugs (for instance, if you are running in NGFW policy mode and put a deny for certain web categories at the very top…..it kills all traffic below it too, even if there is an allow). That is going to come with the territory though as they adjust how their system approaches a packet.

Either way, progress is being made and I am very excited about where this version of code is going. I think 5.6 will genuinely be able to shut Palo Alto Networks up when it comes to their marketing of how the policies differ.

This entry was posted in FortiOS, FortiOS 5.6 and tagged on by .

About Mike

Michael Pruett, CISSP has a wide range of cyber-security and network engineering expertise. The plethora of vendors that resell hardware but have zero engineering knowledge resulting in the wrong hardware or configuration being deployed is a major pet peeve of Michael's. This site was started in an effort to spread information while providing the option of quality consulting services at a much lower price than Fortinet Professional Services. Owns PacketLlama.Com (Fortinet Hardware Sales) and Office Of The CISO, LLC (Cybersecurity consulting firm).

7 thoughts on “FortiOS 5.6 Beta 3

  1. Zack

    I just hope once it is release it is very stable going forward. I’m so sick of every new firmware version/revision introducing bugs. The best technology is ones that just work.

    Reply
    1. Mike Post author

      Absolutely. They definitely have a LONG ways to go but this code is making some pretty crazy changes in how the device operates. The only time I lose to Palo is when someone wants application policy (NGFW Policy) done the way Palo does it. Fortinet is introducing that with this!

      Reply
  2. Mike

    Any news on when GA might be available? I bought a FortiAP Universal FAP-U421EV only to find out it is not compatible with FortiOS 5.4. Supposed to work in 5.6…

    Reply
    1. Mike Post author

      They have not given a release date yet for GA. I do know that 5.6 is super buggy currently (it is only in Beta 3 after all). I would expect it to be a few more months away in all honesty.

      Reply
      1. Mike Post author

        I have not heard of that AP being limited to 5.6 by the way. The universal series prides itself on being able to integrate with the Cloud, Gate, or the wireless controller…

        Reply
        1. Mike

          Yeah the Universal AP was sold on the premise it works with everything.. cloud, wireless controller (Meru), and FortiOS controller (FortiGate). So I order one along with a FortiWiFi 61E and no way to make them work. I open a ticket and am politely told it won’t be supported until 5.6. Meanwhile my complimentary Meraki APs are expiring this month so now I have no WiFi unless I rig up something temporary. Not cool, the universal AP wasn’t cheap even on their “demo” program.

          How can I get a hold of 5.6 beta 3? Do you have to be in their developer program or is there a place I could download it? Noticed you too have FortiWiFi 61E… so it is available?

          Reply

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