What are the parts of a FortiGate backup configuration file header?

Hi all! Hope you're having a great week so far. For today's topic, I wanted to briefly describe the structure and syntax of FortiGate configuration file headers. Here's an example header to get us started:

#config-version=FG100F-7.0.0-FW-build0236-220718:opmode=0:vdom=0:user=admin

Let's talk through these elements one at a time:

• #config-version= is just a field label. It marks the beginning of the header.
• FG100F is the model number of the device where the backup was collected. This is an important detail because backups can only be restored on the same model device.
• 7.0.0 is the firmware major version (typically for significant generational changes in FortiOS).
• build0236 refers to the firmware build number. Think of it like a specific compilation of a named release. It's a unique ID for the exact binary image file.
• opmode=0 refers to the operating mode (0 usually means NAT/Route mode).
• vdom=0 refers to the VDOM mode (0 usually means single VDOM). If VDOMs are enabled, this might be vdom=1 or there would be a specific VDOM name if it's a VDOM-only backup.
• user=admin is indicating that the user called "admin" was the one who generated the backup.

Important note: regardless of whether the admin chooses to encrypt a backup or not, this entire field (and the corresponding values outlined above) will be visible.

For more details, please check out the following resources:

Configuration backups and reset | Administration Guide

Fortinet docs logo

Back up the Fortinet Fortigate VM

This article describes the standard methods of backing your full or virtual domain (VDOM) configuration based on the Fortinet documentation . Back up the Fortigate® Virtual Machine (VM) by using one of the following methods: Web-based manager The Fortigate command line interface (CLI) Secure copy pr…

Rackspace Technology Documentation