Uploading the license file

FortiManager VM includes a free, full featured 15 day trial.

Before using the FortiManager VM, you must enter the license file that you downloaded from the Customer Service & Support portal when you registered your FortiManager VM. See Registering your FortiManager VM.

To upload the license via the CLI:

Open the license file in a text editor and copy the VM license string.
In a FortiManager VM console window, enter the following:
execute add-vm-license <"vm license string">

See the FortiManager CLI Reference, available from the Fortinet Document Library, for more details on using this command.

To upload the license file via the GUI:

In the Evaluation License dialog box, select Enter License.
Optionally, you can also select Upload License in the License Information dashboard widget.
In the license upload page, click Browse, locate the VM license file (.lic) on your computer, then click OK to upload the license file.
A reboot message will be shown, then the FortiManager VM system will reboot and load the license file.

Refresh your browser and log back into the FortiManager VM with username admin and no password.

The VM registration status appears as valid in the License Information widget once the license has been validated.

As a part of the license validation process, FortiManager VM compares its IP address with the IP information in the license file. If a new license has been imported or the FortiManager’s IP address has been changed, the FortiManager VM must be rebooted in order for the system to validate the change and operate with a valid license.

If the IP address in the license file and the IP address configured in the FortiManager VM do not match, you will receive an error message when you log back into the VM.

If this occurs, you will need to change the IP address in the Customer Service & Support portal to match the management IP and re-download the license file. To change the management IP address, see Editing FortiManager VM IP addresses

After an invalid license file has been loaded onto the FortiManager VM, the GUI will be locked until a valid license file is uploaded. A new license file can be uploaded via the CLI.