Licenses

For more capabilities, you can purchase licenses for:

• Managing more third-party ONVIF cameras
• Face recognition AI
• Connecting cameras to FortiCamera Cloud, through FortiRecorder
• Virtual machine (VM) support for large scale deployments that can grow with your organization

When you receive your licenses, register them with Fortinet Customer Service & Support, and then upload them to FortiRecorder. See Upload licenses.

If you are unsure which licenses you have installed, or whether they are valid, you can use the dashboard to verify their status.

Subscription services such as FortiCare support contracts and FortiCamera Cloud are purchased separately.

Cloud mode for cameras

All FortiRecorder models can be licensed to allow connected cameras to be managed and accessed from FortiCamera Cloud, via FortiRecorder (a hybrid deployment). Connecting through FortiRecorder is useful for camera models that are not cloud native, or when you want to store video recordings with FortiRecorder or its remote storage instead of a camera's onboard disk.

To enable cloud support for a camera, use the following license SKUs:

• FRC-CLM-20 – Ability for 20 cameras to connect through FortiRecorder to FortiCamera Cloud

This license is stackable and perpetual. It does not add to the maximum number of cameras that can connect to FortiRecorder, but enables management and access of existing connected cameras by FortiCamera Cloud.

Also requires the active subscription to FortiCamera Cloud (FC1-10-FCCLD-518-02-DD) for each camera that is connected to it, and that you enable Managed by cloud on the camera.

Third-party camera licenses

FortiRecorder supports using ONVIF-compliant cameras from third-party vendors if you purchase the following SKUs and upload their licenses to FortiRecorder:

• FRC-EXC-1 for 1 third-party camera

• FRC-EXC-5 for 5 third-party cameras

• FRC-EXC-10 for 10 third-party cameras

• FRC-EXC-20 for 20 third-party cameras

These licenses are stackable and perpetual. They do not add to the maximum number of cameras, but enable third-party support for existing cameras.

Trial license

Each FortiRecorder comes with one third-party channel available for free evaluation when no license is installed. You can use this in order to confirm compatibility with a specific third-party camera model.

Face recognition AI license

All FortiRecorder models except FRC-100D/G can be licensed to run face recognition analytics.

It requires an active FortiGuard AI DB service SKU.

The license activates up to two analytics channels for appliances and theoretically unlimited for VM installations, although CPU load will restrict the usable number.

If the license is expired or invalid, only the last 7 days of face recognition data (face clusters, timeline, events, and activity) will be displayed.

Activation of the license requires Internet access for FortiRecorder.

After initial license verification and analytics module download the face recognition is working without Internet connection for the duration of the license.

Trial license

Each FortiRecorder (except FRC-100D/G) comes with one face recognition channel available for trial. It is limited to a 7-day history, and requires Internet access to download the analytics module.

FortiRecorder-VM licenses

FortiRecorder-VM is licensed based on the number of active (enabled) cameras and uses a stackable licensing model. The available license SKUs are:

• FRC-VM-Base – includes 10 camera licenses

• FRC-VM-10 – adds 10 cameras to the Base license

• FRC-VM-50 – adds 50 cameras to the Base license

• FRC-VM-100 – adds 100 cameras to the Base license

There are no other restrictions to the license other than the number of active cameras – i.e. there is no restriction on the number of virtual CPUs, disk space, etc.

The current maximum number of active cameras supported by FortiRecorder-VM is 1010 – i.e. you cannot currently license more than 1010 active cameras per FortiRecorder-VM installation.

Trial license

When FortiRecorder-VM is first installed, it will have a trial license. The trial license supports a maximum of 5 active cameras for 45 days. All features are available with a trial license except third-party camera support of more than one camera.

Evaluation license

The FRC-VM-Base SKU can be ordered as an evaluation license. The FRC-VM-Base SKU supports 10 active cameras. All features are available with an evaluation license including third-party camera support of more than one camera.