Fortigate Vm Sizing Azure -

This guide covers the critical factors (throughput, instance types, disk configuration, and scaling options) to ensure you select the right SKU and VM size for your deployment.

: Premium SSD recommended for data disk (especially with disk logging enabled). Standard HDD will cause performance drops under load.

Before selecting a FortiGate VM license (01, 02, 04, etc.), you must analyze your Azure environment's traffic requirements.

Azure offers several VM series optimized for different roles, though some legacy series may no longer appear in the Marketplace: fortigate vm sizing azure

uses Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) and Azure Functions to automatically add or remove FortiGate-VM instances based on real-time traffic metrics (e.g., CPU utilization, packet rate). It leverages FortiGate-native features like config-sync to synchronize configurations across all instances in the scale set.

Not all Azure VMs behave the same. FortiGate is sensitive to three things: , network PPS (packets per second) , and memory bandwidth .

Sizing is more than just picking a VM; it's about aligning your license, VM instance type, and anticipated network load. This guide covers the critical factors (throughput, instance

FortiGate VM Sizing in Azure: A Comprehensive Engineering Guide

You can resize your existing FortiGate-VM to a larger Azure instance type within the same series. For example, upgrading from a Standard_F4s_v2 to a Standard_F8s_v2 requires you to stop the VM (deallocate it), change its size, and then restart it. This process is disruptive, so it should be planned during a maintenance window.

| VM Size | Max Network Bandwidth (Gbps) | FortiGate Realistic Inspection Throughput | |---------|------------------------------|--------------------------------------------| | D2s v3 | ~1.5 Gbps | ~0.8 Gbps (with basic firewall) | | D4s v3 | ~3.0 Gbps | ~1.5-2 Gbps (with IPS) | | D8s v3 | ~6.0 Gbps | ~3 Gbps (with SSL inspection) | | D16s v3 | ~12.0 Gbps | ~5-6 Gbps (mixed traffic) | Before selecting a FortiGate VM license (01, 02, 04, etc

This 3,000+ word guide will walk you through the anatomy of FortiGate VM sizing in Azure, covering SKU selection, throughput calculations, licensing models, high availability (HA) implications, and real-world deployment patterns.

The are the gold standard for FortiGate VM deployments in Azure.