192.168.1.99/24).https://<that-IP>.There are two primary methods to obtain FortiGate-VM 7.0 legally without purchasing a commercial license upfront.
Fortinet distinguishes between "Evaluation Mode" and the permanent free tier slightly differently depending on the exact build and region. Historically, Fortinet offered a free license for low-resource usage (typically allowing 1 CPU or limited throughput).
However, as of FortiOS 7.0, Fortinet generally requires a paid license for production use of the VM, even for low bandwidth. The "Free" aspect is primarily the Evaluation License. fortigate-vm 7.0 download free
Crucial Distinction: If you are looking for a permanently free firewall for a home lab, many users utilize the FortiGate-VM 64-bit (Low Resource) option. In older versions, this allowed a free perpetual license with limited throughput. In v7.0+, you typically need to purchase a "VM License" ($99/year USD or similar for the basic tier) to keep the firewall running after the evaluation period expires without resetting it.
If your goal is zero cost indefinitely: You must use the Evaluation Mode and accept that you may need to redeploy the VM every 15 days, or downgrade to older firmware versions (like v6.0 or v6.2) which had more lenient perpetual free licensing policies. Power on the VM
FortiGate-VM 7.0 supports Hyper-V Generation 1 VMs. You will need to convert the .vmdk to .vhdx using Microsoft’s Virtual Machine Converter or use the raw QCOW2 image converted to VHD.
Follow this official process to get your hands on a legitimate copy of FortiGate-VM 7.0 at zero cost. You will be prompted to configure the management IP
FortiOS 7.0 is currently designated as a Long Term Support (LTS) release (specifically v7.0.13 and later).