FortiGate F-Series End-of-Order — A 2026 Owner's Guide
Published 19 May 2026
· By
Pawan Sharma
· Fortinet
· 20 min read
Fortinet is mid-way through the largest FortiGate refresh cycle since the E-series → F-series transition in 2019. Across the first half of 2026, seven F-series base models have reached End-of-Order — the FortiGate 70F, 80F, 100F, 200F, 600F, 6300F and 6500F. The 1101E follows on 30 July 2026. If you own one of these firewalls or are about to procure one, the practical questions are: do I need to do anything right now, what changes in the renewal cycle, and what does the migration to the G-series actually look like.
Past EoO
7 models
70F, 80F, 100F, 200F, 600F, 6300F, 6500F
Going EoO
1101E
EoO 30 Jul 2026 (~72 days)
End-of-Support
2031
5-year FortiGuard cushion
G-series ASIC
NP7
2× to 4× IPS / SSL inspection vs F-series
If you take one thing from this guide: EoO doesn't mean your firewall stops working tomorrow. It means Fortinet won't accept new orders for the SKU. Your deployed unit continues to receive FortiGuard signature updates and FortiCare coverage through End-of-Support in 2031 — a five-year planned refresh window. Don't panic-refresh.
What “End of Order” actually means
Fortinet uses a four-stage lifecycle for hardware. Knowing where your unit sits on this timeline determines what action (if any) you need to take and when.
Stage 1
Announcement
Fortinet publishes the upcoming EoO date, typically 90 to 180 days in advance. This is when the lifecycle KB flags the model. Nothing changes operationally — orders continue to flow normally until the EoO date.
Stage 2
End of Order (EoO)
Last day Fortinet accepts new purchase orders for the SKU. After this date the only path to acquire a unit is through remaining channel inventory at distributors and partners. Multi-year subscription renewals on already-deployed units continue to be accepted.
Stage 3
Last Service Extension
Final day to extend or renew FortiCare support contracts. For the 2026 F-series cohort this lands one year before End-of-Support. After this date no new contracts can be opened, but existing contracts continue to run.
Stage 4
End of Support (EoS)
Last day of FortiGuard signature updates, last day of FortiCare service. After EoS the firewall keeps forwarding traffic but receives no new security signatures and is no longer covered by Fortinet support. For every F-series model in the 2026 cohort, EoS lands in 2031 — that's your refresh deadline.
The 2026 F-series EoO cohort — exact dates
Eight FortiGate models have reached or are approaching End-of-Order in the first half of 2026. Mapping the lifecycle data to the typical Indian deployment context:
| Model | EoO | EoS | Typical deployment | Active successor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FortiGate 70F | 2026-05-17 | 2031-05-17 | Branch with PoE for FortiAP / FortiSwitch | FortiGate 90G |
| FortiGate 80F | 2026-05-17 | 2031-05-17 | Medium branch, dual-WAN, 50–100 users | FortiGate 90G |
| FortiGate 100F | 2026-04-16 | 2031-04-16 | Regional office, larger SMB HQ, 100–200 users | FortiGate 120G |
| FortiGate 200F | 2026-03-01 | 2031-03-01 | Campus / mid-market HQ, 200–500 users | G-series 200-class TBA |
| FortiGate 600F | 2026-05-01 | 2031-05-01 | Enterprise HQ, mid-range data centre | FortiGate 900G |
| FortiGate 6300F | 2026-04-15 | 2031-04-15 | Data-centre / service-provider class | G-series equivalent TBA |
| FortiGate 6500F | 2026-01-13 | 2031-01-13 | Hyperscale data-centre | G-series equivalent TBA |
| FortiGate 1101E | 2026-07-30 | 2031-07-30 | Data-centre edge, ISP termination | 900G / 1800F |
What stays on the active price list as of May 2026: FortiGate 40F (entry SOHO), 60F (the popular SMB anchor — no EoO announcement), 90G (new branch GA), 120G (new mid-range GA), 400F (still GA), 900G, 1800F, 2600F, 3500F, 4200F and 4400F (still GA across data-centre and carrier-grade tiers). The G-series rollout is filling in tier-by-tier; the 200F-class and 6500F-class G-series successors have not yet been fully announced for the Indian market.
F → G successor map at a glance
The five-year cushion — what existing owners actually need to do
If your business currently runs an 80F, 100F, 200F or 600F that is in support, the immediate operational answer is: nothing changes for the next several years. FortiGuard signature feeds continue to flow. FortiCare RMA coverage remains active. New FortiOS firmware releases continue to support the hardware. The five-year gap between EoO and EoS gives you a planned, unhurried refresh window — Fortinet engineers this gap deliberately so customers can budget the replacement cycle into normal capex planning rather than reacting in an emergency.
What does change for the existing owner across that window:
Operational impact #1
New unit procurement
You can no longer buy a fresh 80F for branch expansion or HA-pair completion through Fortinet's order system. You can still source remaining stock through distribution channels until inventory runs out — usually a few months past EoO. After that, the 90G is the new procurement path at that tier.
Operational impact #2
HA-pair asymmetry risk
If you run an HA pair where the active unit is in production and the standby unit fails RMA-style 18 months from now, the standby replacement will arrive as a fresh unit. Fortinet honours FortiCare RMA on existing serial numbers (that's exactly what the EoS-2031 commitment covers) but if the model has run out of channel stock, the practical replacement may shift to the successor G-series. Mixed-generation HA pairs are technically possible in some cases but operationally messy — most enterprises plan a coordinated refresh.
Operational impact #3
Subscription renewals at the 3- or 5-year boundary
If you bought a 3-year FortiGuard bundle in 2024, it expires in 2027. You can renew it on the existing 80F — Fortinet honours subscription renewals through the EoS date — but at that renewal point you have a decision to make. A 3-year renewal on the 80F runs to 2030; a 5-year renewal would push past the 2031-05-17 EoS date and is therefore not possible. Most customers in this scenario do one of three things: take a 3-year renewal and refresh to 90G at the 2030 boundary, take a 1-year bridge while planning the refresh, or refresh now with the Fortinet Trade-Up programme to capture the credit before the channel stock window closes.
Operational impact #4
FortiOS major-version compatibility
Fortinet does occasionally drop hardware support for older models in newer FortiOS major versions. The 80F, 100F, 200F and 600F are not at that boundary today and are not flagged in the FortiOS 7.6 hardware compatibility matrix as deprecated. If you operate in a regulated sector that mandates currency on the security software, you can run the current FortiOS major version on every F-series in this cohort.
Why Fortinet is refreshing now — the NP7 ASIC story
The G-series is built around the NP7 ASIC, Fortinet's seventh-generation network processor. The 90G, 120G, 900G and the higher-tier G-series models all share this silicon. The IPS, SSL-inspection and SD-WAN performance step-changes between the F-series and G-series are not incremental — they are typically 2× to 4× on the headline numbers because the NP7 has dedicated cryptography and pattern-matching cores that the F-series' SoC4 / NP6 ASICs did not.
Throughput comparison — F-series vs G-series
The NP7 jump is real
- 80F → 90G: IPS 2.6 → 5.5 Gbps · SSL inspection 1.8 → 5 Gbps
- 100F → 120G: IPS 4 → 6.5 Gbps · firewall 20 → 27 Gbps
- 600F → 900G: IPS 13 → 34 Gbps · SSL inspection 5 → 15 Gbps
The four refresh strategies — pick the one that matches your situation
Across the existing F-series customer base we work with, four refresh patterns cover almost every scenario.
Run to End-of-Support, then refresh in 2030–2031
Subscription renewals stay on the F-series at standard terms through 2030 (3-year) or up to 2031 (with cycle planning). Budget the refresh capex for FY2030–FY2031 and let the deployment run.
Phased refresh at the next subscription renewal
Bought a 3-year FortiGuard bundle in 2024? Renewal lands in 2027. At that renewal, take the new G-series unit (90G / 120G / 900G depending on tier), bundle a fresh 3- or 5-year subscription, retire the F-series. Aligns capex with the natural renewal cycle.
Refresh now using the Fortinet Trade-Up programme
Fortinet operates a structured Trade-Up programme that credits the EoO hardware against the cost of a current-generation G-series unit. Material discount on the new hardware line.
HA-coordinated refresh
If you run an HA pair, refresh both units together at the next renewal cycle. Mixed F-series + G-series HA pairs are operationally supported but add firmware-compatibility and config-sync edge cases. Schedule the refresh as a single change window with the new HA pair pre-staged.
How Ogma operates the refresh — what a customer engagement looks like
For Indian customers on a Fortinet refresh path, the engagement model:
Inventory audit
Ogma reads the existing Fortinet inventory off the customer's FortiCare account — serial numbers, models, subscription end dates, FortiCare expiry. Cross-referenced against the lifecycle KB to flag every EoO / EoS milestone in the next 24 months. Output: a one-page lifecycle map showing which units need attention and when.
Sizing the successor
The G-series is more performant per box, which sometimes lets a customer consolidate. A site running two 80F units for HA can sometimes drop to a single 90G plus passive standby. Sizing is done against observed throughput on the existing FortiAnalyzer or FortiCloud telemetry, not against datasheet numbers.
Trade-Up calculation
Ogma surfaces the Fortinet Trade-Up credit applicable to each existing F-series serial number. Material discount on the typical case — between 20% and 35% off the new hardware list, depending on the model and residual life on the existing FortiCare contract.
Subscription bridging
If mid-cycle on a 3-year subscription, Ogma works out the prorated value left on the existing F-series subscription and credits it against the new G-series subscription where Fortinet's rules allow. In some cases the cleanest path is to let the existing subscription run to expiry and align the G-series cutover with the renewal date.
Change-window planning
For HA-pair refresh or multi-site rollouts, Ogma designs the change window with the customer's SOC / network ops team. New units pre-staged, FortiManager templates validated against the new FortiOS major version, FortiAnalyzer integration tested, cutover happens in a planned outage window with rollback documented. Multi-branch rollouts typically site-by-site over 4 to 8 weeks.
Managed-operations handover (optional)
Customers who want to outsource Day-2 operations move into Ogma's managed FortiGate service — config management, policy review, change-control, FortiGuard subscription tracking, and EoO advisory for future cycles.
The “I don't know what FortiGate I have” diagnosis path
For organisations that aren't sure what FortiGate models they run — common in distributed enterprises that grew through acquisition or that don't have a current Fortinet partner of record — the starting point is a 30-minute Ogma assessment. We need three things:
Three inputs for a 30-minute lifecycle assessment
- FortiCare account access — a login or read-only delegated access so we can pull the registered serial numbers.
- One
get hardware statusoutput — from any in-scope firewall, so we can confirm the model identification format. - Fiscal year boundaries — so we can align the refresh recommendation against your budget cycles.
Output is a structured lifecycle map: every Fortinet device you own, current EoO / EoS status, subscription end dates, recommended refresh path, capex impact projected against the next 24 months. No commitment required at the assessment stage — many customers use this output to drive their internal budget conversation before deciding to proceed.
What the F-series owner specifically should NOT do
Don't panic-refresh
EoO does not mean “your firewall is suddenly insecure”. The 80F / 100F / 200F / 600F continue to receive FortiGuard signature updates through 2031. Rushing the refresh into an unplanned spend window is a waste of capex.
Don't extend a subscription past EoS
Fortinet's system will not allow a subscription end-date past EoS, and even if it did, the FortiGuard signature feed stops at EoS. Plan the refresh to land before any subscription bumps past the EoS boundary.
Don't run single F-series without HA
The EoO window is the wrong time to discover that your single firewall has no failover path. If your existing deployment is single-unit, the refresh is the right moment to add HA. Ogma sizes the secondary unit alongside the refresh.
Don't buy grey-market
Fortinet honours FortiCare RMA only on serial numbers sourced through authorised distribution. A grey-market 80F purchased after EoO will not register for FortiCare coverage — the cost saving evaporates the first time you need a hardware RMA.
Indian-specific considerations
India-only nuance #1
GST and Trade-Up accounting
The Fortinet Trade-Up credit applies against the new hardware list price and is reflected directly on the Indian invoice. Full GST is charged on the post-credit net price, which keeps your Input Tax Credit (ITC) eligibility intact. Some channels structure the Trade-Up as a separate “exchange transaction” which complicates the GST treatment — Ogma issues a single GST-compliant invoice with the credit shown as a line-item discount.
India-only nuance #2
GeM procurement timelines
For PSU customers running F-series firewalls procured through GeM, the Trade-Up route is somewhat trickier — GeM workflows assume new procurement rather than refresh-with-credit. The cleanest path is to procure the G-series unit through GeM as a fresh purchase and run a separate Trade-Up settlement against the retired hardware. Ogma operates both workflows simultaneously where required.
India-only nuance #3
Compliance evidence continuity
RBI Cyber Security Framework audits and SEBI CSCRF reviews require continuous firewall coverage. A refresh that creates a coverage gap (even for a few hours) creates an audit-finding risk. Ogma plans every refresh as a no-gap cutover with documented change-window evidence — fresh G-series fully configured and tested in standby mode before the F-series is decommissioned, FortiAnalyzer continuing to receive logs from both during the cutover window.
Not sure where your FortiGate fleet sits on the lifecycle?
A 30-minute conversation gets you a structured roadmap — every Fortinet device you own, EoO / EoS status, subscription end dates, recommended refresh path. Screen-share with read-only FortiCare access, or offline analysis if you can send the inventory export. No commitment to refresh required.
Request lifecycle audit or call +91 80 0979 0979Related Ogma pages: FortiGate price guide · FortiGate model comparison · FortiGate renewals service · Fortinet Partner India
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