u/wh00is007

Managing FortiGate across 100+ sites and starting to think about automation. Curious what people are actually doing vs what's theoretically possible:

1. Are you using FortiGate's REST API, Ansible (fortinet.fortios collection), or something else for automation?
2. What's your most useful script or playbook — what problem does it actually solve day to day?
3. Is FortiManager's built-in API enough for most use cases or do you still need to write custom Python on top of it?
4. For someone learning — should they start with the REST API directly, or go straight to Ansible?
5. Has knowing FortiGate automation specifically made you more attractive to employers or is it still too niche?

Currently managing FortiGate across 100+ sites and starting to build out automation capabilities. Not looking for career advice — genuinely curious how other engineers are implementing this in production environments.

1. What are you actually automating day to day — config pushes, compliance checks, reporting, something else?
2. Ansible, Python scripts, Terraform, or something else? What drove that choice?
3. With AI generating scripts now — do you still write Python from scratch or do you use AI-generated code and focus on understanding the logic?
4. For Ansible specifically — did you need solid Python first or is YAML-based playbook writing approachable without it?
5. Is automation genuinely changing how hiring managers evaluate candidates or is it still mostly a bonus?

We're troubleshooting a recurring issue on FortiClient 7.4.7 for macOS, deployed via Jamf. In the FortiClient logs leading up to crashes, we're seeing this message repeat every 2-3 seconds:

Skipping configuration Fortinet Content Filter because it is of the wrong type

alongside repeated VPN Status changed. Current manager status: 3 entries — looks like FortiClient is stuck in a retry loop trying to (re)register its content filter and failing.

Our Jamf Content Filter configuration profile for FortiClient hasn't been revisited in a while, and I'm wondering if the required payload fields (filter name, bundle identifier, socket filter designated requirement, etc.) have changed in newer FortiClient releases versus whatever version the profile was originally built against.

Has anyone had to update their FortiClient Content Filter payload for a recent FortiClient version and run into a similar "wrong type" rejection? What fields ended up needing to change, and how did you confirm the new correct values — from Fortinet's deployment docs, from a fresh EMS-generated profile, or somewhere else?

We're troubleshooting a recurring issue on FortiClient 7.4.7 for macOS, deployed via Jamf. In the FortiClient logs leading up to crashes, we're seeing this message repeat every 2-3 seconds:

Skipping configuration Fortinet Content Filter because it is of the wrong type

alongside repeated VPN Status changed. Current manager status: 3 entries — looks like FortiClient is stuck in a retry loop trying to (re)register its content filter and failing.

Our Jamf Content Filter configuration profile for FortiClient hasn't been revisited in a while, and I'm wondering if the required payload fields (filter name, bundle identifier, socket filter designated requirement, etc.) have changed in newer FortiClient releases versus whatever version the profile was originally built against.

Has anyone had to update their FortiClient Content Filter payload for a recent FortiClient version and run into a similar "wrong type" rejection? What fields ended up needing to change, and how did you confirm the new correct values — from Fortinet's deployment docs, from a fresh EMS-generated profile, or somewhere else?

We're seeing repeated kernel panics on macOS machines running FortiClient 7.4.7 (build 1928), deployed via Jamf. Multiple Macs affected, not an isolated unit.

Panic signature (consistent across machines, only the interface number changes):

panic(cpu 0 caller ...): busy timeout[0], (60s): 'en7' (1,1802001) u/IOService.cpp:5986
Panicked task: watchdogd

One machine panicked on en7, another on en5 — different Ethernet interfaces, same exact error string, same 60-second timeout, same panicked task (watchdogd), same macOS build (25G76 / Darwin 25.6.0, macOS Tahoe).

FortiClient's network extensions (proxy, webfilter, vpn.nwextension) are active on the affected machines. We're not yet certain FortiClient is the root cause — could also be a dock/USB Ethernet driver interaction, or a macOS Tahoe networking regression that FortiClient happens to be triggering.

Has anyone else run into this specific panic on macOS with FortiClient installed? Any luck narrowing down whether it's FortiClient-side, dock/adapter-side, or an OS-level issue — and any troubleshooting steps or workarounds you'd recommend before we go further with a TAC case?

We're seeing repeated kernel panics on macOS machines running FortiClient 7.4.7 (build 1928), deployed via Jamf. Multiple Macs affected, not an isolated unit.

Panic signature (consistent across machines, only the interface number changes):

panic(cpu 0 caller ...): busy timeout[0], (60s): 'en7' (1,1802001) u/IOService.cpp:5986
Panicked task: watchdogd

One machine panicked on en7, another on en5 — different Ethernet interfaces, same exact error string, same 60-second timeout, same panicked task (watchdogd), same macOS build (25G76 / Darwin 25.6.0, macOS Tahoe).

FortiClient's network extensions (proxy, webfilter, vpn.nwextension) are active on the affected machines. We're not yet certain FortiClient is the root cause — could also be a dock/USB Ethernet driver interaction, or a macOS Tahoe networking regression that FortiClient happens to be triggering.

Has anyone else run into this specific panic on macOS with FortiClient installed? Any luck narrowing down whether it's FortiClient-side, dock/adapter-side, or an OS-level issue — and any troubleshooting steps or workarounds you'd recommend before we go further with a TAC case?