🧠 If you have an OVA file, just do File → Import Appliance instead.

FortiGate VMs can sometimes fail to boot with certain "paravirtualization" interfaces. Go to Settings → System → Acceleration and set Paravirtualization Interface to Default or KVM. Avoid "Hyper-V" or "Legacy".

| FortiGate Interface | VirtualBox Network Type | Purpose | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | port1 (MGMT) | NAT Network | Host access to GUI/SSH | | port2 (WAN) | Bridged Adapter | Internet uplink from host modem | | port3 (LAN) | Internal Network | Connect internal test VMs | | port4 (DMZ) | Host-Only Adapter | Isolated testing |

Fix: SSH into FortiGate, run execute factoryreset, then re-apply for a new trial. Do not forget to change the UUID of the VM (via VBoxManage setvideemacaddress) if the license is fully blacklisted.

FortiOS expects hardware acceleration. While VirtualBox doesn’t support SR-IOV or PCI passthrough perfectly, these tips help: