You are deploying a small office network with a single FortiGate and a single FortiSwitch. The office currently has moderate traffic, but the IT team…

Configuring FortiLink as a link aggregation group (LAG) is the best practice for this scenario. A LAG bundles multiple physical interfaces into a single logical interface, providing increased bandwidth and link redundancy. This setup addresses the current need for performance with moderate traffic and offers excellent scalability. As the network grows and more FortiSwitch devices are added, additional physical links can be easily added to the LAG to increase the total throughput of the FortiLink connection, accommodating future traffic demands without a major redesign.

A. Configure FortiLink using hardware-based switch interfaces.

This configuration is simple but offers limited scalability. It typically uses a fixed number of ports and does not allow for easy bandwidth expansion as the network grows.

B. Configure FortiLink using software-based switch interfaces.

A software switch relies on the FortiGate's CPU for processing, resulting in lower performance compared to hardware-accelerated options like LAGs, making it unsuitable for a growing network.

D. Configure FortiLink as a multichassis LAG (MCLAG) interface.

MCLAG is designed for high availability scenarios involving two FortiGate units in an HA cluster. This option is invalid because the scenario specifies a single FortiGate.

1. FortiSwitch Managed by FortiOS 7.6.0 | Administration Guide, FortiLink over a link aggregation group (LAG), Page 28: "Fortinet recommends using a link aggregation group (LAG) for the FortiLink connection between the FortiGate unit and the FortiSwitch unit. A LAG provides redundancy and increased throughput." This directly supports using a LAG for performance and redundancy.

2. FortiSwitch Managed by FortiOS 7.6.0 | Administration Guide, FortiLink multichassis link aggregation group (MCLAG), Page 32: "FortiLink MCLAG provides link redundancy in a setup with two FortiGate units in an active-active or active-passive high-availability (HA) cluster." This confirms that MCLAG is only applicable to a FortiGate HA cluster, making option D incorrect for a single FortiGate deployment.

3. FortiOS 7.6.0 | Administration Guide, Link aggregation (802.3ad), Page 100: "Link aggregation combines multiple physical interfaces into a single logical interface, called a LAG. This increases the bandwidth and provides link redundancy." This general principle underpins the scalability and performance benefits of using a LAG for FortiLink.