In FortiNAC-F, accountability and forensic tracking of configuration changes are managed through the Admin Auditing functionality. When an administrator performs an action that modifies the system state--such as creating a policy, changing a device's status, or adding a switch port to an Enforcement Group--the system generates an audit record. This record is essential for troubleshooting scenarios where unauthorized or accidental configuration changes have occurred, leading to unintended network behavior.
The Admin Auditing view (found under Logs > Admin Auditing) provides a comprehensive log of the "Who, What, and When" for every administrative session. Each entry includes the username of the administrator, the source IP address from which they accessed the FortiNAC-F console, a precise timestamp, and a detailed description of the modification. In the scenario described, where port have been incorrectly added to enforcement groups, the Admin Auditing view allows a supervisor to filter by the specific "Port" or "Group" object to identify exactly which administrator executed the command.

When FortiNAC-F manages VPN clients through a FortiGate, the agent plays a fundamental role in device identification that standard network protocols cannot provide on their own. In a standard VPN connection, the FortiGate establishes a Layer 3 tunnel and assigns a virtual IP address to the client. While the FortiGate sends a syslog message to FortiNAC-F containing the username and this assigned IP address, it typically does not provide the hardware (MAC) address of the remote endpoint's physical or virtual adapter.
FortiNAC-F relies on the MAC address as the primary unique identifier for all host records in its database. Without the MAC address, FortiNAC-F cannot correlate the incoming VPN session with an existing host record to apply specific policies or track the device's history. By running either a Persistent or Dissolvable Agent, the endpoint retrieves its own MAC address and communicates it directly to the FortiNAC-F service interface. This allows the "IP to MAC" mapping to occur.
Once FortiNAC-F has both the IP and the MAC, it can successfully identify the device, verify its status, and send the appropriate FSSO tags or group information back to the FortiGate to lift network restrictions.

The integration of FortiNAC-F with FortiGate VPN requires a specific policy workflow to bridge the gap between initial user authentication and full network access. When a user connects to the VPN, the FortiGate typically provides the User ID and IP address, but FortiNAC-F requires a MAC address to uniquely identify and manage the endpoint's record.
According to the FortiGate VPN Integration Guide, the Endpoint Compliance Policy is a mandatory component of this setup because it is used to designate the required agent type.
Because a VPN connection is Layer 3, FortiNAC cannot "see" the MAC address through traditional SNMP or L2 polling. The compliance policy instructs the system to present a Captive Portal to the remote user, requiring them to download and run either the Persistent or Dissolvable Agent. The agent then reports the device's MAC address back to FortiNAC, allowing the system to correlate the VPN session with a host record.
Once the agent is running and the MAC is known, FortiNAC-F can evaluate the device's security posture (if scanning is configured) and send the necessary FSSO tags back to the FortiGate to lift the initial network restrictions. Without the compliance policy to enforce the agent requirement, the connection would remain in an isolated "IP-only" state with no unique hardware identity.
"The Endpoint Compliance Policy is necessary to control the agent requirement for VPN users.
Create a default VPN Endpoint Compliance Policy to distribute an agent via captive portal for isolated machines. This policy allows the administrator to designate the required agent type (Persistent or Dissolvable) that will be used to collect the hardware (MAC) address and perform health scans on the remote endpoint."

An event parser must be created so FortiNAC-F can interpret and extract meaningful data from the unknown vendor's syslog messages. The sending device must be modeled in the Network Inventory so FortiNAC-F can associate the incoming syslog messages with a known device and properly process the generated events.

In FortiNAC-F, the Inventory topology uses specific icons to represent the status and model of discovered network infrastructure. When a switch or other network device is discovered via SNMP, FortiNAC-F retrieves its System ObjectID (sysObjectID) to identify the specific make and model. This OID is then compared against the internal database of supported device mappings.
A question mark (?) icon appearing on a discovered switch indicates that while the discovery process successfully communicated with the device (meaning SNMP credentials were correct), the SNMP ObjectID is not recognized or mapped in the current version of FortiNAC-F. This essentially means the device is "unsupported" by the current software out-of-the-box. Because the OID is unknown, FortiNAC-F does not know which CLI or SNMP command set to use for critical functions like L2 polling (host visibility) or VLAN switching (enforcement). To resolve this, an administrator can manually "Set Device Mapping" to a similar existing model or a "Generic SNMP Device" if only basic L3 visibility is required.
"Discovered devices displaying a '?' icon indicate the currently running version does not have a mapping for that device's System OID (device is not supported). Device mappings are used to manage the device by performing functions such as L2/L3 Polling, Reading, and Switching VLANs."