By Manny Fernandez

September 2, 2026

FortiOS Automatic Restart of Node.js to Prevent Conserve Mode

This enables automatic restart of FortiOS’s Node.js process (the “node” daemon), which handles things like Report management, FortiView, Security Fabric/CSF, Security Rating, and the GUI dashboard.

Context: the node process has a known memory leak in FortiOS 7.4.x and 7.6.x branches (Fortinet bug ID 1227167) that can drive the unit into conserve mode over time. Enabling this setting lets FortiOS monitor node’s memory footprint and proactively restart the process before it triggers conserve mode, instead of waiting for a manual restart or a crash.

Two related knobs usually go with it:

– web-svc-auto-restart-mem-threshold — memory (MB) node must consume before a restart is triggered. Range is 100 to 500, or 0 to use the hardcoded platform default (100MB on 2GB+ models, 200MB on smaller ones).
– web-svc-auto-restart-time-threshold — minimum uptime (minutes, 30 to 1140) node must run before the threshold check even starts, so it doesn’t restart the process right after boot.

Full example:
config system global
  set web-svc-auto-restart enable
  set web-svc-auto-restart-mem-threshold 200
  set web-svc-auto-restart-time-threshold 60
end

It’s disabled by default and is currently positioned by Fortinet as a workaround for the node memory issue rather than a setting on by default in shipped configs, so seeing it enabled usually means someone applied it deliberately (or TAC recommended it) to address recurring conserve-mode events.

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