By Manny Fernandez

March 17, 2026

Monkey Bites – FortiGate TAC Report Procedure

In the world of FortiOS, execute tac report is essentially the all-access pass for diagnostic data. When you run this command, the FortiGate executes a long string of individual get and show commands to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the system’s health, configuration, and performance.

It is primarily used when you are opening a ticket with Fortinet Technical Assistance Center (TAC), as it gives the engineer almost everything they need to start troubleshooting without asking you for thirty different outputs.

What the Report Includes

The command automates the collection of several critical categories:

System Status – Hardware versions, serial numbers, uptime, and firmware build.
Resource Utilization – Current CPU usage, memory consumption, and “kernel” health.
Network Configuration – Interface settings, routing tables (RIB), and DNS settings.
Security Policies – A dump of the firewall policy configuration.
HA Status – If you are running a cluster, it shows synchronization status and failover history.
Log Settings – Where logs are being sent and the current logging severity levels.
Crash Logs – Brief snippets of recent system or process crashes.

How to Run It Properly

Because the output is extremely long (often thousands of lines), do not just run it in a standard SSH window and try to scroll up. You will lose 90% of the data due to buffer limits.

Log your session – In your terminal client (like PuTTY, Tera Term, or macOS Terminal), enable “Session Logging” to a .txt file.
Disable output pausing – Run config system console and set set output standard. This prevents the “--More--” prompt from stopping the report every 20 lines.
Execute – Type execute tac report.
Cleanup – Remember to set your console output back to more when finished.

Important Note on Privacy

Since this command performs a show full-configuration, it will include sensitive information. While passwords and private keys are usually encrypted/masked, IP addresses, object names, and your network topology will be visible in the text file. Always ensure you are sending this through the secure Fortinet Support portal.

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