The FGCP (FortiGate Clustering Protocol) is a protocol that is used to manage high availability (HA) clusters of FortiGate devices. It performs several functions, including the following:
FGCP elects the primary FortiGate device: In an HA cluster, FGCP is used to determine which FortiGate device will be the primary device, responsible for handling traffic and making decisions about what to allow or block. FGCP uses a variety of factors, such as the device's priority, to determine which device should be the primary.
FGCP runs only over the heartbeat links: FGCP communicates between FortiGate devices in the HA cluster using the heartbeat links. These are dedicated links that are used to exchange status and control information between the devices. FGCP does not run over other types of links, such as data links.
[Reference:, https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/6.4.0/ports-and-protocols/564712/fgcp-fortigate-clustering-protocol, , FortiGate Infrastructure 7.2 Study Guide (p.292): "FortiGate HA uses the Fortinet-proprietary FortiGate Clustering Protocol (FGCP) to discover members, elect the primary FortiGate, synchronize data among members, and monitor the health of members. To discover and monitor members, the members broadcast heartbeat packets over all configured heartbeat interfaces.", , ]
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