Can CLI commands be run of a FortiGate from crontab?

Question

I have a recurring occurance at 02:30 (2:30 AM) every night, where DNS name resolutions fail.
I'd like to run the following CLI commands on our FortiGate 60D at 02:20, so I'll have some data to debug the DNS issue:

dia debug reset 
dia de flow filter port 53 
dia de consol time en 
dia de flow show fun en 
dia de flow trace start 100000000 
dia de en

I was thinking of using crontab to execute a CLI script, or a list of CLI commands, something like:

ssh <my_fortigate_ip> "dia debug reset ; dia de flow filter port 53 ; dia de consol time en ; dia de flow show fun en ; dia de flow trace start 100000000 ; dia de en" 

---

1. Can more than one CLI commands be entered on a CLI shell line? What is the separator between CLI commands?
2. Can an ssh key exchange (or equivalent) be performed so I could log in to the FortiGate from a certain machine, without being prompted for a password?
3. Is there another way to collect data non-interactively on a FortiGate between certain times?

Answer 1

The 60D is a bit tricky since it doesn't log much locally. I never understood why it can't log to a local USB stick. I'd recommend setting up a syslog server.

Can more than one CLI commands be entered on a CLI shell line? What is the separator between CLI commands?

No, I don't think FortiOS supports that. You'll need to send line breaks in between.

Can an ssh key exchange (or equivalent) be performed so I could log in to the FortiGate from a certain machine, without being prompted for a password?

Yes. You can set a local admin password by running

config system admin
    edit admin
      set ssh-public-key1 "<key-type> <key-value>"

See https://kb.fortinet.com/kb/documentLink.do?externalID=11985 for details.

Is there another way to collect data non-interactively on a FortiGate between certain times?

I'd simply run a packet capture with a filter set so that it doesn't run out before that problem happens.

You can run a packet capture from the GUI or in CLI

diag sniffer packet <interface> <'filter'> <verbose> <count> a

See https://kb.fortinet.com/kb/documentLink.do?externalId=11186 for details.

You could also schedule a script but I haven't actually done that yet.