IPS sensors contain one or more IPS filters. A filter is a collection of signature attributes that you specify. The signatures that have all of the attributes specified in a filter are included in the IPS filter.

For example, if your FortiGate unit protects a Linux server running the Apache web server software, you could create a new filter to protect it. By setting OS to Linux, and Application to Apache, the filter will include only the signatures that apply to both Linux and Apache. If you wanted to scan for all the Linux signatures and all the Apache signatures, you would create two filters, one for each.

To view the filters in an IPS sensor, go to Security Profiles > Intrusion Protection > IPS Sensor, select the IPS sensor containing the filters you want to view, and choose Edit.