Cisco Identity Services Engine Installation Guide, Release 2.

3
First Published: 2017-07-28

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 CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 Network Deployments in Cisco ISE 1

Cisco ISE Network Architecture 1
Cisco ISE Deployment Terminology 2
Node Types and Personas in Distributed Deployments 2
Administration Node 2
Policy Service Node 3
Monitoring Node 3
pxGrid Node 3
Standalone and Distributed ISE Deployments 4
Distributed Deployment Scenarios 4
Small Network Deployments 4
Split Deployments 5
Medium-Sized Network Deployments 6
Large Network Deployments 7
Centralized Logging 7
Load Balancers 7
Dispersed Network Deployments 8
Considerations for Planning a Network with Several Remote Sites 9
Deployment Size and Scaling Recommendations 10
Switch and Wireless LAN Controller Configuration Required to Support Cisco ISE Functions 12

CHAPTER 2 System Requirements 13

Hardware and Virtual Appliance Requirements 13
Cisco SNS-3400 and SNS-3500 Series Appliances 13
VMware Virtual Machine Requirements 14
Linux KVM Requirements 18
Microsoft Hyper-V Requirements 19
Virtual Machine Appliance Size Recommendations 20

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Disk Space Requirements 21

Disk Space Guidelines 22

CHAPTER 3 Install Cisco ISE 25

Install Cisco ISE 25
Run the Setup Program 28
Verify the Installation Process 30

CHAPTER 4 Additional Installation Information 31

SNS Appliance Reference 31
Create a Bootable USB Device to Install Cisco ISE 31
Reimage the Cisco SNS 3500 Series Appliance 32
VMware Virtual Machine 33
Virtual Machine Resource and Performance Checks 33
Deploy Cisco ISE on Virtual Machines Using OVA Templates 33
Install Cisco ISE on VMware Virtual Machine Using the ISO File 34
Prerequisites for Configuring a VMware ESXi Server 34
Virtualization Technology Check 35
Enable Virtualization Technology on an ESXi Server 36
Configure VMware Server Interfaces for the Cisco ISE Profiler Service 36
Connect to the VMware Server Using the Serial Console 36
Configure a VMware Server 37
Increase Virtual Machine Power On Boot Delay Configuration 38
Install Cisco ISE Software on a VMware System 38
VMware Tools Installation Verification 40
Verify VMWare Tools Installation Using the Summary Tab in the vSphere
Client 40
Verify VMWare Tools Installation Using the CLI 40
Support for Upgrading VMware Tools 41
Clone a Cisco ISE Virtual Machine 41
Clone a Cisco ISE Virtual Machine Using a Template 42
Create a Virtual Machine Template 42
Deploy a Virtual Machine Template 43
Change the IP Address and Hostname of a Cloned Virtual Machine 43
Connect a Cloned Cisco Virtual Machine to the Network 45

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Migrate Cisco ISE VM from Evaluation to Production 45

On Demand Virtual Machine Performance Check Using the Show Tech Support Command 46
Virtual Machine Resource Check from the Cisco ISE Boot Menu 46
Linux KVM 47
KVM Virtualization Check 47
Install Cisco ISE on KVM 47
Microsoft Hyper-V 50
Create a Cisco ISE Virtual Machine on Hyper-V 50

CHAPTER 5 Post-Installation Tasks 53

Log in to the Cisco ISE Web-Based Interface 53
CLI-Admin and Web-Based Admin User Right Differences 54
CLI Admin Users Creation 55
Web-Based Admin Users Creation 55
Reset a Password Due to Administrator Lockout 55
Cisco ISE Configuration Verification 56
Verify Configuration Using a Web Browser 56
Verify Configuration Using the CLI 57
List of Post Installation Tasks 58

CHAPTER 6 Maintenance Tasks 59

Bond Ethernet Interfaces for High Availability 59
Supported Platforms 60
Guidelines for Bonding Ethernet Interfaces 60
Configure NIC Bonding 61
Verify NIC Bonding Configuration 62
Remove NIC Bonding 63
Reset a Lost, Forgotten, or Compromised Password using the DVD 64
Reset a Password Due to Administrator Lockout 65
Return Material Authorization 66
Change the IP Address of a Cisco ISE Appliance 66
View Installation and Upgrade History 67
Perform a System Erase 68

CHAPTER 7 Cisco ISE Ports Reference 71

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Cisco ISE Infrastructure 71

Cisco ISE Administration Node Ports 73
Cisco ISE Monitoring Node Ports 75
Cisco ISE Policy Service Node Ports 76
Cisco ISE pxGrid Service Ports 80
OCSP and CRL Service Ports 81

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Network Deployments in Cisco ISE
• Cisco ISE Network Architecture, page 1
• Cisco ISE Deployment Terminology, page 2
• Node Types and Personas in Distributed Deployments, page 2
• Standalone and Distributed ISE Deployments, page 4
• Distributed Deployment Scenarios, page 4
• Small Network Deployments, page 4
• Medium-Sized Network Deployments, page 6
• Large Network Deployments, page 7
• Deployment Size and Scaling Recommendations, page 10
• Switch and Wireless LAN Controller Configuration Required to Support Cisco ISE Functions, page
12

Cisco ISE Network Architecture

Cisco ISE architecture includes the following components:
• Nodes and persona types
◦Cisco ISE node—A Cisco ISE node can assume any or all of the following personas: Administration,
Policy Service, Monitoring, or pxGrid

• Network resources
• Endpoints

The policy information point represents the point at which external information is communicated to the Policy
Service persona. For example, external information could be a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
attribute.

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Cisco ISE Deployment Terminology

Cisco ISE Deployment Terminology

This guide uses the following terms when discussing Cisco ISE deployment scenarios:

Term Definition
Service A specific feature that a persona provides such as network access,
profiling, posture, security group access, monitoring, and
troubleshooting.

Node An individual physical or virtual Cisco ISE appliance.

Node Type The Cisco ISE node can assume any of the following personas:
Administration, Policy Service, Monitoring

Persona Determines the services provided by a node. A Cisco ISE node

can assume any or all of the following personas: . The menu
options that are available through the administrative user interface
depend on the role and personas that a node assumes.

Role Determines if a node is a standalone, primary, or secondary node

and applies only to Administration and Monitoring nodes.

Node Types and Personas in Distributed Deployments

A Cisco ISE node can provide various services based on the persona that it assumes. Each node in a deployment
can assume the Administration, Policy Service, pxGrid, and Monitoring personas. In a distributed deployment,
you can have the following combination of nodes on your network:
• Primary and secondary Administration nodes for high availability
• A pair of Monitoring nodes for automatic failover
• One or more Policy Service nodes for session failover
• One or more pxGrid nodes for pxGrid services

Administration Node
A Cisco ISE node with the Administration persona allows you to perform all administrative operations on
Cisco ISE. It handles all system-related configurations that are related to functionality such as authentication,
authorization, and accounting. In a distributed deployment, you can have a maximum of two nodes running
the Administration persona. The Administration persona can take on the standalone, primary, or secondary
role.

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Policy Service Node

Policy Service Node

A Cisco ISE node with the Policy Service persona provides network access, posture, guest access, client
provisioning, and profiling services. This persona evaluates the policies and makes all the decisions. You can
have more than one node assume this persona. Typically, there would be more than one Policy Service node
in a distributed deployment. All Policy Service nodes that reside in the same high-speed Local Area Network
(LAN) or behind a load balancer can be grouped together to form a node group. If one of the nodes in a node
group fails, the other nodes detect the failure and reset any URL-redirected sessions.
At least one node in your distributed setup should assume the Policy Service persona.

Monitoring Node
A Cisco ISE node with the Monitoring persona functions as the log collector and stores log messages from
all the Administration and Policy Service nodes in a network. This persona provides advanced monitoring
and troubleshooting tools that you can use to effectively manage a network and resources. A node with this
persona aggregates and correlates the data that it collects, and provides you with meaningful reports. Cisco
ISE allows you to have a maximum of two nodes with this persona, and they can take on primary or secondary
roles for high availability. Both the primary and secondary Monitoring nodes collect log messages. In case
the primary Monitoring node goes down, the secondary Monitoring node automatically becomes the primary
Monitoring node.
At least one node in your distributed setup should assume the Monitoring persona. We recommend that you
do not have the Monitoring and Policy Service personas enabled on the same Cisco ISE node. We recommend
that the Monitoring node be dedicated solely to monitoring for optimum performance.

pxGrid Node
You can use Cisco pxGrid to share the context-sensitive information from Cisco ISE session directory with
other network systems such as ISE Eco system partner systems and other Cisco platforms. The pxGrid
framework can also be used to exchange policy and configuration data between nodes like sharing tags and
policy objects between Cisco ISE and third party vendors, and for other information exchanges. Cisco pxGrid
also allows third party systems to invoke adaptive network control actions (EPS) to quarantine users/devices
in response to a network or security event. The TrustSec information like tag definition, value, and description
can be passed from Cisco ISE via TrustSec topic to other networks. The endpoint profiles with Fully Qualified
Names (FQNs) can be passed from Cisco ISE to other networks through a endpoint profile meta topic. Cisco
pxGrid also supports bulk download of tags and endpoint profiles.
You can publish and subscribe to SXP bindings (IP-SGT mappings) through pxGrid. For more information
about SXP bindings, see Source Group Tag Protocol section in Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator
Guide.
In a high-availability configuration, Cisco pxGrid servers replicate information between the nodes through
the PAN. When the PAN goes down, pxGrid server stops handling the client registration and subscription.
You need to manually promote the PAN for the pxGrid server to become active.

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Standalone and Distributed ISE Deployments

Standalone and Distributed ISE Deployments

A deployment that has a single Cisco ISE node is called a standalone deployment. This node runs the
Administration, Policy Service, and Monitoring personas.
A deployment that has more than one Cisco ISE node is called a distributed deployment. To support failover
and to improve performance, you can set up a deployment with multiple Cisco ISE nodes in a distributed
fashion. In a Cisco ISE distributed deployment, administration and monitoring activities are centralized, and
processing is distributed across the Policy Service nodes. Depending on your performance needs, you can
scale your deployment. A Cisco ISE node can assume any of the following personas: Administration, Policy
Service, and Monitoring.

Distributed Deployment Scenarios

• Small Network Deployments
• Medium-Sized Network Deployments
• Large Network Deployments

Small Network Deployments

The smallest Cisco ISE deployment consists of two Cisco ISE nodes with one Cisco ISE node functioning as
the primary appliance in a small network.
The primary node provides all the configuration, authentication, and policy capabilities that are required for
this network model, and the secondary Cisco ISE node functions in a backup role. The secondary node supports
the primary node and maintains a functioning network whenever connectivity is lost between the primary
node and network appliances, network resources, or RADIUS.
Centralized authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) operations between clients and the primary
Cisco ISE node are performed using the RADIUS protocol. Cisco ISE synchronizes or replicates all of the
content that resides on the primary Cisco ISE node with the secondary Cisco ISE node. Thus, your secondary
node is current with the state of your primary node. In a small network deployment, this type of configuration

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Split Deployments

model allows you to configure both your primary and secondary nodes on all RADIUS clients by using this
type of deployment or a similar approach.

Figure 1: Small Network Deployment

As the number of devices, network resources, users, and AAA clients increases in your network environment,
you should change your deployment configuration from the basic small model and use more of a split or
distributed deployment model.

Split Deployments
In split Cisco ISE deployments, you continue to maintain primary and secondary nodes as described in a small
Cisco ISE deployment. However, the AAA load is split between the two Cisco ISE nodes to optimize the
AAA workflow. Each Cisco ISE appliance (primary or secondary) needs to be able to handle the full workload
if there are any problems with AAA connectivity. Neither the primary node nor the secondary nodes handles
all AAA requests during normal network operations because this workload is distributed between the two
nodes.
The ability to split the load in this way directly reduces the stress on each Cisco ISE node in the system. In
addition, splitting the load provides better loading while the functional status of the secondary node is
maintained during the course of normal network operations.
In split Cisco ISE deployments, each node can perform its own specific operations, such as network admission
or device administration, and still perform all the AAA functions in the event of a failure. If you have two
Cisco ISE nodes that process authentication requests and collect accounting data from AAA clients, we
recommend that you set up one of the Cisco ISE nodes to act as a log collector.

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Medium-Sized Network Deployments

In addition, the split Cisco ISE deployment design provides an advantage because it allows for growth.

Figure 2: Split Network Deployment

Medium-Sized Network Deployments

As small networks grow, you can keep pace and manage network growth by adding Cisco ISE nodes to create
a medium-sized network. In medium-sized network deployments, you can dedicate the new nodes for all AAA
functions, and use the original nodes for configuration and logging functions.

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Large Network Deployments

As the amount of log traffic increases in a network, you can choose to dedicate one or two of the secondary
Cisco ISE nodes for log collection in your network.

Figure 3: Medium-Sized Network Deployment

Large Network Deployments

Centralized Logging
We recommend that you use centralized logging for large Cisco ISE networks. To use centralized logging,
you must first set up a dedicated logging server that serves as a Monitoring persona (for monitoring and
logging) to handle the potentially high syslog traffic that a large, busy network can generate.
Because syslog messages are generated for outbound log traffic, any RFC 3164-compliant syslog appliance
can serve as the collector for outbound logging traffic. A dedicated logging server enables you to use the
reports and alert features that are available in Cisco ISE to support all the Cisco ISE nodes.
You can also consider having the appliances send logs to both a Monitoring persona on the Cisco ISE node
and a generic syslog server. Adding a generic syslog server provides a redundant backup if the Monitoring
persona on the Cisco ISE node goes down.

Load Balancers
In large centralized networks, you should use a load balancer, which simplifies the deployment of AAA clients.
Using a load balancer requires only a single entry for the AAA servers, and the load balancer optimizes the
routing of AAA requests to the available servers.

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Dispersed Network Deployments

However, having only a single load balancer introduces the potential for having a single point of failure. To
avoid this potential issue, deploy two load balancers to ensure a measure of redundancy and failover. This
configuration requires you to set up two AAA server entries in each AAA client, and this configuration remains
consistent throughout the network.

Figure 4: Large Network Deployment

Dispersed Network Deployments

Dispersed Cisco ISE network deployments are most useful for organizations that have a main campus with
regional, national, or satellite locations elsewhere. The main campus is where the primary network resides,
is connected to additional LANs, ranges in size from small to large, and supports appliances and users in
different geographical regions and locations.
Large remote sites can have their own AAA infrastructure for optimal AAA performance. A centralized
management model helps maintain a consistent, synchronized AAA policy. A centralized configuration model
uses a primary Cisco ISE node with secondary Cisco ISE nodes. We still recommend that you use a separate

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Considerations for Planning a Network with Several Remote Sites

Monitoring persona on the Cisco ISE node, but each remote location should retain its own unique network
requirements.

Figure 5: Dispersed Deployment

Considerations for Planning a Network with Several Remote Sites

• Verify if a central or external database is used, such as Microsoft Active Directory or Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Each remote site should have a synchronized instance of the external
database that is available for Cisco ISE to access for optimizing AAA performance.
• The location of AAA clients is important. You should locate the Cisco ISE nodes as close as possible
to the AAA clients to reduce network latency effects and the potential for loss of access that is caused
by WAN failures.
• Cisco ISE has console access for some functions such as backup. Consider using a terminal at each site,
which allows for direct, secure console access that bypasses network access to each node.
• If small, remote sites are in close proximity and have reliable WAN connectivity to other sites, consider
using a Cisco ISE node as a backup for the local site to provide redundancy.
• Domain Name System (DNS) should be properly configured on all Cisco ISE nodes to ensure access to
the external databases.

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Deployment Size and Scaling Recommendations

Deployment Size and Scaling Recommendations

The following tables provide performance and scalability metrics for RADIUS sessions, Passive Identity,
Easy Connect, pxGrid, and ISE services.

Table 1: Maximum RADIUS Scaling by Deployment with Maximum Passive Identity/Easy Connect Scaling by Deployment
Size

Deployment Platform Max # Max RADIUS Max Passive Max Merged Max Merged
Model Dedicated Sessions Per Identity & Easy & Easy
PSNs Deployment Sessions Per Connect Connect
Deployment Sessions* Sessions*
(Shared (Dedicated
PSNs) PSNs)
Standalone 3415 0 5,000 50,000 500 N/A

3495 0 10,000 100,000 1,000 N/A

3515 0 7500 100,000 1,000 N/A

3595 0 20,000 300,000 2,000 N/A

PAN + MnT 3415 as 5 5,000 50,000 500 2,500

on same PAN+MnT
node-Dedicated
PSNs 3495 as 5 10,000 100,000 1,000 5,000
PAN+MnT

3515 as 5 7,500 100,000 1,000 5,000

PAN+MnT

3595 as 5 20,000 300,000 2,000 10,000

PAN+MnT

Dedicated 3495 as PAN 40 250,000 100,000 N/A 25,000

(PAN, MnT, and MnT
PXG, and
PSN Nodes) 3595 as PAN 50 500,000 300,000 N/A 50,000
and MnT

*Subset of Max RADIUS/Max Passive Sessions

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Deployment Size and Scaling Recommendations

Table 2: Scalability with pxGrid Services

pxGrid Scaling Platform Max PSNs Max PXGs Max pxGrid Max pxGrid
Per Deployment Max PSN+PXG Max PSN+PXG Subscribers Subscribers
Nodes =5 Nodes =5 (Shared (Dedicated
PSN+PXG) PSN/PXG)
Standalone (All 3415 0 0 2 N/A
personas on
same node) (2 3495 0 0 2 N/A
nodes
redundant) 3515 0 0 2 N/A

3595 0 0 2 N/A

PAN + MnT + 3415 as PAN + 5 2 5 15

PXG on same MnT/PXG
node and
dedicated PSNs 3495 as PAN + 5 2 5 15
OR PAN + MnT MnT/PXG
and dedidcated
PSN & PXG 3515 as PAN + 5 2 5 15
(Minimum 4 MnT/PXG
nodes
redundant) 3595 as PAN + 5 2 5 15
MnT/PXG

Dedicated (All 3495 as PAN 40 2 N/A 25

personas on and MnT
dedicated nodes
(Minimum 6 3595 as PAN 50 2 N/A 25
nodes and MnT
redundant))

Scalability with Platform Max Subscribers per PXG Node

pxGrid per
PXG Node

Dedicated 3415 10
pxGrid nodes
(Max Publish 3495 20
Rate Gated by
Total 3515 15
Deployment
Size) 3595 25

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Switch and Wireless LAN Controller Configuration Required to Support Cisco ISE Functions

Switch and Wireless LAN Controller Configuration Required to

Support Cisco ISE Functions
To ensure that Cisco ISE can interoperate with network switches and that functions from Cisco ISE are
successful across the network segment, you must configure your network switches with certain required
Network Time Protocol (NTP), RADIUS/AAA, IEEE 802.1X, MAC Authentication Bypass (MAB), and
other settings.

ISE Community Resource

For information about setting up Cisco ISE with WLC, see Cisco ISE with WLC Setup Video.

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 CHAPTER 2
System Requirements
This chapter provides a link to the Cisco Secure Network Server Data Sheet and lists the virtual appliance
requirements.

• Hardware and Virtual Appliance Requirements, page 13

• Virtual Machine Appliance Size Recommendations, page 20
• Disk Space Requirements, page 21
• Disk Space Guidelines, page 22

Hardware and Virtual Appliance Requirements

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) can be installed on Cisco SNS hardware or virtual appliances. To achieve
performance and scalability comparable to the Cisco ISE hardware appliance, the virtual machine should be
allocated system resources equivalent to the Cisco SNS 3515 and 3595 appliances. This section lists the
hardware, software, and virtual machine requirements required to install Cisco ISE.

Note Harden your virtual environment and ensure that all the security updates are up-to-date. Cisco is not liable
for any security issues found in hypervisors.

Cisco SNS-3400 and SNS-3500 Series Appliances

For SNS hardware appliance specifications, refer to "Table 1, Product Specifications" in the Cisco Secure
Network Server Data Sheet.
For Regulatory Compliance and Safety Information, see Regulatory Compliance and Safety Information for
Cisco SNS-3415, Cisco SNS-3495, Cisco SNS-3515, and Cisco SNS-3595 Appliances.
For SNS appliance hardware installation, see
• For SNS-3400 series appliances, see Cisco SNS-3400 Series Appliance Hardware Installation Guide.
• For SNS-3500 series appliances, see Cisco SNS-3500 Series Appliance Hardware Installation Guide.

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VMware Virtual Machine Requirements

VMware Virtual Machine Requirements

Cisco ISE supports the following VMware servers and clients:
• VMware version 8 (default) for ESXi 5.x (5.1 U2 minimum)

Note If you are installing Cisco ISE on an ESXi 5.x server, to support RHEL 7 as the Guest
OS, update the VMware hardware version to 9 or later. RHEL 7 is supported with
VMware hardware version 9 and later.

• VMware version 11 (default) for ESXi 6.x

Cisco ISE supports the VMware vMotion feature that allows you to migrate live virtual machine (VM) instances
(running any persona) between hosts. For the VMware vMotion feature to be functional, the following
conditions must be met:
• Shared storage—The storage for the VM must reside on a storage area network (SAN), and the SAN
must be accessible by all the VMware hosts that can host the VM being moved.
• VMFS volume sharing—The VMware host must use shared virtual machine file system (VMFS) volumes.
• Gigabit Ethernet interconnectivity—The SAN and the VMware hosts must be interconnected with
Gigabit or faster Ethernet links.
• Processor compatibility—A compatible set of processors must be used. Processors must be from the
same vendor and processor family for vMotion compatibility.

Note Cisco ISE does not support VMware snapshots for backing up ISE data because a VMware snapshot saves
the status of a VM at a given point in time. In a multi-node Cisco ISE deployment, data in all the nodes
are continuously synchronized with current database information. Restoring a snapshot might cause
database replication and synchronization issues. Cisco recommends that you use the backup functionality
included in Cisco ISE for archival and restoration of data.
Using VMware snapshots to back up ISE data results in stopping Cisco ISE services. A reboot is required
to bring up the ISE node.

Cisco ISE offers the following OVA templates that you can use to install and deploy Cisco ISE on virtual
machines (VMs):

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VMware Virtual Machine Requirements

Note The 200 GB OVA templates are sufficient for Cisco ISE nodes that serve as dedicated Policy Service or
pxGrid nodes.
The 600 GB and 1.2 TB OVA templates are recommended to meet the minimum requirements for ISE
nodes that run the Administration or Monitoring persona. For additional information about disk space
requirements, see Disk Space Requirements, on page 21.
If you need to customize the disk size, CPU, or memory allocation, you can manually deploy Cisco ISE
using the standard .iso image. However, it is important that you ensure the minimum requirements and
resource reservations specified in this document are met. The OVA templates simplify ISE virtual appliance
deployment by automatically applying the minimum resources required for each platform.

• ISE-2.3.0.xxx-eval.ova
• ISE-2.3.0.xxx-virtual-200GB-SNS3415.ova
• ISE-2.3.0.xxx-virtual-200GB-SNS3495.ova
• ISE-2.3.0.xxx-virtual-200GB-SNS3515.ova
• ISE-2.3.0.xxx-virtual-200GB-SNS3595.ova
• ISE-2.3.0.xxx-virtual-600GB-SNS3415.ova
• ISE-2.3.0.xxx-virtual-600GB-SNS3515.ova
• ISE-2.3.0.xxx-virtual-600GB-SNS3495.ova
• ISE-2.3.0.xxx-virtual-1.2TB-SNS3595.ova

The OVA template reservations for the base SNS platforms are provided in the table below.

Table 3: OVA Template Reservations

OVA Template Memory CPU

Virtual Eval OVA 8 GB RAM 2300 MHz (no reservation)
Note For evaluating guest
access and basic access
policy flows, a minimum
of 8 GB RAM is required.
For evaluating advanced
features such as pxGrid,
internal CA, SXP, Device
Administration, and
Passive Identity Services,
we suggest that you
configure your VM to have
16 GB RAM after
deploying the Eval OVA.
Virtual SNS-3415 OVA 16 GB RAM 8000 MHz

Virtual SNS-3495 OVA 32 GB RAM 16000 MHz

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VMware Virtual Machine Requirements

OVA Template Memory CPU

Virtual SNS-3515 OVA 16 GB RAM 12000 MHz

Virtual SNS-3595 OVA 64 GB RAM 16000 MHz

The following table lists the VMware virtual machine requirements.

Requirement Type Specifications

CPU
• Evaluation:
◦Clock Speed: 2.0 GHz or faster
◦Number of Cores: 2 CPU cores

• Production:
◦Clock Speed: 2.0 GHz or faster
◦Number of Cores: 6 (Small) to 8 (Large) CPU cores

Cisco ISE supports Hyperthreading. We recommend that you enable

Hyperthreading, if it is available.
Note Even though Hyperthreading might improve overall VM performance, it
does not change the supported scaling limits per VM appliance.
Additionally, you must still allocate CPU resources based on the required
number of physical cores, not the number of logical processors.
Note Refer to Table 3: OVA Template Reservations for CPU
Reservations.
Memory
• Evaluation:
◦Basic—8 GB (for evaluating guest access and basic access policy flows)
◦Advanced—16 GB (for evaluating advanced features such as pxGrid,
Internal CA, SXP, Device Administration, and Passive Identity Services)

• Production:
◦Small—16 GB
◦Large—64 GB

Note Refer to Table 3: OVA Template Reservations for Memory

Reservations.

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System Requirements
VMware Virtual Machine Requirements

Requirement Type Specifications

Hard Disks
• Evaluation: 200 GB
• Production:
200 GB to 2 TB of disk storage (size depends on deployment and tasks).
We recommend that your VM host server use hard disks with a minimum
speed of 10,000 RPM.
Note When you create the Virtual Machine for Cisco ISE, use a single
virtual disk that meets the storage requirement. If you use more than
one virtual disk to meet the disk space requirement, the installer
may not recognize all the disk space.

Storage and File The storage system for the Cisco ISE virtual appliance requires a minimum write
System performance of 50 MB per second and a read performance of 300 MB per second.
Deploy a storage system that meets these performance criteria and is supported by
VMware server.
Cisco ISE provides a number of methods to verify if your storage system meets
these minimum requirements before, during, and after Cisco ISE installation. See
Virtual Machine Resource and Performance Checks, on page 33 for more
information.
We recommend the VMFS file system because it is most extensively tested, but
other file systems, transports, and media can also be deployed provided they meet
the above requirements.

Disk Controller Paravirtual (default for RHEL 7 64-bit) or LSI Logic Parallel
For best performance and redundancy, a caching RAID controller is recommended.
Controller options such as RAID 10 (also known as 1+0) can offer higher overall
write performance and redundancy than RAID 5, for example. Additionally,
battery-backed controller cache can significantly improve write operations.

NIC 1 GB NIC interface required (two or more NICs are recommended; six NICs are
supported). Cisco ISE supports E1000 and VMXNET3 adapters.
Note We recommend that you select E1000 to ensure correct adapter order by
default. If you choose VMXNET3, you might have to remap the ESXi
adapter to synchronize it with the ISE adapter order.
VMware Virtual VMware Virtual Machine Hardware Version 8 or higher on ESXi 5.x (5.1 U2
Hardware minimum) and 6.x .
Version/Hypervisor
Note If you are installing Cisco ISE on an ESXi 5.x server, to support RHEL
7 as the Guest OS, update the VMware hardware version to 9 or later.
RHEL 7 is supported with VMware hardware version 9 and later.

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 System Requirements
Linux KVM Requirements

Linux KVM Requirements

The following table lists the Linux KVM virtual machine requirements.

Requirement Type Minimum Requirements

CPU
• Evaluation:
◦Clock Speed: 2.0 GHz or faster
◦Number of Cores: 2 CPU cores

• Production:
◦Clock Speed: 2.0 GHz or faster
◦Number of Cores: 6 (Small) to 8 (Large) CPU cores

6 cores; 2.0 GHz or faster.

Cisco ISE supports Hyperthreading. We recommend that you enable Hyperthreading,
if it is available.
Note Even though Hyperthreading might improve overall performance, it does not
change the supported scaling limits per virtual machine appliance. Additionally,
you must still allocate CPU resources based on the required number of physical
cores, not the number of logical processors.
Memory
• Evaluation:
◦Basic—8 GB (for evaluating guest access and basic access policy flows)
◦Advanced—16 GB (for evaluating advanced features such as pxGrid, Internal
CA, SXP, Device Administration, and Passive Identity Services)

• Production:
◦Small—16 GB
◦Large—64 GB

Hard disks
• Evaluation: 200 GB
• Production:
200 GB to 2 TB of disk storage (size depends on deployment and tasks).
We recommend that your VM host server use hard disks with a minimum speed
of 10,000 RPM.
Note When you create the Virtual Machine for Cisco ISE, use a single virtual
disk that meets the storage requirement. If you use more than one virtual
disk to meet the disk space requirement, the installer may not recognize
all the disk space.

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 System Requirements
Microsoft Hyper-V Requirements

Requirement Type Minimum Requirements

KVM Disk Disk bus - virtio, cache mode - none, I/O mode - native
Device Use preallocated RAW storage format.

NIC 1 GB NIC interface required (two or more NICs are recommended; six NICs are
supported). Cisco ISE supports VirtIO drivers. We recommend VirtIO drivers for better
performance.

Hypervisor KVM on RHEL 7.0

Microsoft Hyper-V Requirements

The following table lists Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machine requirements.

Requirement Type Minimum Requirements

CPU
• Evaluation:
◦Clock speed: 2.0 GHz or faster
◦Number of cores: 2 CPU cores

• Production:
◦Clock speed: 2.0 GHz or faster
◦Number of cores: 6 (small) to 8 (large)
CPU cores

Memory
• Evaluation:
◦Basic—8 GB (for evaluating guest access
and basic access policy flows)
◦Advanced—16 GB (for evaluating
advanced features such as pxGrid, Internal
CA, SXP, Device Administration, and
Passive Identity Services)

• Production:
◦Small—16 GB
◦Large—64 GB

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 System Requirements
Virtual Machine Appliance Size Recommendations

Requirement Type Minimum Requirements

Hard disks
• Evaluation: 200 GB
• Production: 200 GB to 2 TB of disk storage
(size depends on deployment and tasks). We
recommend that your VM host server use hard
disks with a minimum speed of 10,000 RPM.

Note When you create the Virtual Machine for

Cisco ISE, use a single virtual disk that
meets the storage requirement. If you use
more than one virtual disk to meet the disk
space requirement, the installer may not
recognize all the disk space.
NIC 1 GB NIC interface required (two or more NICs are
recommended; six NICs are supported).

Hypervisor Hyper-V (Microsoft)

Virtual Machine Appliance Size Recommendations

When sizing the Cisco ISE deployment, see the Deployment Size and Scaling Recommendations, on page
10 section for details on the number and size of appliances required for your deployment. The virtual machine
(VM) appliance specifications should be comparable with physical appliances run in a production environment.
The following table provides the minimum resources required to size your virtual appliance comparable to
that of an SNS-3515 or SNS-3595 physical appliance.
Keep the following guidelines in mind when allocating resources for the appliance:
• Failure to allocate the specified resources might result in performance degradation or service failure.
We highly recommend that you deploy dedicated VM resources and not share or oversubscribe resources
across multiple guest VMs. Deploying Cisco ISE virtual appliances using the OVF templates ensures
that adequate resources are assigned to each VM. If you do not use OVF templates, then ensure that you
assign the equivalent resource reservations when you manually install Cisco ISE using the ISO image.

Note If you choose to deploy Cisco ISE manually without the recommended reservations,
you must assume the responsibility to closely monitor your appliance’s resource
utilization and increase resources, as needed, to ensure proper health and functioning
of the Cisco ISE deployment.

Note OVF templates are not applicable for Linux KVM. OVF templates are available only
for VMware virtual machines.

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 System Requirements
Disk Space Requirements

• Policy Service nodes on VMs can be deployed with less disk space than Administration or Monitoring
nodes. The minimum disk space for any production Cisco ISE node is 200 GB. See Disk Space
Requirements, on page 21 for details on the disk space required for various Cisco ISE nodes and
personas.
• VMs can be configured with 1 to 6 NICs. The recommendation is to allow for 2 or more NICs. Additional
interfaces can be used to support various services such as profiling, guest services, or RADIUS.

Table 4: Minimum VM Appliance Specifications for a Production Environment

Platform Small VM Appliance (based on Large VM Appliance (based on

SNS-3515) SNS-3595)
Processor 6 total cores (at 2.0 GHz or above) or 8 total cores (at 2.0 GHz or
a total minimum CPU allocation of above) or a total minimum CPU
12000 MHz. allocation of 16000 MHz.

Memory 16 GB 64 GB

Total Disk Space 200 GB to 2 TB. See Disk Space 200 GB to 2 TB. See Disk Space
Requirements, on page 21 for more Requirements, on page 21 for
information. more information.

Ethernet NICs Up to 6 Gigabit Ethernet NICs Up to 6 Gigabit Ethernet NICs

Disk Space Requirements

The following table lists the Cisco ISE disk-space allocation recommended for running a virtual machine in
a production deployment.

Note Disk size of 2 TB or greater is currently not supported. Ensure that the maximum disk size is less than 2
TB.

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Disk Space Guidelines

Table 5: Recommended Disk Space for Virtual Machines

ISE Persona Minimum Disk Space for Minimum Recommended Disk Maximum
Evaluation Disk Space Space for Production Disk
for Note Additional disk Space
Production space is required
to store local
debug logs,
staging files, and
to handle log
data during
upgrade, when
the Primary
Administration
Node temporarily
becomes a
Monitoring node.
Standalone ISE 200 GB 600 GB 600 GB to 2 TB 2 TB

Distributed 200 GB 250 GB 250 to 300 GB 2 TB

ISE—Administration only

Distributed 200 GB 600 GB 600 GB to 2 TB 2 TB

ISE—Monitoring only

Distributed ISE—Policy 200 GB 200 GB 200 GB 2 TB

Service only

Distributed ISE—pxGrid 200 GB 200 GB 200 GB 2 TB

only

Distributed 200 GB 600 GB 600 GB to 2 TB 2 TB

ISE—Administration and
Monitoring (and optionally
pxGrid)

Distributed 200 GB 600 GB 600 GB to 2 TB 2 TB

ISE—Administration,
Monitoring, and Policy
Service (and optionally
pxGrid)

Disk Space Guidelines

Keep the following guidelines in mind when deciding the disk space for Cisco ISE:
• You can allocate only up to 2 TB of disk space for a Cisco ISE VM.

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Disk Space Guidelines

• Cisco ISE must be installed on a single disk in virtual machine.

• Disk allocation varies based on logging retention requirements. On any node that has the Monitoring
persona enabled, 60 percent of the VM disk space is allocated for log storage. A deployment with 25,000
endpoints generates approximately 1 GB of logs per day.
For example, if you have a Monitoring node with 600-GB VM disk space, 360 GB is allocated for log
storage. If 100,000 endpoints connect to this network every day, it generates approximately 4 GB of
logs per day. In this case, you can store 76 days of logs in the Monitoring node, after which you must
transfer the old data to a repository and purge it from the Monitoring database.

For extra log storage, you can increase the VM disk space. For every 100 GB of disk space that you add, you
get 60 GB more for log storage. Depending on your requirements, you can increase the VM disk size up to a
maximum of 2 TB.
If you increase the disk size of your virtual machine after initial installation, then you must perform a fresh
installation of Cisco ISE on your virtual machine to properly detect and utilize the full disk allocation.
The following table lists the number of days that RADIUS logs can be retained on your Monitoring node
based on the allocated disk space and the number of endpoints that connect to your network. The numbers
are based on the following assumptions: Ten or more authentications per day per endpoint with logging
suppression enabled.

Table 6: Monitoring Node Log Storage—Retention Period in Days for RADIUS

No. of Endpoints 200 GB 600 GB 1024 GB 2048 GB

5,000 504 1510 2577 5154

10,000 252 755 1289 2577

25,000 101 302 516 1031

50,000 51 151 258 516

100,000 26 76 129 258

150,000 17 51 86 172

200,000 13 38 65 129

250,000 11 31 52 104

500,000 6 16 26 52

The following table lists the number of days that TACACS+ logs can be retained on your Monitoring node
based on the allocated disk space and the number of endpoints that connect to your network. The numbers
are based on the following assumptions: The script runs against all NADs, 4 sessions per day, and 5 commands
per session.

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Disk Space Guidelines

Table 7: Monitoring Node Log Storage—Retention Period in Days for TACACS+

No. of Endpoints 200 GB 600 GB 1024 GB 2048 GB

100 12,583 37,749 64,425 12,8850

500 2,517 7,550 12,885 25,770

1,000 1,259 3,775 6,443 12,885

5,000 252 755 1,289 2,577

10,000 126 378 645 1,289

25,000 51 151 258 516

50,000 26 76 129 258

75,000 17 51 86 172

100,000 13 38 65 129

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 CHAPTER 3
Install Cisco ISE
This chapter lists the system requirements and provides high-level installation steps to help you quickly
install Cisco ISE.

• Install Cisco ISE, page 25

• Run the Setup Program, page 28
• Verify the Installation Process, page 30

Install Cisco ISE

This section lists the high-level installation steps to help you quickly install Cisco ISE:

ISE Community Resource

To quickly set up Cisco Wireless Controller and Cisco ISE, see the ISE Wireless Guest Setup Guide and
ISE Wireless Guest Setup Video.

Before You Begin

• Ensure that you have met the Hardware and Virtual Appliance Requirements as specified in this book.
• (Optional; required only if you are installing Cisco ISE on virtual machines) Ensure that you have created
the virtual machine correctly. See the following topics for more information:
◦Configure a VMware Server, on page 37
◦Install Cisco ISE on KVM, on page 47
◦Create a Cisco ISE Virtual Machine on Hyper-V, on page 50

• (Optional; required only if you are installing Cisco ISE on SNS hardware appliances) Ensure that you
set up the Cisco Integrated Management Interface (CIMC) configuration utility to manage the appliance
and configure BIOS. See the following documents for more information.
◦For SNS 3400 series appliances, see Cisco SNS-3400 Series Appliance Hardware Installation
Guide.

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Install Cisco ISE

◦For SNS 3500 series appliances, see Cisco SNS-3500 Series Appliance Hardware Installation
Guide.

Step 1 If you are installing Cisco ISE on a:

• Cisco SNS appliance—install the hardware appliance. Connect to CIMC for server management.
• Virtual Machine—ensure that your VM is configured correct. Use the OVA template if you are installing Cisco
ISE on VMware VM.

Step 2 Download the Cisco ISE ISO image. To install Cisco ISE on VMware VM, download the OVA template. For more
information about deploying the OVA template, see Deploy Cisco ISE on Virtual Machines Using OVA Templates ,
on page 33.
a) Go to http://www.cisco.com/go/ise. You must already have valid Cisco.com login credentials to access this link.
b) Click Download Software for this Product.
The Cisco ISE image comes with a 90-day evaluation license already installed, so you can begin testing all Cisco
ISE services when the installation and initial configuration is complete.

Step 3 Boot the appliance or the virtual machine.

• Cisco SNS appliance:
1 Connect to CIMC and log in using the CIMC credentials.
2 Launch the KVM console.
3 Choose Virtual Media > Activate Virtual Devices.
4 Choose Virtual Media > Map CD/DVD and select the ISE ISO image and click Map Device.
5 Choose Macros > Static Macros > Ctrl-Alt-Del to boot the appliance with the ISE ISO image.

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Install Cisco ISE

6 Press F6 to bring up the boot menu. A screen similar to the following one appears:

Figure 6: Boot Device Selection

• Virtual Machine:
1 Map the CD/DVD to an ISO image. A screen similar to the following one appears. The following message and
installation menu are displayed.
Welcome to the Cisco Identity Services Engine Installer
Cisco ISE Version: 2.3.0.xxx

Available boot options:

Cisco ISE Installation (Serial Console)

Cisco ISE Installation (Keyboard/Monitor)
System Utilities (Serial Console)
System Utilities (Keyboard/Monitor)

Step 4 At the boot prompt, press 1 and Enter to install Cisco ISE using a serial console.
If you want to use a keyboard and monitor, use the arrow key to select the Cisco ISE Installation (Keyboard/Monitor)
option. The following message appears.
**********************************************
Please type 'setup' to configure the appliance
**********************************************

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Run the Setup Program

Step 5 At the prompt, type setup to start the Setup program. See Run the Setup Program, on page 28 for details about the Setup
program parameters.
Step 6 After you enter the network configuration parameters in the Setup mode, the appliance automatically reboots, and returns
to the shell prompt mode.
Step 7 Exit from the shell prompt mode. The appliance comes up.
Step 8 Continue with Verify the Installation Process, on page 30.

Run the Setup Program

This section describes the setup process to configure the ISE server.
The setup program launches an interactive command-line interface (CLI) that prompts you for the required
parameters. An administrator can use the console or a dumb terminal to configure the initial network settings
and provide the initial administrator credentials for the ISE server using the setup program. The setup process
is a one-time configuration task.
To run the setup program:

Step 1 Power on the appliance

The setup prompt appears:
Please type ‘setup’ to configure the appliance
localhost login:
Step 2 At the login prompt, enter setup and press Enter.
The console displays a set of parameters. You must enter the parameters as described in the following table

Table 8: Cisco ISE Setup Program Parameters

Prompt Description Example

Hostname Must not exceed 15 characters. Valid characters include isebeta1
alphanumerical (A–Z, a–z, 0–9), and the hyphen (-). The first
character must be a letter.
Note We recommend that you use lowercase letters to ensure
that certificate authentication in Cisco ISE is not impacted
by minor differences in certificate-driven verifications.
You cannot use "localhost" as hostname for a node.
(eth0) Ethernet Must be a valid IPv4 address for the Gigabit Ethernet 0 (eth0) 10.12.13.14
interface address interface.

Netmask Must be a valid IPv4 netmask. 255.255.255.0

Default gateway Must be a valid IPv4 address for the default gateway. 10.12.13.1

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Run the Setup Program

Prompt Description Example

DNS domain Cannot be an IP address. Valid characters include ASCII example.com
name characters, any numerals, the hyphen (-), and the period (.).

Primary name Must be a valid IPv4 address for the primary name server. 10.15.20.25
server

Add/Edit another Must be a valid IPv4 address for an additional name server. (Optional) Allows you to
name server configure multiple name
servers. To do so, enter y to
continue.

Primary NTP Must be a valid IPv4 address or hostname of a Network Time clock.nist.gov
server Protocol (NTP) server.

Add/Edit another Must be a valid NTP domain. (Optional) Allows you to

NTP server configure multiple NTP
servers. To do so, enter y to
continue.

System Time Zone Must be a valid time zone. For example, for Pacific Standard Time UTC (default)
(PST), the System Time Zone is PST8PDT (or Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC) minus 8 hours).
You can run the show timezones command from the Cisco ISE
CLI for a complete list of supported time zones.
Note We recommend that you set all Cisco ISE nodes to the
UTC time zone. This time zone setting ensures that the
reports, logs, and posture agent log files from the various
nodes in your deployment are always synchronized with
regard to the time stamps.
Username Identifies the administrative username used for CLI access to the admin (default)
Cisco ISE system. If you choose not to use the default (admin),
you must create a new username. The username must be three to
eight characters in length and be composed of valid alphanumeric
characters (A–Z, a–z, or 0–9).

Password Identifies the administrative password that is used for CLI access MyIseYPass2
to the Cisco ISE system. You must create this password because
there is no default. The password must be a minimum of six
characters in length and include at least one lowercase letter (a–z),
one uppercase letter (A–Z), and one numeral (0–9).

After the setup program is run, the system reboots automatically.

Now, you can log in to Cisco ISE using the username and password that was configured during the setup process.

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Verify the Installation Process

Verify the Installation Process

To verify that you have correctly completed the installation process:

Step 1 When the system reboots, at the login prompt enter the username you configured during setup, and press Enter.
When you log in through the CLI for the first time after installation, the system prompts you to change the password.

Step 2 Enter a new password.

Step 3 Verify that the application has been installed properly by entering the show application command, and press Enter.
The console displays:
ise/admin# show application
<name> <Description>
ise Cisco Identity Services Engine
Note The version and date might change for different versions of this release.

Step 4 Check the status of the ISE processes by entering the show application status ise command, and press Enter.
The console displays:
ise/admin# show application status ise

ISE PROCESS NAME STATE PROCESS ID

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Database Listener running 14890
Database Server running 70 PROCESSES
Application Server running 19158
Profiler Database running 16293
ISE Indexing Engine running 20773
AD Connector running 22466
M&T Session Database running 16195
M&T Log Collector running 19294
M&T Log Processor running 19207
Certificate Authority Service running 22237
EST Service running 29847
SXP Engine Service disabled
Docker Daemon running 21197
TC-NAC Service disabled
Wifi Setup Helper Container not running
pxGrid Infrastructure Service disabled
pxGrid Publisher Subscriber Service disabled
pxGrid Connection Manager disabled
pxGrid Controller disabled
PassiveID WMI Service disabled
PassiveID Syslog Service disabled
PassiveID API Service disabled
PassiveID Agent Service disabled
PassiveID Endpoint Service disabled
PassiveID SPAN Service disabled
DHCP Server (dhcpd) disabled
DNS Server (named) disabled

ise/admin#

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 CHAPTER 4
Additional Installation Information
This chapter includes additional information related to SNS hardware and virtual appliances.

• SNS Appliance Reference, page 31

• VMware Virtual Machine, page 33
• Linux KVM, page 47
• Microsoft Hyper-V, page 50

SNS Appliance Reference

Create a Bootable USB Device to Install Cisco ISE
Use the Fedora Media Writer tool to create a bootable USB device from the Cisco ISE installation ISO file.

Before You Begin

• Download Fedora Media Writer to the local system from the following location: https://fedoraproject.org/
wiki/How_to_create_and_use_Live_USB.

Note Other USB tools might work, but Cisco recommends using Fedora Media Writer as it
has been qualified.

• Download the Cisco ISE installation ISO file to the local system.

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Reimage the Cisco SNS 3500 Series Appliance

• Use an 8-GB (or higher) USB device.

Step 1 Plug in the USB device to the local system.

Step 2 Launch Fedora Media Writer.
Step 3 Click Browse from the Use existing Live CD area and select the Cisco ISE ISO file.
Step 4 (If there is only one USB device connected to the local system, it is selected automatically) Select the USB device from
the Target Device drop down.
Step 5 Click Create Live USB.
The progress bar indicates the progress of the bootable USB creation. After this process is complete, the contents of the
USB drive is available in the local system that you used to run the USB tool. There are two text files that you must
manually update before you can install Cisco ISE.
Step 6 From the USB drive, open the following text files in a text editor:
• syslinux/syslinux.cfg
• EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg

Step 7 Replace the term "cdrom:" in both the files.

• If you have a Cisco SNS 3415 appliance, replace the term "cdrom:" with "hd:sda1" in both the files.
• If you have a Cisco SNS 3495, 3515, or 3595 appliance, replace the term "cdrom:" with "hd:sdb1" in both the
files.

Specifically, replace all instances of the "cdrom:" string. For example, replace
ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg
with
ks=hd:sdb1:/ks.cfg

Step 8 Save the files and exit.

Step 9 Safely remove the USB device from the local system.
Step 10 Plug in the bootable USB device to the Cisco ISE appliance, restart the appliance, and boot from the USB drive to install
Cisco ISE.

Reimage the Cisco SNS 3500 Series Appliance

The Cisco SNS-3500 series appliances do not have built-in DVD drives. Therefore, to reimage a Cisco ISE
hardware appliance with Cisco ISE software, you can do one of the following:

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VMware Virtual Machine

Note The SNS 3515 and SNS 3595 appliances support the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) secure
boot feature. This feature ensures that only a Cisco-signed ISE image can be installed on the SNS 3515
and SNS 3595 appliances, and prevents installation of any unsigned operating system even with physical
access to the device. For example, generic operating systems, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Microsoft
Windows cannot boot on this appliance.

The SNS 3515 and SNS 3595 appliances support only Cisco ISE 2.0.1 or later releases. You cannot install a
release earlier than 2.0.1 on the SNS 3515 or SNS 3595 appliance.
• Use the Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) interface to map the installation .iso file to
the virtual DVD device. See Install Cisco ISE, on page 25 for more information.
• Create an install DVD with the installation .iso file and plug in an USB external DVD drive and boot
the appliance from the DVD drive.
• Create a bootable USB device using the installation .iso file and boot the appliance from the USB drive.
See Create a Bootable USB Device to Install Cisco ISE, on page 31 and Install Cisco ISE, on page
25 for more information.

VMware Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine Resource and Performance Checks
Before installing Cisco ISE on a virtual machine, the installer performs hardware integrity checks by comparing
the available hardware resources on the virtual machine with the recommended specifications.
During a VM resource check, the installer checks for the hard disk space, number of CPU cores allocated to
the VM, CPU clock speed, and RAM allocated to the VM. If the VM resources do not meet the basic evaluation
specifications, the installation aborts. This resource check is applicable only for ISO-based installations.
When you run the Setup program, a VM performance check is done, where the installer checks for disk I/O
performance. If the disk I/O performance does not meet the recommended specifications, a warning appears
on screen, but it allows you to continue with the installation.
The VM performance check is done periodically (every hour) and the results are averaged for a day. If the
disk I/O performance does not meet the recommended specification, an alarm is generated.
The VM performance check can also be done on demand from the Cisco ISE CLI using the show tech-support
command.
The VM resource and performance checks can be run independent of Cisco ISE installation. You can perform
this test from the Cisco ISE boot menu.

Deploy Cisco ISE on Virtual Machines Using OVA Templates

You can use OVA templates to install and deploy Cisco ISE software on a virtual machine. Download the
OVA template from Cisco.com.

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Install Cisco ISE on VMware Virtual Machine Using the ISO File

Before You Begin

You can use OVA templates to install and deploy Cisco ISE software on a virtual machine

Note The ISE 2.3 OVA templates are not compatible with VMware web client for vCenter 6.5. As a workaround,
use the VMware OVF tool to import the OVA templates.
You must reimage Cisco ISE from ISO if the virtual hard disk is resized after importing the OVA, as
Cisco ISE does not support resizing hard disk and file systems after installation.

Step 1 Open VMware vSphere client.

Step 2 Log in to VMware host.
Step 3 Choose File > Deploy OVF Template from the VMware vSphere Client.
Step 4 Click Browse to select the OVA template, and click Next.
Step 5 Confirm the details in the OVF Template Details page, and click Next.
Step 6 Enter a name for the virtual machine in the Name and Location page to uniquely identify it, and click Next.
Step 7 Choose a data store to host the OVA.
Step 8 Click the Thick Provision radio button in the Disk Format page, and click Next.
Cisco ISE supports both thick and thin provisioning. However, we recommend that you choose thick provisioning for
better performance, especially for Monitoring nodes. If you choose thin provisioning, operations such as upgrade, backup
and restore, and debug logging that require more disk space might be impacted during initial disk expansion.

Step 9 Verify the information in the Ready to Complete page. Check the Power on after deployment check box.
Step 10 Click Finish.

Install Cisco ISE on VMware Virtual Machine Using the ISO File
This section describes how to install Cisco ISE on a VMware virtual machine using the ISO file.

Prerequisites for Configuring a VMware ESXi Server

Review the following configuration prerequisites listed in this section before you attempt to configure a
VMWare ESXi server:
• Remember to log in to the ESXi server as a user with administrative privileges (root user).
• Cisco ISE is a 64-bit system. Before you install a 64-bit system, ensure that Virtualization Technology
(VT) is enabled on the ESXi server. You must also ensure that your guest operating system type is set
to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (64-bit).
• For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, the default NIC type is VMXNET3 Adapter. You can add up to six
NICs for your Cisco ISE virtual machine, but ensure that you choose the same Adapter for all the NICs.
Cisco ISE supports the E1000 Adapter.

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Note If you choose the default network driver (VMXNET3 ) as the Network Adapter, check
the physical adapter mappings. Ensure that you map the Cisco ISE GigabitEthernet 0
interface to the 4th interface (NIC 4) in ESXi server as listed in the following table.

ADE-OS Cisco ISE E1000 VMXNET3

eth0 GE0 1 4

eth1 GE1 2 1

eth2 GE2 3 2

eth3 GE3 4 3

eth4 GE4 5 5

eth5 GE5 6 6

If you choose the E1000 Adapter, by default, the ESXi adapters and Cisco ISE adapters
are mapped correctly.

• Ensure that you allocate the recommended amount of disk space on the VMware virtual machine. See
the Disk Space Requirements, on page 21 section for more information.
• If you have not created a VMware virtual machine file system (VMFS), you must create one to support
the Cisco ISE virtual appliance. The VMFS is set for each of the storage volumes configured on the
VMware host. For VMFS5, the 1-MB block size supports up to 2 TB virtual disk size.

Virtualization Technology Check

If you have an ESXi server installed already, you can check if VT is enabled on it without rebooting the
machine. To do this, use the esxcfg-info command. Here is an example:

~ # esxcfg-info |grep "HV Support"

|----HV Support............................................3
|----World Command Line.................................grep HV Support
If HV Support has a value of 3, then VT is enabled on the ESXi server and you can proceed with the installation.
If HV Support has a value of 2, then VT is supported, but not enabled on the ESXi server. You must edit the
BIOS settings and enable VT on the server.

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Enable Virtualization Technology on an ESXi Server

You can reuse the same hardware that you used for hosting a previous version of Cisco ISE virtual machine.
However, before you install the latest release, you must enable Virtualization Technology (VT) on the ESXi
server.

Step 1 Reboot the appliance.

Step 2 Press F2 to enter setup.
Step 3 Choose Advanced > Processor Configuration.
Step 4 Select Intel(R) VT and enable it.
Step 5 Press F10 to save your changes and exit.

Configure VMware Server Interfaces for the Cisco ISE Profiler Service
Configure VMware server interfaces to support the collection of Switch Port Analyzer (SPAN) or mirrored
traffic to a dedicated probe interface for the Cisco ISE Profiler Service.

Step 1 Choose Configuration > Networking > Properties > VMNetwork (the name of your VMware server
instance)VMswitch0 (one of your VMware ESXi server interfaces) Properties Security.
Step 2 In the Policy Exceptions pane on the Security tab, check the Promiscuous Mode check box.
Step 3 In the Promiscuous Mode drop-down list, choose Accept and click OK.
Repeat the same steps on the other VMware ESXi server interface used for profiler data collection of SPAN or mirrored
traffic.

Connect to the VMware Server Using the Serial Console

Step 1 Power down the particular VMware server (for example ISE-120).
Step 2 Right-click the VMware server and choose Edit.
Step 3 Click Add on the Hardware tab.
Step 4 Choose Serial Port and click Next.
Step 5 In the Serial Port Output area, click the Use physical serial port on the host or the Connect via Network radio button
and click Next.
• If you choose the Connect via Network option, you must open the firewall ports over the ESXi server.
• If you select the Use physical serial port on the host, choose the port. You may choose one of the following two
options:

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◦/dev/ttyS0 (In the DOS or Windows operating system, this will appear as COM1).
◦/dev/ttyS1 (In the DOS or Windows operating system, this will appear as COM2).

Step 6 Click Next.

Step 7 In the Device Status area, check the appropriate check box. The default is Connected.
Step 8 Click OK to connect to the VMware server.

Configure a VMware Server

Before You Begin
Ensure that you have read the details in the Prerequisites for Configuring a VMware ESXi Server, on page
34 section.

Step 1 Log in to the ESXi server.

Step 2 In the VMware vSphere Client, in the left pane, right-click your host container and choose New Virtual Machine.
Step 3 In the Configuration dialog box, choose Custom for the VMware configuration and click Next.
Step 4 Enter a name for the VMware system and click Next.
Tip Tip Use the hostname that you want to use for your VMware
host.
Step 5 Choose a datastore that has the recommended amount of space available and click Next.
Step 6 (Optional) If your VM host or cluster supports more than one VMware virtual machine version, choose a Virtual Machine
version such as Virtual Machine Version 7, and click Next.
Step 7 Choose Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 from the Version drop-down list.
Step 8 Choose a value from the Number of virtual sockets and the Number of cores per virtual socket drop-down list. Total
number of cores should be 6 (small VM appliance) or 8 (large VM appliance).
(Optional; appears in some versions of ESXi server. If you see only the Number of virtual processors, choose 6 or 8).

Step 9 Choose the amount of memory and click Next.

Step 10 Choose the E1000 NIC driver from the Adapter drop-down list and click Next.
The SCSI controller dialog box appears.

Step 11 Choose Paravirtual as the SCSI controller and click Next.

Step 12 Choose Create a new virtual disk and click Next.
Step 13 In the Disk Provisioning dialog box, click Thick Provision radio button, and click Next to continue.
Cisco ISE supports both thick and thin provisioning. However, we recommend that you choose thick provisioning for
better performance, especially for Monitoring nodes. If you choose thin provisioning, operations such as upgrade, backup
and restore, and debug logging that require more disk space might be impacted during initial disk expansion.

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Step 14 Uncheck the Support clustering features such as Fault Tolerance check box.
Step 15 Choose the advanced options, and click Next.
Step 16 Verify the configuration details, such as Name, Guest OS, CPUs, Memory, and Disk Size of the newly created VMware
system. You must see the following values:
• Guest OS—Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
• CPUs—6
• Memory—16 GB or 16384 MB
• Disk Size—200 GB to 2 TB based on the recommendations for VMware disk space

For the Cisco ISE installation to be successful on a virtual machine, ensure that you adhere to the recommendations
given in this document.

Step 17 Click Finish.

The VMware system is now installed.

What to Do Next
To activate the newly created VMware system, right-click VM in the left pane of your VMware client user
interface and choose Power > Power On.

Increase Virtual Machine Power On Boot Delay Configuration

On a VMware virtual machine, the boot delay by default is set to 0. You can change this boot delay to help
you choose the boot options (while resetting the Administrator password, for example).

Step 1 From the VSphere client, right click the VM and choose Edit Settings.
Step 2 Click the Options tab.
Step 3 Choose Advanced > Boot Options.
Step 4 From the Power on Boot Delay area, select the time in milliseconds to delay the boot operation.
Step 5 Check the check box in the Force BIOS Setup area to enter into the BIOS setup screen when the VM boots the next
time.
Step 6 Click OK to save your changes.

Install Cisco ISE Software on a VMware System

Before You Begin
• After installation, if you do not install a permanent license, Cisco ISE automatically installs a 90-day
evaluation license that supports a maximum of 100 endpoints.

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• Download the Cisco ISE software from the Cisco Software Download Site at http://www.cisco.com/en/
US/products/ps11640/index.html and burn it on a DVD. You will be required to provide your Cisco.com
credentials.

Step 1 Log in to the VMware client.

Step 2 For the virtual machine to enter the BIOS setup mode, right click the VM and click Edit Settings.
Step 3 Click the Options tab.
Step 4 Select Boot Options and configure the following option:
a) In the Force BIOS Setup area, check the check box to enter the BIOS setup screen when the virtual machine boots.
Step 5 Click OK.
Step 6 Ensure that the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and the correct boot order is set in BIOS:
a) If the virtual machine is turned on, turn the system off.
b) Turn on the virtual machine.
The system enters the BIOS setup mode.
c) In the Main BIOS menu, using the arrow keys, navigate to the Date and Time field and press Enter.
d) Enter the UTC/Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) time zone.
This time zone setting ensures that the reports, logs, and posture-agent log files from the various nodes in your
deployment are always synchronized with regard to the time stamps.
e) Using the arrow keys, navigate to the Boot menu and press Enter.
f) Using the arrow keys, select CD-ROM Drive and press + to move the CD-ROM drive up the order.
g) Using the arrow keys, navigate to the Exit menu and choose Exit Saving Changes.
h) Choose Yes to save the changes and exit.
Step 7 Insert the Cisco ISE software DVD into the VMware ESXi host CD/DVD drive and turn on the virtual machine.
When the DVD boots, the console displays:

Cisco ISE Installation (Serial Console)

Cisco ISE Installation (Keyboard/Monitor)
System Utilities (Serial Console)
System Utilities (Keyboard/Monitor)
Step 8 Use the arrow keys to select Cisco ISE Installation (Serial Console) or Cisco ISE Installation (Keyboard/Monitor)
and press Enter. If you choose the serial console option, you should have a serial console set up on your virtual machine.
Refer to the VMware vSphere Documentation for information on how to create a console.
The installer starts the installation of the Cisco ISE software on the VMware system. Allow 20 minutes for the installation
process to complete. When the installation process finishes, the virtual machine reboots automatically. When the VM
reboots, the console displays:
Type 'setup' to configure your appliance
localhost:
Step 9 At the system prompt, type setup and press Enter.
The Setup Wizard appears and guides you through the initial configuration.

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VMware Tools Installation Verification

Verify VMWare Tools Installation Using the Summary Tab in the vSphere Client
Go to the Summary tab of the specified VMware host in the vShpere Client. The value in the VMware Tools
field should be OK.

Figure 7: Verifying VMware Tools in the vSphere Client

Verify VMWare Tools Installation Using the CLI

You can also verify if the VMware tools are installed using the show inventory command. This command
lists the NIC driver information. On a virtual machine with VMware tools installed, VMware Virtual Ethernet
driver will be listed in the Driver Descr field.
vm36/admin# show inventory
NAME: "ISE-VM-K9 chassis", DESCR: "ISE-VM-K9 chassis"
PID: ISE-VM-K9, VID: V01 , SN: 8JDCBLIDLJA
Total RAM Memory: 4016564 kB
CPU Core Count: 1
CPU 0: Model Info: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5504 @ 2.00GHz
Hard Disk Count(*): 1
Disk 0: Device Name: /dev/sda
Disk 0: Capacity: 64.40 GB
Disk 0: Geometry: 255 heads 63 sectors/track 7832 cylinders
NIC Count: 1
NIC 0: Device Name: eth0
NIC 0: HW Address: 00:0C:29:BA:C7:82
NIC 0: Driver Descr: VMware Virtual Ethernet driver
(*) Hard Disk Count may be Logical.
vm36/admin#

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Support for Upgrading VMware Tools

The Cisco ISE ISO image (regular, upgrade, or patch) contains the supported VMware tools. Upgrading
VMware tools through the VMware client user interface is not supported with Cisco ISE. If you want to
upgrade any VMware tools to a higher version, support is provided through a newer version of Cisco ISE
(regular, upgrade, or patch release).

Clone a Cisco ISE Virtual Machine

You can clone a Cisco ISE VMware virtual machine (VM) to create an exact replica of a Cisco ISE node. For
example, in a distributed deployment with multiple Policy Service nodes (PSNs), VM cloning helps you
deploy the PSNs quickly and effectively. You do not have to install and configure the PSNs individually.
You can also clone a Cisco ISE VM using a template.

Note For cloning, you need VMware vCenter. Cloning must be done before you run the Setup program.

Before You Begin

• Ensure that you shut down the Cisco ISE VM that you are going to clone. In the vSphere client, right-click
the Cisco ISE VM that you are about to clone and choose Power > Shut Down Guest.
• Ensure that you change the IP Address and Hostname of the cloned machine before you power it on and
connect it to the network.

Step 1 Log in to the ESXi server as a user with administrative privileges (root user).
VMware vCenter is required to perform this step.

Step 2 Right-click the Cisco ISE VM you want to clone, and click Clone.
Step 3 Enter a name for the new machine that you are creating in the Name and Location dialog box and click Next.
This is not the hostname of the new Cisco ISE VM that you are creating, but a descriptive name for your reference.

Step 4 Select a Host or Cluster on which you want to run the new Cisco ISE VM and click Next.
Step 5 Select a datastore for the new Cisco ISE VM that you are creating and click Next.
This datastore could be the local datastore on the ESXi server or a remote storage. Ensure that the datastore has enough
disk space.

Step 6 Click the Same format as source radio button in the Disk Format dialog box and click Next.
This option copies the same format that is used in the Cisco ISE VM that you are cloning this new machine from.

Step 7 Click the Do not customize radio button in the Guest Customization dialog box and click Next.
Step 8 Click Finish.

What to Do Next
• Change the IP Address and Hostname of a Cloned Virtual Machine

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• Connect a Cloned Cisco Virtual Machine to the Network

Clone a Cisco ISE Virtual Machine Using a Template

If you are using vCenter, then you can use a VMware template to clone a Cisco ISE virtual machine (VM).
You can clone the Cisco ISE node to a template and use that template to create multiple new Cisco ISE nodes.
Cloning a virtual machine using a template is a two-step process:

Before You Begin

Note For cloning, you need VMware vCenter. Cloning must be done before you run the Setup program.

Step 1 Create a Virtual Machine Template, on page 42

Step 2 Deploy a Virtual Machine Template, on page 43

Create a Virtual Machine Template

Before You Begin

• Ensure that you shut down the Cisco ISE VM that you are going to clone. In the vSphere client, right-click
the Cisco ISE VM that you are about to clone and choose Power > Shut Down Guest.
• We recommend that you create a template from a Cisco ISE VM that you have just installed and not run
the setup program on. You can then run the setup program on each of the individual Cisco ISE nodes
that you have created and configure IP address and hostnames individually.

Step 1 Log in to the ESXi server as a user with administrative privileges (root user).
VMware vCenter is required to perform this step.

Step 2 Right-click the Cisco ISE VM that you want to clone and choose Clone > Clone to Template.
Step 3 Enter a name for the template, choose a location to save the template in the Name and Location dialog box, and click
Next.
Step 4 Choose the ESXi host that you want to store the template on and click Next.
Step 5 Choose the datastore that you want to use to store the template and click Next.
Ensure that this datastore has the required amount of disk space.

Step 6 Click the Same format as source radio button in the Disk Format dialog box and click Next.
The Ready to Complete dialog box appears.

Step 7 Click Finish.

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Deploy a Virtual Machine Template

After you create a virtual machine template, you can deploy it on other virtual machines (VMs).

Step 1 Right-click the Cisco ISE VM template that you have created and choose Deploy Virtual Machine from this template.
Step 2 Enter a name for the new Cisco ISE node, choose a location for the node in the Name and Location dialog box, and click
Next.
Step 3 Choose the ESXi host where you want to store the new Cisco ISE node and click Next.
Step 4 Choose the datastore that you want to use for the new Cisco ISE node and click Next.
Ensure that this datastore has the required amount of disk space.

Step 5 Click the Same format as source radio button in the Disk Format dialog box and click Next.
Step 6 Click the Do not customize radio button in the Guest Customization dialog box.
The Ready to Complete dialog box appears.

Step 7 Check the Edit Virtual Hardware check box and click Continue.
The Virtual Machine Properties page appears.

Step 8 Choose Network adapter, uncheck the Connected and Connect at power on check boxes, and click OK.
Step 9 Click Finish.
You can now power on this Cisco ISE node, configure the IP address and hostname, and connect it to the network.

What to Do Next
• Change the IP Address and Hostname of a Cloned Virtual Machine
• Connect a Cloned Cisco Virtual Machine to the Network

Change the IP Address and Hostname of a Cloned Virtual Machine

After you clone a Cisco ISE virtual machine (VM), you have to power it on and change the IP address and
hostname.

Before You Begin

• Ensure that the Cisco ISE node is in the standalone state.

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• Ensure that the network adapter on the newly cloned Cisco ISE VM is not connected when you power
on the machine. Uncheck the Connected and Connect at power on check boxes. Otherwise, if this
node comes up, it will have the same IP address as the source machine from which it was cloned.

Figure 8: Disconnecting the Network Adapter

• Ensure that you have the IP address and hostname that you are going to configure for the newly cloned
VM as soon as you power on the machine. This IP address and hostname entry should be in the DNS
server. You cannot use "localhost" as the hostname for a node.
• Ensure that you have certificates for the Cisco ISE nodes based on the new IP address or hostname.
Procedure

Step 1 Right-click the newly cloned Cisco ISE VM and choose Power > Power On.
Step 2 Select the newly cloned Cisco ISE VM and click the Console tab.
Step 3 Enter the following commands on the Cisco ISE CLI:
configure terminal
hostname hostname
The hostname is the new hostname that you are going to configure. The Cisco ISE services are restarted.

Step 4 Enter the following commands:

interface gigabit 0
ip address ip_address netmask
The ip_address is the address that corresponds to the hostname that you entered in step 3 and netmask is the subnet mask
of the ip_address. The system will prompt you to restart the Cisco ISE services. Refer to the Cisco Identity Services
Engine CLI Reference Guide, for the ip address and hostname commands.

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Step 5 Enter Y to restart Cisco ISE services.

Connect a Cloned Cisco Virtual Machine to the Network

After you power on and change the ip address and hostname, you must connect the Cisco ISE node to the
network.

Step 1 Right-click the newly cloned Cisco ISE virtual machine (VM) and click Edit Settings.
Step 2 Click Network adapter in the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box.
Step 3 In the Device Status area, check the Connected and Connect at power on check boxes.
Step 4 Click OK.

Migrate Cisco ISE VM from Evaluation to Production

After evaluating the Cisco ISE release, you can migrate the from an evaluation system to a fully licensed
production system.

Before You Begin

• When you move the VMware server to a production environment that supports a larger number of users,
be sure to reconfigure the Cisco ISE installation to the recommended minimum disk size or higher (up
to the allowed maximum of 2 TB).
• Please not that you cannot migrate data to a production VM from a VM created with less than 200 GB
of disk space. You can only migrate data from VMs created with 200 GB or more disk space to a
production environment.

Step 1 Back up the configuration of the evaluation version.

Step 2 Ensure that your production VM has the required amount of disk space.
Step 3 Install a production deployment license.
Step 4 Restore the configuration to the production system.

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On Demand Virtual Machine Performance Check Using the Show Tech Support Command

On Demand Virtual Machine Performance Check Using the Show Tech Support
Command
You can run the show tech-support command from the CLI to check the VM performance at any point of
time. The output of this command will be similar to the following:
ise-vm123/admin# show tech | begin "disk IO perf"
Measuring disk IO performance
*****************************************
Average I/O bandwidth writing to disk device: 48 MB/second
Average I/O bandwidth reading from disk device: 193 MB/second
WARNING: VM I/O PERFORMANCE TESTS FAILED!
WARNING: The bandwidth writing to disk must be at least 50 MB/second,
WARNING: and bandwidth reading from disk must be at least 300 MB/second.
WARNING: This VM should not be used for production use until disk
WARNING: performance issue is addressed.
Disk I/O bandwidth filesystem test, writing 300 MB to /opt:
314572800 bytes (315 MB) copied, 7.81502 s, 40.3 MB/s
Disk I/O bandwidth filesystem read test, reading 300 MB from /opt:
314572800 bytes (315 MB) copied, 0.416897 s, 755 MB/s

Virtual Machine Resource Check from the Cisco ISE Boot Menu
You can check for virtual machine resources independent of Cisco ISE installation from the boot menu.
The CLI transcript appears as follows:

Cisco ISE Installation (Serial Console)

Cisco ISE Installation (Keyboard/Monitor)
System Utilities (Serial Console)
System Utilities (Keyboard/Monitor)
Use the arrow keys to select System Utilities (Serial Console) or System Utilities (Keyboard/Monitor) and
press Enter. The following screen appears:

Available System Utilities:

[1] Recover administrator password

[2] Virtual Machine Resource Check
[3] Perform System Erase
[q] Quit and reload

Enter option [1 - 3] q to Quit

Enter 2 to check for VM resources. The output will be similar to the following:
*****
***** Virtual Machine host detected…
***** Hard disk(s) total size detected: 322 Gigabyte
***** Physical RAM size detected: 40443664 Kbytes
***** Number of network interfaces detected: 1
***** Number of CPU cores: 2
***** CPU Mhz: 2300.00
***** Verifying CPU requirement…
***** Verifying RAM requirement…
***** Writing disk partition table…

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Linux KVM

Linux KVM
KVM Virtualization Check
KVM virtualization requires virtualization support from the host processor; Intel VT-x for Intel processors
and AMD-V for AMD processors. Open a terminal window on the host and enter the cat /proc/cpuinfo
command. You must see either the vmx or the svm flag.
• For Intel VT-x:
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush
dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx
pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc
aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor
ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt
tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx lahf_lm arat epb xsaveopt
pln pts dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid

• For AMD-V:
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
flags: fpu tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2
ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow
pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm cr8_legacy

Install Cisco ISE on KVM

This procedure explains how to create a KVM on RHEL and install Cisco ISE on it using the Virtual Machine
Manager (virt-manager).
If you choose to install Cisco ISE through the CLI, enter a command similar to the following one:
#virt-install --name=kvm-ise1 --arch=x86_64 --cpu=host --vcpus=2 --ram=4096
--os-type=linux --os-variant=rhel6 --hvm --virt-type=kvm
--cdrom=/home/admin/Desktop/ise-2.3.0.x.SPA.x86_64.iso
--disk=/home/libvirt-images/kvm-ise1.img,size=100
--network type=direct,model=virtio,source=eth2,source_mode=bridge
where ise-2.3.0.x.SPA.x86_64.iso is the name of the Cisco ISE ISO image.

Before You Begin

Download the Cisco ISE ISO image to your local system.

Step 1 From the virt-manager, click New.

The Create a new virtual machine window appears.

Step 2 Click Local install media (ISO media or CDROM), and then click Forward.
Step 3 Click the Use ISO image radio button, click Browse, and select the ISO image from your local system.
a) Uncheck the Automatically detect operating system based on install media check box, choose Linux as the OS
type, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 as the Version, and click Forward.
Step 4 Choose the RAM and CPU settings and click Forward.
Step 5 Check the Enable storage for this virtual machine check box and choose the storage settings.

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a) Click the Select managed or other existing storage radio button.

b) Click Browse.
c) From the Storage Pools navigation pane on the left, click disk FileSystem Directory.
d) Click New Volume.
A Create storage volume window appears.
e) Enter a name for the storage volume.
f) Choose raw from the Format drop-down list.
g) Enter the Maximum Capacity.
h) Click Finish.
i) Choose the volume that you created and click Choose Volume.
j) Click Forward.
The Ready to begin the installation screen appears.

Step 6 Check the Customize configuration before install check box.

Step 7 Under Advanced options, choose the macvtap as the source for the interface, choose Bridge in the Source mode drop-down
list, and click Finish.
a) (Optional) Click Add Hardware to add additional NICs.
Choose macvtap as the Network source and virtio as the Device model.
b) To support RHEL 7, the KVM virtual manager has to support Random Number Generator (RNG) hardware. See the
following image for RNG configuration.

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If you are using the CLI to create a new VM, be sure to include the following setting:
<rng model='virtio'
<backend model='random'>/dev/random</backend>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x08' function='0x0'/>
</rng>
c) Click Finish.
Step 8 In the Virtual Machine screen, choose the disk device and under Advanced and Performance Options, choose the following
options, and click Apply.
Field Value
Disk bus VirtIO

Cache mode none

IO mode native

Step 9 Click Begin Installation to install Cisco ISE on KVM.

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Microsoft Hyper-V

The Cisco ISE installation boot menu appears.

Step 10 At the system prompt, enter 1 to choose a monitor and keyboard port, or 2 to choose a console port, and press Enter.
The installer starts the installation of the Cisco ISE software on the VM. When the installation process finishes, the
console displays:
Type 'setup' to configure your appliance
localhost:

Step 11 At the system prompt, type setup and press Enter.

The Setup Wizard appears and guides you through the initial configuration.

Microsoft Hyper-V
Create a Cisco ISE Virtual Machine on Hyper-V
This section describes how to create a new virtual machine, map the ISO image from the local disk to the
virtual CD/DVD drive, edit the CPU settings, and install Cisco ISE on Hyper-V.

Before You Begin

Download the Cisco ISE ISO image from Cisco.com to your local system.

Step 1 Launch Hyper-V Manager on a supported Windows server.

Step 2 Right-click the VM host and click New > Virtual Machine.
Step 3 Click Next to customize the VM configuration.
Step 4 Enter a name for the VM and (optionally) choose a different path to store the VM, and click Next.
Step 5 Click the Generation 1 radio button and click Next.
Step 6 Specify the amount of memory to allocate to this VM, for example, 16000 MB, and click Next.
Step 7 Select the network adapter and click Next.
Step 8 Click the Create a virtual hard disk radio button and click Next.
Step 9 Click the Install an operating system from a bootable CD/DVD-ROM radio button.
a) From the Media area, click the Image file (.iso) radio button.
b) Click Browse to select the ISE ISO image from the local system and click Next.
Step 10 Click Finish.
The Cisco ISE VM is created on Hyper-V.

Step 11 Select the VM and edit the VM settings.

a) Select Processor. Enter the number of virtual processors, for example, 6, and click OK.
Step 12 Select the VM and click Connect to launch the VM console. Click the start button to turn on the Cisco ISE VM.
The Cisco ISE installation menu appears.

Step 13 Enter 1 to install Cisco ISE using a keyboard and monitor.

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Post-Installation Tasks
This chapter provides a list of tasks that you must perform immediately after installation.

• Log in to the Cisco ISE Web-Based Interface, page 53

• Cisco ISE Configuration Verification, page 56
• List of Post Installation Tasks, page 58

Log in to the Cisco ISE Web-Based Interface

When you log in to the Cisco ISE web-based interface for the first time, you will be using the preinstalled
Evaluation license.

Note We recommend that you use the Cisco ISE user interface to periodically reset your administrator login
password.

Caution For security reasons, we recommend that you log out when you complete your administrative session. If
you do not log out, the Cisco ISE web-based web interface logs you out after 30 minutes of inactivity,
and does not save any unsubmitted configuration data.

Before You Begin

The Cisco ISE Admin portal supports the following HTTPS-enabled browsers:
• Mozilla Firefox version:
◦52.1.2 ESR
◦53.0.3 and above

• Google Chrome latest version

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 10.x and 11.x

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CLI-Admin and Web-Based Admin User Right Differences

If you are using Internet Explorer 10.x, enable TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2, and disable SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0
(Internet Options > Advanced).

Step 1 After the Cisco ISE appliance reboot has completed, launch one of the supported web browsers.
Step 2 In the Address field, enter the IP address (or hostname) of the Cisco ISE appliance by using the following format and
press Enter.

https://<IP address or host name>/admin/

Step 3 Enter a username and password that you defined during setup.
Step 4 Click Login.

CLI-Admin and Web-Based Admin User Right Differences

The username and password that you configure when using the Cisco ISE setup program are intended to be
used for administrative access to the Cisco ISE CLI and the Cisco ISE web interface. The administrator that
has access to the Cisco ISE CLI is called the CLI-admin user. By default, the username for the CLI-admin
user is admin and the password is user-defined during the setup process. There is no default password.
You can initially access the Cisco ISE web interface by using the CLI-admin user’s username and password
that you defined during the setup process. There is no default username and password for a web-based admin.
The CLI-admin user is copied to the Cisco ISE web-based admin user database. Only the first CLI-admin
user is copied as the web-based admin user. You should keep the CLI- and web-based admin user stores
synchronized, so that you can use the same username and password for both admin roles.
The Cisco ISE CLI-admin user has different rights and capabilities than the Cisco ISE web-based admin user
and can perform other administrative tasks.

Table 9: Tasks Performed by CLI-Admin and Web-Based Admin Users

Admin User Type Tasks

Both CLI-Admin and
Web-Based Admin • Back up the Cisco ISE application data.
• Display any system, application, or diagnostic logs on the Cisco ISE
appliance.
• Apply Cisco ISE software patches, maintenance releases, and
upgrades.
• Set the NTP server configuration.

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CLI Admin Users Creation

Admin User Type Tasks

CLI-Admin only
• Start and stop the Cisco ISE application software.
• Reload or shut down the Cisco ISE appliance.
• Reset the web-based admin user in case of a lockout.
• Access the ISE CLI.

CLI Admin Users Creation

Cisco ISE allows you to create additional CLI-admin user accounts other than the one you created during the
setup process. To protect the CLI-admin user credentials, create the minimum number of CLI-admin users
needed to access the Cisco ISE CLI.
You can add the CLI-admin user by entering into the configuration mode in the CLI and using the username
command.

Web-Based Admin Users Creation

For first-time web-based access to Cisco ISE system, the administrator username and password is the same
as the CLI-based access that you configured during setup.
You can add web-based admin users through the user interface itself.

Reset a Password Due to Administrator Lockout

An administrator can enter an incorrect password enough times to disable the account. The minimum and
default number of attempts is five.
Use these instructions to reset the administrator user interface password with the application reset-passwd
ise command in the Cisco ISE CLI. It does not affect the CLI password of the administrator. After you
successfully reset the administrator password, the credentials are immediately active and you can log in without
having to reboot the system. .
Cisco ISE adds a log entry in the Monitor > Reports > Catalog > Server Instance > Server Instance >
Server Administrator Logins report, and suspends the credentials for that administrator ID until you reset
the password associated with that administrator ID.

Step 1 Access the direct-console CLI and enter:

application reset-passwd ise administrator_ID

Step 2 Specify and confirm a new password that is different from the previous two passwords that were used for this administrator
ID:

Enter new password:

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Cisco ISE Configuration Verification

Confirm new password:

Password reset successfully

Cisco ISE Configuration Verification

There are two methods that each use a different set of username and password credentials for verifying Cisco
ISE configuration by using a web browser and CLI.

Note A CLI-admin user and a web-based admin user credentials are different in Cisco ISE.

Verify Configuration Using a Web Browser

Step 1 After the Cisco ISE appliance reboot has completed, launch one of the supported web browsers.
Step 2 In the Address field, enter the IP address (or host name) of the Cisco ISE appliance using the following format and
press Enter.
Step 3 In the Cisco ISE Login page, enter the username and password that you have defined during setup and click Login.
For example, entering https://10.10.10.10/admin/ displays the Cisco ISE Login page.

https://<IP address or host name>/admin/

Note For first-time web-based access to Cisco ISE system, the administrator username and password is the same as
the CLI-based access that you configured during setup.
Step 4 Use the Cisco ISE dashboard to verify that the appliance is working correctly.

What to Do Next
By using the Cisco ISE web-based user interface menus and options, you can configure the Cisco ISE system
to suit your needs. For details on configuring Cisco ISE, see Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator
Guide.

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Verify Configuration Using the CLI

Before You Begin
To get the latest Cisco ISE patches and keep Cisco ISE up-to-date, visit the following web site: http://
www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/index.shtml

Step 1 After the Cisco ISE appliance reboot has completed, launch a supported product, such as PuTTY, for establishing a
Secure Shell (SSH) connection to a Cisco ISE appliance.
Step 2 In the Host Name (or IP Address) field, enter the hostname (or the IP address in dotted decimal format of the Cisco ISE
appliance) and click Open.
Step 3 At the login prompt, enter the CLI-admin username (admin is the default) that you configured during setup and press Enter.
Step 4 At the password prompt, enter the CLI-admin password that you configured during setup (this is user-defined and there
is no default) and press Enter.
Step 5 At the system prompt, enter show application version ise and press Enter.
Note The Version field lists the currently installed version of Cisco ISE software.
The console output appears as shown below:

ise/admin# show application version ise

Cisco Identity Services Engine

---------------------------------------------
Version : 2.3.0.249
Build Date : Mon Jun 12 11:30:37 2017
Install Date : Tue Jun 13 10:46:18 2017

Step 6 To check the status of the Cisco ISE processes, enter show application status ise and press Enter.
The console output appears as shown below:
ise-server/admin# show application status ise

ISE PROCESS NAME STATE PROCESS ID

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Database Listener running 4930
Database Server running 66 PROCESSES
Application Server running 8231
Profiler Database running 6022
ISE Indexing Engine running 8634
AD Connector running 9485
M&T Session Database running 3059
M&T Log Collector running 9271
M&T Log Processor running 9129
Certificate Authority Service running 8968
EST Service running 18887
SXP Engine Service disabled
TC-NAC Docker Service disabled
TC-NAC MongoDB Container disabled
TC-NAC RabbitMQ Container disabled

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TC-NAC Core Engine Container disabled

VA Database disabled
VA Service disabled
pxGrid Infrastructure Service disabled
pxGrid Publisher Subscriber Service disabled
pxGrid Connection Manager disabled
pxGrid Controller disabled
PassiveID Service disabled
DHCP Server (dhcpd) disabled
DNS Server (named) disabled

List of Post Installation Tasks

After you install Cisco ISE, you must perform the following mandatory tasks:

Table 10: Mandatory Post Installation Tasks

Task Link in the Administration Guide

Apply the latest patches, if any Install a Software Patch

Install Licenses See the Cisco ISE Ordering Guide for more
information. See the Administration Guide for
information on how to Register Licenses.

Install Certificates See the Manage Certificates chapter of the Cisco ISE
Administration Guide for more details.

Create Repository for Backups See the Create Repositories section of the Cisco ISE
Administration Guide for more details.

Configure Backup Schedules See the Schedule a Backup section of the Cisco ISE
Administration Guide for more details.

Deploy Cisco ISE personas See the Set Up Cisco ISE in a Distributed
Environment chapter of the Cisco ISE Administration
Guide.

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Maintenance Tasks
This chapter lists several maintenance tasks that you can perform after installation. These tasks are independent
and can be performed in any order.

• Bond Ethernet Interfaces for High Availability, page 59

• Reset a Lost, Forgotten, or Compromised Password using the DVD, page 64
• Reset a Password Due to Administrator Lockout, page 65
• Return Material Authorization, page 66
• Change the IP Address of a Cisco ISE Appliance, page 66
• View Installation and Upgrade History, page 67
• Perform a System Erase, page 68

Bond Ethernet Interfaces for High Availability

Cisco ISE supports bonding of two Ethernet interfaces into a single virtual interface to provide high availability
for the physical interfaces. This feature is called Network Interface Card (NIC) bonding or NIC teaming.
When two interfaces are bonded, the two NICs appear to be a single device with a single MAC address.
The NIC bonding feature in Cisco ISE does not support load balancing or link aggregation features. Cisco
ISE supports only the high availability feature of NIC bonding.
The bonding of interfaces ensures that Cisco ISE services are not affected when there is:
• Physical interface failure
• Loss of switch port connectivity (shut or failure)
• Switch line card failure

When two interfaces are bonded, one of the interfaces becomes the primary interface and the other becomes
the backup interface. When two interfaces are bonded, all traffic normally flows through the primary interface.
If the primary interface fails for some reason, the backup interface takes over and handles all the traffic. The
bond takes the IP address and MAC address of the primary interface.

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Supported Platforms

When you configure the NIC bonding feature, Cisco ISE pairs fixed physical NICs to form bonded NICs.
The following table outlines which NICs can be bonded together to form a bonded interface.

Cisco ISE Physical NIC Linux Physical NIC Name Role in Bonded NIC Bonded NIC Name
Name
Gigabit Ethernet 0 Eth0 Primary Bond 0

Gigabit Ethernet 1 Eth1 Backup

Gigabit Ethernet 2 Eth2 Primary Bond 1

Gigabit Ethernet 3 Eth3 Backup

Gigabit Ethernet 4 Eth4 Primary Bond 2

Gigabit Ethernet 5 Eth5 Backup

Supported Platforms
The NIC bonding feature is supported on all supported platforms and node personas. The supported platforms
include:
• SNS-3400 series appliances - Bond 0 and 1 (Cisco ISE 3400 series appliances support up to 4 NICs)
• SNS-3500 series appliances - Bond 0, 1, and 2
• VMware virtual machines - Bond 0, 1, and 2 (if six NICs are available to the virtual machine)
• Linux KVM nodes - Bond 0, 1, and 2 (if six NICs are available to the virtual machine)

Guidelines for Bonding Ethernet Interfaces

• As Cisco ISE supports up to six Ethernet interfaces, it can have only three bonds, bond 0, bond 1, and
bond 2.
• You cannot change the interfaces that are part of a bond or change the role of the interface in a bond.
Refer to the above table for information on which NICs can be bonded together and their role in the
bond.
• The Eth0 interface acts as both the management interface as well as the runtime interface. The other
interfaces act as runtime interfaces.
• Before you create a bond, the primary interface (primary NIC) must be assigned an IP address. The Eth0
interface must be assigned an IPv4 address before you create bond 0. Similarly, before you create bond
1 and 2, Eth2 and Eth4 interfaces must be assigned an IPv4 or IPv6 address, respectively.
• Before you create a bond, if the backup interface (Eth1, Eth3, and Eth5 ) has an IP address assigned,
remove the IP address from the backup interface. The backup interface should not be assigned an IP
address.

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• You can choose to create only one bond (bond 0) and allow the rest of the interfaces to remain as is. In
this case, bond 0 acts as the management interface and runtime interface, and the rest of the interfaces
act as runtime interfaces.
• You can change the IP address of the primary interface in a bond. The new IP address is assigned to the
bonded interface because it assumes the IP address of the primary interface.
• When you remove the bond between two interfaces, the IP address assigned to the bonded interface is
assigned back to the primary interface.
• If you want to configure the NIC bonding feature on a Cisco ISE node that is part of a deployment, you
must deregister the node from the deployment, configure NIC bonding, and then register the node back
to the deployment.
• If a physical interface that acts as a primary interface in a bond (Eth0, Eth2, or Eth4 interface) has static
route configured, the static routes are automatically updated to operate on the bonded interface instead
of the physical interface.

Configure NIC Bonding

You can configure NIC bonding from the Cisco ISE CLI. The following procedure explains how you can
configure bond 0 between Eth0 and Eth1 interfaces.

Before You Begin

If a physical interface that acts as a backup interface (for example, Eth1, Eth3, Eth5 interfaces), is configured
with an IP address, you must remove the IP address from the backup interface. The backup interface should
not be assigned an IP address.

Step 1 Log in to Cisco ISE CLI with your administrator account.

Step 2 Enter configure terminal to enter the configuration mode.
Step 3 Enter the interface GigabitEthernet 0 command.
Step 4 Enter the backup interface GigabitEthernet 1 command.
The console displays:
% Warning: IP address of interface eth1 will be removed once NIC bonding is enabled. Are you sure
you want to proceed? Y/N [N]:
Step 5 Enter Y and press Enter.
Bond 0 is now configured. Cisco ISE restarts automatically. Wait for some time to ensure that all the services are up and
running successfully. Enter the show application status ise command from the CLI to check if all the services are
running.

ise/admin# configure terminal

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
ise/admin(config)# interface gigabitEthernet 0
ise/admin(config-GigabitEthernet)# backup interface gigabitEthernet 1
Changing backup interface configuration may cause ISE services to restart.
Are you sure you want to proceed? Y/N [N]: Y
Stopping ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Collector...
Stopping ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Processor...
ISE PassiveID Service is disabled
ISE pxGrid processes are disabled

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Stopping ISE Application Server...

Stopping ISE Certificate Authority Service...
Stopping ISE EST Service...
ISE Sxp Engine Service is disabled
Stopping ISE Profiler Database...
Stopping ISE Indexing Engine...
Stopping ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Session Database...
Stopping ISE AD Connector...
Stopping ISE Database processes...
Starting ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Session Database...
Starting ISE Profiler Database...
Starting ISE Application Server...
Starting ISE Indexing Engine...
Starting ISE Certificate Authority Service...
Starting ISE EST Service...
Starting ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Processor...
Starting ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Collector...
Starting ISE AD Connector...
Note: ISE Processes are initializing. Use 'show application status ise'
CLI to verify all processes are in running state.
ise/admin(config-GigabitEthernet)#

Verify NIC Bonding Configuration

To verify if NIC bonding feature is configured, run the show running-config command from the Cisco ISE
CLI. You will see an output similar to the following:

!
interface GigabitEthernet 0
ipv6 address autoconfig
ipv6 enable
backup interface GigabitEthernet 1
ip address 192.168.118.214 255.255.255.0
!

In the output above, "backup interface GigabitEthernet 1" indicates that NIC bonding is configured on Gigabit
Ethernet 0, with Gigabit Ethernet 0 being the primary interface and Gigabit Ethernet 1 being the backup
interface. Also, the ADE-OS configuration does not display an IP address on the backup interface in the
running config, even though the primary and backup interfaces effectively have the same IP address.
You can also run the show interfaces command to see the bonded interfaces.

ise/admin# show interface

bond0: flags=5187<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MASTER,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 10.126.107.60 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.126.107.255
inet6 fe80::8a5a:92ff:fe88:4aea prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
ether 88:5a:92:88:4a:ea txqueuelen 0 (Ethernet)
RX packets 1726027 bytes 307336369 (293.0 MiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 844 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 1295620 bytes 1073397536 (1023.6 MiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

GigabitEthernet 0
flags=6211<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SLAVE,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 88:5a:92:88:4a:ea txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 1726027 bytes 307336369 (293.0 MiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 844 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 1295620 bytes 1073397536 (1023.6 MiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
device memory 0xfab00000-fabfffff

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GigabitEthernet 1
flags=6147<UP,BROADCAST,SLAVE,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 88:5a:92:88:4a:ea txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
device memory 0xfaa00000-faafffff

Remove NIC Bonding

Use the no form of the backup interface command to remove a NIC bond.

Before You Begin

Step 1 Log in to Cisco ISE CLI with your administrator account.

Step 2 Enter configure terminal to enter the configuration mode.
Step 3 Enter the interface GigabitEthernet 0 command.
Step 4 Enter the no backup interface GigabitEthernet 1 command.
% Notice: Bonded Interface bond 0 has been removed.
Step 5 Enter Y and press Enter.
Bond 0 is now removed. Cisco ISE restarts automatically. Wait for some time to ensure that all the services are up and
running successfully. Enter the show application status ise command from the CLI to check if all the services are
running.

ise/admin# configure terminal

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
ise/admin(config)# interface gigabitEthernet 0
ise/admin(config-GigabitEthernet)# no backup interface gigabitEthernet 1

Changing backup interface configuration may cause ISE services to restart.

Are you sure you want to proceed? Y/N [N]: Y
Stopping ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Collector...
Stopping ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Processor...
ISE PassiveID Service is disabled
ISE pxGrid processes are disabled
Stopping ISE Application Server...
Stopping ISE Certificate Authority Service...
Stopping ISE EST Service...
ISE Sxp Engine Service is disabled
Stopping ISE Profiler Database...
Stopping ISE Indexing Engine...
Stopping ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Session Database...
Stopping ISE AD Connector...
Stopping ISE Database processes...
Starting ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Session Database...
Starting ISE Profiler Database...
Starting ISE Application Server...
Starting ISE Indexing Engine...
Starting ISE Certificate Authority Service...
Starting ISE EST Service...
Starting ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Processor...
Starting ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Collector...
Starting ISE AD Connector...
Note: ISE Processes are initializing. Use 'show application status ise'
CLI to verify all processes are in running state.

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Reset a Lost, Forgotten, or Compromised Password using the DVD

ise/admin(config-GigabitEthernet)#

Reset a Lost, Forgotten, or Compromised Password using the

DVD
Before You Begin
Make sure you understand the following connection-related conditions that can cause a problem when
attempting to use the Cisco ISE Software DVD to start up a Cisco ISE appliance:
• You have a terminal server associated with the serial console connection to the Cisco ISE appliance that
is set to exec. Setting it to no exec allows you to use a keyboard and video monitor connection and a
serial console connection.
• You have a keyboard and video monitor connection to the Cisco ISE appliance (this can be either a
remote keyboard and a video monitor connection or a VMware vSphere client console connection).
• You have a serial console connection to the Cisco ISE appliance.

Step 1 Ensure that the Cisco ISE appliance is powered up.

Step 2 Insert the Cisco ISE Software DVD.
For example, the Cisco ISE 3515 console displays the following message:

Cisco ISE Installation (Serial Console)

Cisco ISE Installation (Keyboard/Monitor)
System Utilities (Serial Console)
System Utilities (Keyboard/Monitor)

Step 3 Use the arrow keys to select System Utilities (Serial Console) if you use a local serial console port connection or select
System Utilities (Keyboard/Monitor) if you use a keyboard and video monitor connection to the appliance, and press
Enter.
The system displays the ISO utilities menu as shown below.

Available System Utilities:

[1] Recover Administrator Password

[2] Virtual Machine Resource Check
[3] Perform System Erase
[q] Quit and reload

Enter option [1 - 3] q to Quit:

Step 4 Enter 1 to recover the administrator password.

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Reset a Password Due to Administrator Lockout

The console displays:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------Admin Password
Recovery--------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This utility will reset the password for the specified ADE-OS administrator.
At most the first five administrators will be listed. To abort without
saving changes, enter [q] to Quit and return to the utilities menu.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1]:admin
[2]:admin2
[3]:admin3
[4]:admin4

Enter choice between [1 - 4] or q to Quit: 2

Password:
Verify password:

Save change and reboot? [Y/N]:

Step 5 Enter the number corresponding to the admin user whose password you want to reset.
Step 6 Enter the new password and verify it.
Step 7 Enter Y to save the changes.

Reset a Password Due to Administrator Lockout

An administrator can enter an incorrect password enough times to disable the account. The minimum and
default number of attempts is five.
Use these instructions to reset the administrator user interface password with the application reset-passwd
ise command in the Cisco ISE CLI. It does not affect the CLI password of the administrator. After you
successfully reset the administrator password, the credentials are immediately active and you can log in without
having to reboot the system. .
Cisco ISE adds a log entry in the Monitor > Reports > Catalog > Server Instance > Server Instance >
Server Administrator Logins report, and suspends the credentials for that administrator ID until you reset
the password associated with that administrator ID.

Step 1 Access the direct-console CLI and enter:

application reset-passwd ise administrator_ID

Step 2 Specify and confirm a new password that is different from the previous two passwords that were used for this administrator
ID:

Enter new password:

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Return Material Authorization

Confirm new password:

Password reset successfully

Return Material Authorization

In case of a Return Material Authorization (RMA), if you are replacing individual components on an SNS
server, be sure to reimage the appliance before you install Cisco ISE. Contact Cisco TAC for assistance.

Change the IP Address of a Cisco ISE Appliance

Before You Begin
• Ensure that the Cisco ISE node is in a standalone state before you change the IP address. If the node is
part of a distributed deployment, deregister the node from the deployment and make it a standalone
node.
• Do not use the no ip address command when you change the Cisco ISE appliance IP address.

Step 1 Log in to the Cisco ISE CLI.

Step 2 Enter the following commands:
a) configure terminal
b) interface GigabitEthernet 0
c) ip address new_ip_address new_subnet_mask
The system prompts you for the IP address change. Enter Y. A screen similar to the following one appears.
ise-13-infra-2/admin(config-GigabitEthernet)# ip address a.b.c.d 255.255.255.0

% Changing the IP address might cause ISE services to restart

Continue with IP address change? Y/N [N]: y
Stopping ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Collector...
Stopping ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Processor...
Stopping ISE Identity Mapping Service...
Stopping ISE pxGrid processes...
Stopping ISE Application Server...
Stopping ISE Certificate Authority Service...
Stopping ISE Profiler Database...
Stopping ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Session Database...
Stopping ISE AD Connector...
Stopping ISE Database processes...
Starting ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Session Database...
Starting ISE Profiler Database...
Starting ISE pxGrid processes...
Starting ISE Application Server...

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Starting ISE Certificate Authority Service...

Starting ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Processor...
Starting ISE Monitoring & Troubleshooting Log Collector...
Starting ISE Identity Mapping Service...
Starting ISE AD Connector...
Note: ISE Processes are initializing. Use 'show application status ise'
CLI to verify all processes are in running state.
Cisco ISE prompts you to restart the system.

Step 3 Enter Y to restart the system.

View Installation and Upgrade History

Cisco ISE provides a Command Line Interface (CLI) command to view the details of installation, upgrade,
and uninstallation of Cisco ISE releases and patches. The show version history command provides the
following details:
• Date—Date and time at which the installation or uninstallation was performed
• Application—Cisco ISE application
• Version—Version that was installed or removed.
• Action—Installation, Uninstallation, Patch Installation, or Patch Uninstallation
• Bundle Filename—Name of the bundle that was installed or removed
• Repository—Repository from which the Cisco ISE application bundle was installed. Not applicable for
uninstallation.

Step 1 Log in to the Cisco ISE CLI.

Step 2 Enter the following command: show version history.
The following output appears:

ise/admin# show version history

---------------------------------------------
Install Date: Tue Jun 13 15:49:10 UTC 2017
Application: ise
Version: 2.3.0.249
Install type: Application Install
Bundle filename: ise.tar.gz
Repository: SystemDefaultPkgRepos
ise/admin#

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Perform a System Erase

Perform a System Erase

You can perform a system erase to securely erase all information from your Cisco ISE appliance or VM. This
option to perform a system erase ensures that Cisco ISE is compliant with the NIST Special Publication 800-88
data destruction standards.

Before You Begin

Make sure you understand the following connection-related conditions that can cause a problem when
attempting to use the Cisco ISE Software DVD to start up a Cisco ISE appliance:
• You have a terminal server associated with the serial console connection to the Cisco ISE appliance that
is set to exec. Setting it to no exec allows you to use a KVM connection and a serial console connection.
• You have a keyboard and video monitor (KVM) connection to the Cisco ISE appliance (this can be
either a remote KVM or a VMware vSphere client console connection).
• You have a serial console connection to the Cisco ISE appliance.

Step 1 Ensure that the Cisco ISE appliance is powered up.

Step 2 Insert the Cisco ISE Software DVD.
For example, the Cisco ISE 3515 console displays the following message:

Cisco ISE Installation (Serial Console)

Cisco ISE Installation (Keyboard/Monitor)
System Utilities (Serial Console)
System Utilities (Keyboard/Monitor)

Step 3 Use the arrow keys to select System Utilities (Serial Console), and press Enter.
The system displays the ISO utilities menu as shown below:

Available System Utilities:

[1] Recover administrator password

[2] Virtual Machine Resource Check
[3] System Erase
[q] Quit and reload

Enter option [1 - 3] q to Quit:

Step 4 Enter 3 to perform a system erase.
The console displays:
********** W A R N I N G **********
THIS UTILITY WILL PERFORM A SYSTEM ERASE ON THE DISK DEVICE(S). THIS PROCESS CAN TAKE UP TO 5 HOURS
TO COMPLETE. THE RESULT WILL BE COMPLETE
DATA LOSS OF THE HARD DISK. THE SYSTEM WILL NO LONGER BOOT AND WILL REQUIRE A RE-IMAGE FROM INSTALL
MEDIA TO RESTORE TO FACTORY DEFAULT STATE.

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ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CONTINUE? [Y/N] Y

Step 5 Enter Y.
The console prompts you with another warning:
THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANGE TO ABORT. PROCEED WITH SYSTEM ERASE? [Y/N] Y
Step 6 Enter Y to perform a system erase.
The console displays:
Deleting system disk, please wait…
Writing random data to all sectors of disk device (/dev/sda)…
Writing zeros to all sectors of disk device (/dev/sda)…
Completed! System is now erased.
Press <Enter> to reboot.
After you perform a system erase, if you want to reuse the appliance, you must boot the system using the Cisco ISE
DVD and choose the install option from the boot menu.

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 CHAPTER 7
Cisco ISE Ports Reference
• Cisco ISE Infrastructure, page 71
• Cisco ISE Administration Node Ports, page 73
• Cisco ISE Monitoring Node Ports, page 75
• Cisco ISE Policy Service Node Ports, page 76
• Cisco ISE pxGrid Service Ports, page 80
• OCSP and CRL Service Ports, page 81

Cisco ISE Infrastructure

This appendix lists the TCP and User Datagram Protocol UDP ports that Cisco ISE uses for intranetwork
communications with external applications and devices. The Cisco ISE ports listed in this appendix must be
open on the corresponding firewall.
Keep in mind the following information when configuring services on a Cisco ISE network:
• Cisco ISE management is restricted to Gigabit Ethernet 0.
• RADIUS listens on all network interface cards (NICs).
• Cisco ISE server interfaces do not support VLAN tagging. Be sure to disable VLAN trunking on switch
ports that are used to connect to Cisco ISE nodes and configure them as access layer ports.
• All NICs can be configured with IP addresses.

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Cisco ISE Infrastructure

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Cisco ISE Administration Node Ports

Cisco ISE Administration Node Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond Ports on Other Ethernet
0 Interfaces (Gigbit Ethernet 1
through 5, or Bond 1 and 2)
Administration —
• HTTP: TCP/80, HTTPS:
TCP/443 (TCP/80 redirected
to TCP/443; not configurable)
• SSH Server: TCP/22
• External RESTful Services
(ERS) REST API: TCP/9060
• To display Sponsor portal
from the Admin GUI:
TCP/9002
• ElasticSearch (Context
Visibility; to replicate data
from primary to secondary
Admin node): TCP/9300

Note Ports 80 and 443 support

Admin web applications
and are enabled by default.
HTTPS and SSH access to
Cisco ISE is restricted to
Gigabit Ethernet 0.
TCP/9300 must be open on
both Primary and
Secondary Administration
Nodes for incoming traffic.
Replication and Synchronization —
• HTTPS (SOAP): TCP/443
• Data synchronization/
Replication (JGroups):
TCP/12001 (Global)

Monitoring SNMP Query: UDP/161

Note This port is route table
dependent.

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Cisco ISE Administration Node Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond Ports on Other Ethernet
0 Interfaces (Gigbit Ethernet 1
through 5, or Bond 1 and 2)
Logging (Outbound)
• Syslog: UDP/20514, TCP/1468
• Secure Syslog: TCP/6514

Note Default ports are configurable for external

logging.
• SNMP Traps: UDP/162

External Identity Sources and

Resources (Outbound) • Admin User Interface and Endpoint Authentications:
◦LDAP: TCP/389, 3268, UDP/389
◦SMB: TCP/445
◦KDC: TCP/88
◦KPASS: TCP/464

• WMI : TCP/135
• ODBC:
Note The ODBC ports are configurable on the third-party
database server.
◦Microsoft SQL: TCP/1433
◦Sybase: TCP/2638
◦PortgreSQL: TCP/5432
◦Oracle: TCP/1512

• NTP: UDP/123
• DNS: UDP/53, TCP/53

Note For external identity sources and services reachable only

through an interface other than Gigabit Ethernet 0, configure
static routes accordingly.
Guest Guest account expiry email notification: SMTP: TCP/25

Smart Licensing Connection to Cisco cloud over TCP/443

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Cisco ISE Monitoring Node Ports

Cisco ISE Monitoring Node Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond Ports on Other Ethernet Interfaces
0 (Gigabit Ethernet 1 through 5, or
Bond 1 and Bond 2)
Administration —
• HTTP: TCP/80, HTTPS:
TCP/443
• SSH Server: TCP/22

Replication and Synchronization Oracle DB Listener: TCP/1521

• HTTPS (SOAP): TCP/443
• Oracle DB Listener:
TCP/1521
• Data
Synchronization/Replication
(JGroups): TCP/12001
(Global)

Monitoring Simple Network Management Protocol [SNMP]: UDP/161

Note This port is route table
dependent.
Logging
• Syslog: UDP/20514, TCP/1468
• Secure Syslog: TCP/6514

Note Default ports are configurable for external

logging.
• SMTP: TCP/25
• SNMP Traps: UDP/162

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Cisco ISE Policy Service Node Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond Ports on Other Ethernet Interfaces
0 (Gigabit Ethernet 1 through 5, or
Bond 1 and Bond 2)
External Identity Sources and
Resources (Outbound) • Admin User Interface and Endpoint Authentications:
◦LDAP: TCP/389, 3268, UDP/389
◦SMB: TCP/445
◦KDC: TCP/88, UDP/88
◦KPASS: TCP/464

• WMI : TCP/135
• ODBC:
Note The ODBC ports are configurable on the third-party
database server.
◦Microsoft SQL: TCP/1433
◦Sybase: TCP/2638
◦PortgreSQL: TCP/5432
◦Oracle: TCP/1512

• NTP: UDP/123
• DNS: UDP/53, TCP/53

Note For external identity sources and services reachable only

through an interface other than Gigabit Ethernet 0, configure
static routes accordingly.
Bulk Download for pxGrid SSL: TCP/8910

Cisco ISE Policy Service Node Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond 0 Ports on Other Ethernet Interfaces,
or Bond 1 and Bond 2
Administration Cisco ISE management is restricted
• HTTP: TCP/80, HTTPS: to Gigabit Ethernet 0.
TCP/443
• SSH Server: TCP/22
• OCSP: TCP/2560

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Cisco ISE Policy Service Node Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond 0 Ports on Other Ethernet Interfaces,
or Bond 1 and Bond 2
Replication and —
Synchronization • HTTPS (SOAP): TCP/443
• Data Synchronization /
Replication (JGroups):
TCP/12001 (Global)

Clustering (Node Group) Node Groups/JGroups: TCP/7800 —

CA PKI TCP/9090 —

IPSec/ISAKMP UDP/500 —

Device Administration TACACS+: TCP/49

Note This port is configurable in Release 2.1 and later
releases.
SXP
• PSN (SXP node) to NADs: TCP/64999
• PSN to SXP (inter-node communication): TCP/443

TC-NAC TCP/443

Monitoring Simple Network Management Protocol [SNMP]: UDP/161

Note This port is route table
dependent.
Logging (Outbound)
• Syslog: UDP/20514, TCP/1468
• Secure Syslog: TCP/6514

Note Default ports are configurable for external

logging.
• SNMP Traps: UDP/162

Session
• RADIUS Authentication: UDP/1645, 1812
• RADIUS Accounting: UDP/1646, 1813
• RADIUS DTLS Authentication/Accounting: UDP/2083.
• RADIUS Change of Authorization (CoA) Send: UDP/1700
• RADIUS Change of Authorization (CoA) Listen/Relay: UDP/1700,
3799

Note UDP port 3799 is not

configurable.

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Cisco ISE Policy Service Node Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond 0 Ports on Other Ethernet Interfaces,
or Bond 1 and Bond 2
External Identity Sources and
Resources (Outbound) • Admin User Interface and Endpoint Authentications:
◦LDAP: TCP/389, 3268
◦SMB: TCP/445
◦KDC: TCP/88
◦KPASS: TCP/464

• WMI : TCP/135
• ODBC:
Note The ODBC ports are configurable on the third-party database
server.
◦Microsoft SQL: TCP/1433
◦Sybase: TCP/2638
◦PortgreSQL: TCP/5432
◦Oracle: TCP/1512

• NTP: UDP/123
• DNS: UDP/53, TCP/53

Note For external identity sources and services reachable only through
an interface other than Gigabit Ethernet 0, configure static routes
accordingly.
Passive ID (Inbound)
• TS Agent: tcp/9094
• AD Agent: tcp/9095
• Syslog: UDP/40514, TCP/11468

Web Portal Services: HTTPS (Interface must be enabled for service in Cisco ISE):
- Guest/Web Authentication • Blacklist Portal: TCP/8000-8999 (Default port is TCP/8444.)
- Guest Sponsor Portal • Guest Portal and Client Provisioning: TCP/8000-8999 (Default port
- My Devices Portal is TCP/8443.)
- Client Provisioning • Certificate Provisioning Portal: TCP/8000-8999 (Default port is
TCP/8443.)
- Certificate Provisioning
- BlackListing Portal • My Devices Portal: TCP/8000-8999 (Default port is TCP/8443.)
• Sponsor Portal: TCP/8000-8999 (Default port is TCP/8443.)
• SMTP Notification: TCP/25

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Cisco ISE Policy Service Node Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond 0 Ports on Other Ethernet Interfaces,
or Bond 1 and Bond 2
Posture
• Discovery (Client side): TCP/80 (HTTP), TCP/8905 (HTTPS)
- Discovery
Note By default, TCP/80 is redirected to TCP/8443. See Web
- Provisioning Portal Services: Guest Portal and Client Provisioning.
- Assessment/ Heartbeat Cisco ISE presents the Admin certificate for Posture and
Client Provisioning on TCP port 8905.
Cisco ISE presents the Portal certificate on TCP port 8443
(or the port that you have configured for portal use).
• Discovery (Policy Service Node side): TCP/8443, 8905 (HTTPS)
From Cisco ISE, Release 2.2 or later with AnyConnect, Release 4.4
or later, this port is configurable.

• Provisioning - URL Redirection: See Web Portal Services: Guest

Portal and Client Provisioning
• Provisioning - Active-X and Java Applet Install including IP refresh,
Web Agent Install, and launch NAC Agent Install: See Web Portal
Services: Guest Portal and Client Provisioning.
• Provisioning - NAC Agent Install: TCP/8443
• Provisioning - NAC Agent Update Notification: UDP/8905
• Provisioning - NAC Agent and Other Package/Module Updates:
TCP/8905 (HTTPS)

• Assessment - Posture Negotiation and Agent Reports: TCP/8905

(HTTPS)
• Assessment - PRA/Keep-alive: UDP/8905

Bring Your Own Device

(BYOD) / Network Service • Provisioning - URL Redirection: See Web Portal Services: Guest
Portal and Client Provisioning
Protocol (NSP)
- Redirection • Provisioning - Active-X and Java Applet Install (includes the launch
of Wizard Install): See Web Portal Services: Guest Portal and Client
- Provisioning Provisioning
- SCEP
• Provisioning - Wizard Install from Cisco ISE (Windows and Mac
OS): TCP/8443
• Provisioning - Wizard Install from Google Play (Android): TCP/443
• Provisioning - Supplicant Provisioning Process: TCP/8905
• Provisioning - For Android (6.x and above) devices with EST
authentication: TCP/8084
• SCEP Proxy to CA: TCP/80 or TCP/443 (Based on SCEP RA URL
configuration)

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Cisco ISE pxGrid Service Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond 0 Ports on Other Ethernet Interfaces,
or Bond 1 and Bond 2
Mobile Device Management
(MDM) API Integration • URL Redirection: See Web Portal Services: Guest Portal and Client
Provisioning
• API: Vendor specific
• Agent Install and Device Registration: Vendor specific

Profiling
• NetFlow: UDP/9996
Note This port is
configurable.
• DHCP: UDP/67
Note This port is
configurable.
• DHCP SPAN Probe: UDP/68
• HTTP: TCP/80, 8080
• DNS: UDP/53 (lookup)
Note This port is route table
dependent.
• SNMP Query: UDP/161
Note This port is route table
dependent.
• SNMP TRAP: UDP/162
Note This port is
configurable.

Cisco ISE pxGrid Service Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond Ports on Other Ethernet Interfaces
0 (Gigabit Ethernet 1 through 5, or
Bond 1 and Bond 2)
Administration —
• SSL: TCP/5222 (Inter-Node
Communication)
• SSL: TCP/7400 (Node Group
Communication)

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OCSP and CRL Service Ports

Cisco ISE Service Ports on Gigabit Ethernet 0 or Bond Ports on Other Ethernet Interfaces
0 (Gigabit Ethernet 1 through 5, or
Bond 1 and Bond 2)
Replication and Synchronization Data Synchronization and —
Replication (JGroups): TCP/12001
(Global)

pxGrid Subscribers TCP/8910

OCSP and CRL Service Ports

For the Online Certificate Status Protocol services (OCSP) and the Certificate Revocation List (CRL), the
ports are dependent on the CA Server or on service hosting OCSP/CRL although references to the Cisco ISE
services and ports list basic ports that are used in Cisco ISE Administration Node, Policy Service Node,
Monitoring Node separately.
For the OCSP, the default ports that can be used are TCP 80/ TCP 443. Cisco ISE Admin portal expects
http-based URL for OCSP services, and so, TCP 80 is the default. You can also use non-default ports.
For the CRL, the default protocols include HTTP, HTTPS, and LDAP and the default ports are 80, 443, and
389 respectively. The actual port is contingent on the CRL server.

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OCSP and CRL Service Ports

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