topic Re: ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform in Network Access Control

ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform

dal — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 21:54:51 GMT

Is it not possible to terraform a ISE VM appliance in vCenter?

Sure, I can give the VM a name, and set resources like disk, cpu, mem, but other things like IP Address, admin passwords, enable API, set NTP servers etc doesn't seem to work.

All examples I have seen for this is when deploying ISE appliances in Azure or AWS. But not for a local vCenter

So.. possible or not possible? Examples would be nice.

Thanks

Re: ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform

Arne Bier — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:34:37 GMT

Yes you can do this. It's part of the ZTP (Zero Touch Provisioning)

It's very good. I have used the 2nd .iso disk option, and also the VMWare custom attributes (which is a bit more intricate with all that BASE64 conversion stuff)

Re: ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform

Marcelo Morais — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 01:39:30 GMT

Hi @dal ,

beyond what @Arne Bier already said ... please take a look at: ISE - What we need to know about SNS / VM, special attention to the ZTP (Zero Touch Provisioning) part.

Hope this helps !!!

Re: ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform

Torbjørn — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 07:38:03 GMT

I can recommend the VM Data approach, in my experience it is more reliable than the ISO version as there are fewer things that can break. Good luck!

Re: ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform

dal — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 07:42:58 GMT

Very nice! Wasn't aware of this.

But.. I am trying the OVA version. The VM is deployed and turned on. I also see the "use setup as login" for a little while, then the screen goes black apart from a little cursor that blinks in the upper left corner
Shouldn't there be some kind of feedback ? Did it hang, or is the installation silent from here and out?

Re: ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform

Arne Bier — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 20:17:24 GMT

It's been a while since I used ZTP - you should see the usual install menu - and then (no key presses) after a few minutes the ZTP starts - I think the screen does blank a while while all the Red Hat packages are installed.

Re: ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform

dal — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 20:41:11 GMT

I figured it out. It turns out the nature of the conf file that the script uses don't like the # character in the password
When I removed that, it worked like a charm!

Thanks again

Re: ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform

dal — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 07:58:13 GMT

One more question: When using ZTP, is it possible to set a parameter that removes the "Change password on next login" ?

Re: ISE VM in vCenter - not possible to terraform

Marcelo Morais — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:46:42 GMT

Hi @dal ,

in ISE - What we need to know about SNS / VM, special attention to the ZTP (Zero Touch Provisioning) - Configuration:

Hope this helps !!!