topic Re: ISE 1.4 not work in Network Access Control

ISE 1.4 not work

technicalBRO — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 13:09:40 GMT

Hello.

We're using ISE 1.4.0.253. Recently, the web interface on the master virtual machine crashed, and there were errors in the switch logs.
We checked the status, and everything was bad:

sh application status ise

ISE PROCESS NAME                       STATE            PROCESS ID
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Database Listener                      running          2909
Database Server                        not running
Application Server                     not running
Profiler Database                      not running
AD Connector                           not running
M&T Session Database                   running          2484
M&T Log Collector                      not running
M&T Log Processor                      not running
Certificate Authority Service          not running
pxGrid Infrastructure Service          disabled
pxGrid Publisher Subscriber Service    disabled
pxGrid Connection Manager              disabled
pxGrid Controller                      disabled
Identity Mapping Service               disabled
Restarting results in an error.

Restarting results in an error.

We think we're out of space, but the manuals aren't helping. How can we clean it?

show disks

disk repository: 17% used (2354076 of 14877092)

Internal filesystems:
/ : 100% used ( 168320292 of 177740076)
/dev/shm : 0% used ( 0 of 8166796)
/boot : 10% used ( 43501 of 489956)
/storedconfig : 7% used ( 5695 of 93327)
/tmp : 2% used ( 35840 of 1976268)
  warning - / is 100% used (168320292 of 177740076)

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

Jonatan Jonasson — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 14:33:50 GMT

Hi,
Just to clarify, you say you're running ISE version 1.4.0.253.
Which started its end-of-life journey around 2016-2017, and became end-of-support in 2020.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/security/identity-services-engine/eos-eol-notice-c51-738841.html

There were some ways to clean up the filesystem, but I don't remember if that could be done without support, which you don't have if you're running this version.

On one hand I must recommend that you look into upgrading and getting close to the present time with this, both with regards to functionality and support, but also because there haven't been any security patches available for this version for years.

On the other hand, for this specific scenario, if you happen to have a config backup, as well as the installation and license files for this version, it would probably be easier to re-deploy and restore the config.

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

Marcelo Morais — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 16:05:14 GMT

@technicalBRO ,

If you think you're "out of space," try the following command and look for the option to "clear some data", for example:

ise/admin# application configure ise
 ...
 [3]Purge M&T Operational Data
 ...
 [20]Reset Context Visibility
 ...

Hope this helps !

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

julian.bendix — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 19:05:54 GMT

Haven't seen ISE 1.4 in around 8 years .. I would urge you to move to a modern release.

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

technicalBRO — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 05:04:08 GMT

Here:

sh version Cisco Application Deployment Engine OS Release: 2.2 ADE-OS Build Version: 2.2.0.421 ADE-OS System Architecture: x86_64 Copyright (c) 2005-2014 by Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Hostname: SR-ISEADM Version information of installed applications --------------------------------------------- Cisco Identity Services Engine --------------------------------------------- Version : 1.4.0.253 Build Date : Thu Apr 23 14:15:49 2015 Install Date : Mon Aug 10 21:06:51 2015 Cisco Identity Services Engine Patch --------------------------------------------- Version : 3 Install Date : Tue Aug 11 14:51:42 2015 Cisco Identity Services Engine Patch --------------------------------------------- Version : 4 Install Date : Tue Dec 01 17:50:47 2015

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

technicalBRO — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 05:06:17 GMT

Here:

admin#application configure ise Selection ISE configuration option [1]Reset M&T Session Database [2]Rebuild M&T Unusable Indexes [3]Purge M&T Operational Data [4]Reset M&T Database [5]Refresh Database Statistics [6]Display Profiler Statistics [7]Export Internal CA Store [8]Import Internal CA Store [9]Create Missing Config Indexes [10]Create Missing M&T Indexes [11]Enable/Disable ACS Migration [12]Generate Daily KPM Stats [13]Generate KPM Stats for last 8 Weeks [14]Exit 3 % unknown error admin#

There is no point 20.

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

technicalBRO — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 05:07:20 GMT

Which of these is the ISE version?

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

technicalBRO — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 05:08:21 GMT

Could you please tell me how to update to 3.x correctly and is it possible?

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

julian.bendix — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 06:36:05 GMT

I would go with a clean install of ISE 3.4 and restore from a backup taken on your 1.4 deployment

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

Benicio77 — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 07:17:21 GMT

Your ISE 1.4 web interface crashed because the main filesystem is full. ISE 1.4 is long out of support, so fixes are limited. You can try freeing space using application configure ise and selecting “Purge M&T Operational Data,” but a clean upgrade to ISE 3.x and restoring your backup is the safest long-term solution.

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

Jonatan Jonasson — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 09:54:58 GMT

I suggest you would contact a local Cisco partner or VAR, and have someone with ISE experience help you on this journey.
Going from 1.4 would be a multi-step process and involves more than just restoring from backup.

On one hand, direct upgrade and backup/restore isn't going to work in this case.

You would have to go from 1.4 -> 2.2 -> 2.7 -> 3.2 -> 3.4

See this matrix: https://community.cisco.com/t5/security-knowledge-base/ise-version-upgrade-matrix/ta-p/3653501

You may run into a few issues on this journey.

#1 - You might not have access to all of the software versions.

Knowing that you're running 1.4 you probably don't have a valid support contract (because 1.4 isn't supported, so previous contracts have most likely just expired), so you might not have the entitlements to download the later software versions.

#2 - You will need to resolve licensing.

Licensing has significantly changed from 1.4 to 3.4, a few times.
Changes in both delivery (Smart Licensing vs old licensing files) and functionality (subscriptions vs perpetual & changes in base vs advanced licensing)
You could rely on the evaluation mode while doing the upgrade (backup-restore) process.
But since the deadline for licensing conversions has long since passed, you are going to need to purchase new licensing anyway.

#3 - Big changes in environment & how everything works.

Going from 1.x to a modern release of ISE is a huge change, both with regards to the hardware specs required for the virtual machine, and just in basic functionality of the ISE
There are a number of things here you would need to plan for and a community forum, while helpful, might not be adequate to help you in all of those aspects.

Another thing to consider:

How complex was your original setup?
Would it be easier (assuming you've got licensing & support covered) just to set up a new pair of ISE servers and reconfigure manually?

If you are able to download a new version of ISE, there's nothing stopping you from deploying it and testing it out, I think you have up to 90 days of evaluation mode.
(And if you can download all of the versions, you could just try to see if you can go through the whole backup-restore upgrade process.)

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

Marcelo Morais — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 13:22:39 GMT

@technicalBRO ,

you have ISE 1.4 (installed on Aug 10, 2015) with Patch 3 (installed on Aug 11, 2015) and Patch 4 (installed on Dec 1st, 2015)

admin# show version
 ...
 Hostname: SR-ISEADM
 ...
 Cisco Identity Services Engine
 ---------------------------------------------
 Version : 1.4.0.253
 Build Date : Thu Apr 23 14:15:49 2015
 Install Date : Mon Aug 10 21:06:51 2015
 
 Cisco Identity Services Engine Patch
 ---------------------------------------------
 Version : 3
 Install Date : Tue Aug 11 14:51:42 2015
 
 Cisco Identity Services Engine Patch
 ---------------------------------------------
 Version : 4
 Install Date : Tue Dec 01 17:50:47 2015

Your Disk status is:

admin# show disks

 disk repository: 17% used (2354076 of 14877092)

 Internal filesystems:
  / : 100% used ( 168320292 of 177740076)
  /dev/shm : 0% used ( 0 of 8166796)
  /boot : 10% used ( 43501 of 489956)
  /storedconfig : 7% used ( 5695 of 93327)
  /tmp : 2% used ( 35840 of 1976268)
 
   warning - / is 100% used (168320292 of 177740076)

You are unable to Purge M&T Operational Data, correct ?

admin# application configure ise

 Selection ISE configuration option
 ...
 [3]Purge M&T Operational Data
 ...
 [14]Exit

 3
 % unknown error

Please, try the following command on an ISE 1.4 P4:

ise/admin# dir

 Directory of disk:/

 1686112437 Oct 29 2025 10:21:18 <FILE NAME>.tar.gpg
 4096 Oct 21 2025 14:01:09 corefileanalysis/
 ...

 Usage for disk: filesystem
 123027427328 bytes total used
 436192722944 bytes free
 589226409984 bytes available

let's take a look if we are able to delete some files via:

ise/admin# delete disk:<FILE NAME>.tar.gpg

Hope this helps !

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

thismarkjohnson015 — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 13:56:58 GMT

Yes, this is a classic ISE 1.4 disk-full issue — when / hits 100%, most services won’t start.
What to do safely:

1. Check large files
show disk
show tech-support | i include /opt|/var

2. Clean old logs and cores (safe in 1.4):
application configure ise
reset-config logging

or manually:
delete /var/log/*/*.log
delete /var/core/*

3. Purge old M&T data (common space hog):
application configure ise
reset-config ise
(Choose to keep config, remove operational data)

4. Reboot after cleanup:
reload

ISE 1.4 is very sensitive to disk usage — upgrading to a newer ISE version with better disk management is strongly recommended once recovered.

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

technicalBRO — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 13:26:31 GMT

I tried the commands

SR-ISEADM/admin# show tech-support | i include /opt|/var ^ % invalid command detected at '^' marker. SR-ISEADM/admin# show tech-support | i include /opt ^ % invalid command detected at '^' marker.

I tried what there is at all

SR-ISEADM/admin# show tech-support ***************************************** Listing ISE log files ***************************************** total 30942124 -rw------- 1 iseadagent ise 35028992 Dec 16 12:29 ad_agent.log -rw------- 1 iseadminportal ise 102400078 Jan 11 2016 ad_agent.log.1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 iseadminportal ise 38 Aug 10 2015 appserver -> /opt/CSCOcpm/appsrv/apache-tomcat/logs -rw-r--r-- 1 iseadminportal ise 66892 Nov 13 2014 bootstrap-20141112-070036.log -rw-r--r-- 1 iseadminportal ise 76560 Feb 2 2015 bootstrap-20150202-205927.log lrwxrwxrwx 1 iseadminportal ise 41 Aug 10 2015 ca_appserver -> /opt/CSCOcpm/appsrv/apache-tomcat-ca/logs -rw-rw-rw- 1 iseadminportal ise 5854 Aug 10 2015 carsupdate.log -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 8980 Feb 2 2015 caservice_bootstrap.log -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 16384 Dec 16 13:26 caservice.log -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 40960 Dec 1 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-01.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 20480 Dec 2 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-02.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 36864 Dec 3 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-03.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 36864 Dec 4 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-04.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 24576 Dec 5 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-05.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 28672 Dec 6 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-06.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 90112 Dec 7 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-07.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 20480 Dec 8 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-08.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 24576 Dec 9 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-09.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 8192 Dec 10 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-10.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 28672 Dec 11 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-11.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 96199 Dec 12 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-12.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 816508 Dec 13 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-13.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 638853 Dec 14 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-14.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 24576 Dec 15 23:59 caservice.log.2025-12-15.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Oct 9 2023 caservice-misc.log -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Nov 9 2015 caservice-misc.log.2015-11-09.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Nov 19 2015 caservice-misc.log.2015-11-19.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 11400 Dec 1 2015 caservice-misc.log.2015-12-01.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Jan 27 2016 caservice-misc.log.2016-01-27.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Mar 3 2016 caservice-misc.log.2016-03-03.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Mar 5 2016 caservice-misc.log.2016-03-05.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Mar 16 2016 caservice-misc.log.2016-03-16.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Mar 27 2016 caservice-misc.log.2016-03-27.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Mar 28 2016 caservice-misc.log.2016-03-28.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 3816 Aug 15 2016 caservice-misc.log.2016-08-15.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Nov 21 2019 caservice-misc.log.2019-11-21.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 May 3 2020 caservice-misc.log.2020-05-03.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Nov 13 2022 caservice-misc.log.2022-11-13.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Jan 18 2023 caservice-misc.log.2023-01-18.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 iseca ise 1908 Sep 25 2023 caservice-misc.log.2023-09-25.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 isemtlogproc ise 0 Dec 17 00:00 collector.log -rw-r--r-- 1 isemtlogproc ise 0 Dec 16 09:55 collector.log.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 isemtlogproc ise 4952742 Dec 15 00:00 collector.log.2 -rw-r--r-- 1 isemtlogproc ise 1916475 Feb 2 2015 collector.log.2015-02-03 -rw-r--r-- 1 isemtlogproc ise 2518 Feb 8 2015 collector.log.2015-02-08 -rw-r--r-- 1 isemtlogproc ise 1821 Feb 8 2015 collector.log.2015-02-09 -rw-r--r-- 1 isemtlogproc ise 4386 Feb 9 2015 collector.log.2015-02-10 -rw-r--r-- 1 isemtlogproc ise 2403 Feb 27 2015 collector.log.2015-02-27

and further

I tried it like this

SR-ISEADM/admin# delete /var/log/*/*.log % Error: Usage: delete disk:/path SR-ISEADM/admin# delete disk:/var/log/*/*.log % Error: disk:/var/log/*/*.log - File not found SR-ISEADM/admin# dir disk:/var/log/ Directory of disk:/var/log/ % Error: Could not access directory disk:/var/log/ SR-ISEADM/admin# dir disk:/var/ Directory of disk:/var/ % Error: Could not access directory disk:/var/ SR-ISEADM/admin# delete disk:/var/core/* % Error: disk:/var/core/* - File not found SR-ISEADM/admin# delete /var/core/* % Error: Usage: delete disk:/path

and just tried to find directories

SR-ISEADM/admin# dir disk:/opt Directory of disk:/opt % Error: Could not access directory disk:/opt SR-ISEADM/admin# dir disk:/var Directory of disk:/var % Error: Could not access directory disk:/var SR-ISEADM/admin# dir disk:/log Directory of disk:/log % Error: Could not access directory disk:/log SR-ISEADM/admin#

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

technicalBRO — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 13:28:32 GMT

I tried to delete it

SR-ISEADM/admin# dir Directory of disk:/ 104934724 Jan 30 2015 19:01:08 ise-patchbundle-1.2.1.198-Auto4-125142.x86_64.tar.gz 70770163 Feb 27 2015 17:57:04 ise-patchbundle-1.3.0.876-Auto1-125229.x86_64.tar.gz 229882984 Apr 06 2015 18:49:36 ise-patchbundle-1.3.0.876-Auto2-130070.x86_64.tar.gz 137328811 Aug 11 2015 14:48:41 ise-patchbundle-1.4.0.253-Patch3-141133.x86_64.tar.gz 219906194 Dec 01 2015 17:47:23 ise-patchbundle-1.4.0.253-Patch4-158573.x86_64.tar.gz 1472750950 Aug 10 2015 19:41:28 ise-upgradebundle-1.4.0.253.x86_64.tar.gz 16384 Nov 12 2014 15:50:57 lost+found/ Usage for disk: filesystem 2410573824 bytes total used 12037234688 bytes free 15234142208 bytes available SR-ISEADM/admin# delete disk:ise-upgradebundle-1.4.0.253.x86_64.tar.gz SR-ISEADM/admin# dir Directory of disk:/ 104934724 Jan 30 2015 19:01:08 ise-patchbundle-1.2.1.198-Auto4-125142.x86_64.tar.gz 70770163 Feb 27 2015 17:57:04 ise-patchbundle-1.3.0.876-Auto1-125229.x86_64.tar.gz 229882984 Apr 06 2015 18:49:36 ise-patchbundle-1.3.0.876-Auto2-130070.x86_64.tar.gz 137328811 Aug 11 2015 14:48:41 ise-patchbundle-1.4.0.253-Patch3-141133.x86_64.tar.gz 219906194 Dec 01 2015 17:47:23 ise-patchbundle-1.4.0.253-Patch4-158573.x86_64.tar.gz 16384 Nov 12 2014 15:50:57 lost+found/ Usage for disk: filesystem 936374272 bytes total used 13511434240 bytes free 15234142208 bytes available SR-ISEADM/admin# show disks disk repository: 7% used (914428 of 14877092) Internal filesystems: / : 100% used ( 168429536 of 177740076) /dev/shm : 0% used ( 0 of 8166796) /boot : 10% used ( 43501 of 489956) /storedconfig : 7% used ( 5695 of 93327) /tmp : 2% used ( 35844 of 1976268) warning - / is 100% used (168429536 of 177740076) SR-ISEADM/admin# show disks disk repository: 7% used (914428 of 14877092) Internal filesystems: / : 100% used ( 168429544 of 177740076) /dev/shm : 0% used ( 0 of 8166796) /boot : 10% used ( 43501 of 489956) /storedconfig : 7% used ( 5695 of 93327) /tmp : 2% used ( 35844 of 1976268) warning - / is 100% used (168429544 of 177740076) SR-ISEADM/admin# delete disk:ise-patchbundle-1.4.0.253-Patch4-158573.x86_64.tar.gz SR-ISEADM/admin# delete disk:ise-patchbundle-1.4.0.253-Patch3-141133.x86_64.tar.gz SR-ISEADM/admin# show disks disk repository: 5% used (565208 of 14877092) Internal filesystems: / : 100% used ( 168429552 of 177740076) /dev/shm : 0% used ( 0 of 8166796) /boot : 10% used ( 43501 of 489956) /storedconfig : 7% used ( 5695 of 93327) /tmp : 2% used ( 35844 of 1976268) warning - / is 100% used (168429552 of 177740076)

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

Marcelo Morais — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 14:21:50 GMT

@technicalBRO ,

you successfully deleted the files.

The Disk Repository used has dropped from 17% to just 5%, but we were unable to remove files from the root directory (/) :

SR-ISEADM/admin# show disks

 disk repository: 17% used (2354076 of 14877092)

 Internal filesystems:
  / : 100% used ( 168320292 of 177740076)
  /dev/shm : 0% used ( 0 of 8166796)
  /boot : 10% used ( 43501 of 489956)
  /storedconfig : 7% used ( 5695 of 93327)
  /tmp : 2% used ( 35840 of 1976268)
 
   warning - / is 100% used (168320292 of 177740076)

SR-ISEADM/admin# show disks

 disk repository: 5% used (565208 of 14877092)

 Internal filesystems:
  / : 100% used ( 168429552 of 177740076)
  /dev/shm : 0% used ( 0 of 8166796)
  /boot : 10% used ( 43501 of 489956)
  /storedconfig : 7% used ( 5695 of 93327)
  /tmp : 2% used ( 35844 of 1976268)

   warning - / is 100% used (168429552 of 177740076)

Can you generate a Bkp ?

SR-ISEADM/admin# backup CONFIG-DATA repository <repository> ise-config encryption-key plain <password>

Note: double check if the backup command in ISE 1.4 is different from the one above

Hope this helps !

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

technicalBRO — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 14:35:57 GMT

Any ideas?

Re: ISE 1.4 not work

Marcelo Morais — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 16:11:25 GMT

@technicalBRO ,

I believe my question went unnoticed ...

Can you generate a Bkp ?

SR-ISEADM/admin# backup CONFIG-DATA repository <repository> ise-config encryption-key plain <password>

Note 1: double check if the backup command in ISE 1.4 is different from the one above

Note 2: I'm checking the possibilities since you are unable to Purge M&T Operational Data.

Hope this helps !