We were trying to install Cisco ISE on a VMware ESXi Host Client. The VM has been successfully deployed using the OVA file for Cisco ISE release version 3.4.0.
According to Cisco’s installation guide, during the initial boot of the VM, we should see the following prompt in the command line interface, which allows us to proceed with the installation:
Automatic installation starts in 150 seconds.
Available boot options:
[1] Cisco ISE Installation (Keyboard/Monitor)
[2] Cisco ISE Installation (Serial Console)
[3] System Utilities (Keyboard/Monitor)
[4] System Utilities (Serial Console)
[5] Hard Disk
Enter boot option and press <Enter>.
boot:
However, in our case, after the VM boots up, the console screen remains blank.
As per Cisco’s recommendation, all configurations should already be pre-configured when deploying via OVA, meaning no manual changes should be required in the VM settings. To troubleshoot, we manually enabled Force BIOS Setup in the VM options, but instead of seeing the expected boot prompt, we were presented with the PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility screen.
