Crossplatform compatibility of ISE SNS Appliances

[biswajit.pradhan]

Can we have mix match of different ISE SNS hw platforms like 3515, 3995,  3695 in a single distributed deployment? 

[Colby LeMaire · Accepted solution]

Yes, as long as the version of ISE supports the platforms.  For example, ISE v2.7 cannot run on the older appliances so you would be limited to the latest version of ISE that supports all of the hardware in place.  You cannot have different ISE nodes running different software versions/patch levels in the same deployment.

[Greg Gibbs · Accepted solution]

In addition to @Colby LeMaire's comment, be aware that your performance/scaling should be based on the lowest common denominator hardware platform (in this case, the 3515).

See ISE Performance & Scale  for more more info on scaling.

[Damien Miller]

^ don't put different sized nodes behind the same load balancer for example. Recipe for disaster.

But OP, it's common to see one template for MNTs, another for pxgrid, and yet another for PSNs.

[biswajit.pradhan]

Hi Damien,

Nope, we wont have different size models behind same LB. We will have around 20 PSNs distributed across different sites which will not be behind any LB. My query is can we have say SNS3515 in Site01, 3595 in Site02 and 3655 in Site3 for example ?

[Damien Miller · Accepted solution]

As Greg mentioned, you won't have any issue so long as you treat them within their individual scaling limitations. 

In order to run both 3600 series appliances with 3500 series appliances in the same deployment, you must be on ISE 2.4, 2.6 or 2.7.  This is because ISE 2.4 was the first version to support the 3600 series appliances.  

[chcampos]

Hi Damien,

Do we have official documentation that states the support for this? Does this mean we can run say 3595 / 3655 HA Pair for the PAN/MNT in a Hybrid Distributed Deployment?

Thanks

[Greg Gibbs]

I don't know that this is documented anywhere, but I would not suggest running the Primary and Secondary PAN/MnT nodes on different hardware platforms. I'll leave it to the BU folks to agree/disagree.

[biswajit.pradhan]

So as long as we are on same software version the hardware model doesn't matter ?