Inconsistency in ISE version 2.4 VM specs

[vivrao]

Customer is asking which document is correct for ISE Version 2.4 VM specs. Any guidance on below is highly appreciated.

1. Document 1 states 7-8 cores. (it could mean 16vCPUs in Virtualization world)

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/identity-services-engine-24/213171-ise-2-4-upgrade-alarms-fewer-vm-license.html

1. As per admin guide for 2.4, below table states different numbers. This could mean 32vCPUs in virtualization (with Hyper Threading enabled)

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/ise/2-4/upgrade_guide/b_ise_upgrade_guide_24/b_ise_upgrade_guide_24_chapter_00.html#id_15385

The following table shows the minimum VM resources by category:

VM Category	RAM Range	Number of CPUs
Small	16 GB	12 CPUs
Medium	64 GB	16 CPUs
Large	256 GB	16 CPUs

[Arne Bier]

It doesn't matter what VM license you apply in ISE 2.4, there is a bug which causes a license violation warning.  I have seen this now on systems that have 16 vCPU & 64GB RAM (SNS-3595 aka "medium") and also 12 vCPU & 16 GB RAM (SMS-3515 aka "small").  If you have a SNS-3595 system then ISE thinks you need a VM Large, and if you have SNS-3515 then ISE thinks you who the heck knows what.  I throw a medium license at the system and it complains.

Waiting for patch 3 that apparently fixes this.  

Hopefully ISE 2.5 will remove this "feature" entirely.  It's a complete joke.

[howon · Accepted solution]

The first link is Q&A for new VM based licensing consumption so it talks about how licensing is consumed based on # of CPU and amount of RAM, while the second link is for upgrade. I suggest going through the installation guide:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/ise/2-4/install_guide/b_ise_InstallationGuide24/b_ise_InstallationGuide24_chapter_01.html#ID-1417-00000074

Recommendation is to use OVA for proper settings, but the Table 2 should be clear on what is required. Here is the snippet:

Platform	Small VM Appliance (based on SNS-3515)	Medium VM Appliance (based on SNS-3595)	Large VM Appliance (based on SNS-3595)
Processor	6 total cores (at 2.0 GHz or above) or a total minimum CPU allocation of 12000 MHz. Note  You must enable hyperthreading and assign the resulting number of logical processors (12) to each server.	8 total cores (at 2.0 GHz or above) or a total minimum CPU allocation of 16000 MHz. Note  You must enable hyperthreading and assign the resulting number of logical processors (16) to each server.	8 cores (at 2.0 GHz or above) or a total minimum CPU allocation of 16000+ MHz. Note  You must enable hyperthreading and assign the resulting number of logical processors (16) to each server.
Memory	16 GB	64 GB	256 GB

 Note that you must satisfy both # of vCPU and MHz requirement. For small it means you need to allocate 12vCPU (When HT is enabled) with 12000MHz and for the medium it will require 16vCPU (When HT is enabled) with 16000MHz minimum.