ISE 2.2 and 2.3 and vCenter 6.5 - .ova still not working!!!

[Arne Bier]

The ISE 2.2 and 2.3 Installation Guide warns us politely that the .ova will not deploy with vCenter 6.5 - it doesn't state why (which is not great) but it mentions using an OVF tool to convert the file instead.  On the Cisco Support Forums one user recently posted on this issue and I recommended he read the installation guide - which he did and then created his own post of the process on a private blog - https://ripplesinharmony.wordpress.com/2017/09/19/installing-ise-2-3-on-esxi-6-x/

It looks like a horrendous process and not as trivial as what the ISE Installation Guide may suggest.

Since I hadn't been affected by this up till now (because of vCenter 6.0) and also because I use the .iso installer in my labs, I didn't care much for this issue.  But my customer just upgraded to 6.5 and now they have the same issue.  Due to internal processes, they prefer the .ova because it's blessed by the vendor and also seems the way Cisco likes to have us install the VM's (to ensure consistency and better TAC support etc.).

Why is this still a problem? 

Can someone in the BU please upload a .ova version to CCO that will work in vCenter 6.5 and beyond, rather than making this a problem for the customers to solve? 

The workaround for us will be to install the .iso because I don't know/trust that the ova to ovf conversion will have the integrity of the source data - my fears may be unfounded, but how will I ever know that the .ovf is 100% as good as the original.

I have around 15 new ISE VM's I need to build in a short space of time and this is going to be a bit of a pain ...

[hslai]

We have CSCve22405 filed on this but the teams made it a documentation bug. I will follow it up again.

So, using OVF tool to deploy the ISE OVA file(s) to vCenter or ESXi 6.5 not an option for your customer?

[Arne Bier]

Customer tried the OVF tool but they say it was unsuccessful.  And after you read the blog article I linked to, you'll see that other folks are not finding this a trivial or fun experience.  The file was converted from .ova to .vmx and then .vmx to .ovf.  At that point I wonder if all the bits are still as they should be.

We can mention all the workarounds, but the easier solution would be for Cisco to just upload a new .ova that works for vCenter 6.5 and below.  Failing that, upload the .ova specifically for vCenter 6.5 and save us all the heartache.

[hslai · Accepted solution]

Below is from one of our field engineers in deploying to vCenter. Please note that I had no issue in using @vsphere.local credential.

... download OVFTool for Mac and install.

Next you have to change the default domain for login to the vCenter.  My install had the default pointing to the localos domain and therefore I had to login using administrator@vpshere.local which did not work using OVFTool due to the special characters.  To do this you must login to the vSphere-Client UI (https://vcenter/vsphere-client) NOT the new vSphere UI (https://vcenter/ui).  Under Administration>Single Sign-On>Configuration>Identity Sources select the domain that contains the administrator or other accounts and click the blue ball with arrow up near the Add/Edit/Delete options.

Once that is done you can now try the deploy.  If you have any type of networking or other configurations in vCenter you will need to specify that as well.  My command/output is shown below with network.

./ovftool --noSSLVerify --diskMode=thick --name=Cisco\ ISEPAN01 --datastore=C220M4\ Disk\ 1 --network=Server\ Network /Volumes/ISO/ISE-2.2.0.470-virtual-600GB-SNS3515.ova vi://10.99.10.9/CM-Ranch/host/10.99.10.101
Opening OVA source: /Volumes/ISO/ISE-2.2.0.470-virtual-600GB-SNS3515.ova
The manifest validates
Enter login information for target vi://10.99.10.9/
Username: administrator
Password: ********
Opening VI target: vi://administrator@10.99.10.9:443/CM-Ranch/host/10.99.10.101
Deploying to VI: vi://administrator@10.99.10.9:443/CM-Ranch/host/10.99.10.101
Transfer Completed                    
Completed successfully

It worked for me also to use OVF tool to deploy to an ESXi 6.5.

[andrew333]

Is there any update on if/when compatible .ova files will be available? We are seeing more customers moving to vCenter 6.5 and ISE VM imaging is becoming problematic in environments with specific VM appliance requirements.

Regards,

Andrew

[hslai]

There is no commit on this at the moment.

[Jeffrey Jones]

so this needs to get fixed, that tool is garbage, what do I tell my customers

[Craig Hyps]

QA is in process of running final testing and hope to have updated OVAs posted this month.

And to clarify, the update is specific to ISE OVA deployment on ESXi6.5 (and prior supported versions), not specific to vCenter version.

[Ben Rosner]

Will the new ISE OVA file also work in ESXi 6.7?  I'm seeing the same issue there too.

Thanks.

Ben

[nick.e]

Having same issues with ise 2.3 on esxi 6.7. When can we expect working images for esxi 6.7 to be posted?

[Charlie Moreton]

I worked for about an hour to get the OVF Tool to provision the VM correctly.

Once I was successful, I decided to make a video showing how to accomplish this, with the exact command I used:

Installing ISE 2.4 on VMWare vCenter 6.5 from OVA Package using the OVF Tool

[nick.e]

Have you tested this on 6.7?

[michaelsrpersaud]

(Jan 2020) There were some issues firing the command but after a few tries i got it to work as follows:

ovftool --acceptAllEulas -dm=thin --name=test-ise --datastore=ds-esxi01 "K:\tmp\ISE-2.2.0.470-virtual-200GB-SNS3595.ova" vi://xxxxadm:<password>@10.100.6.5/LAB/host/LABCluster

VCenter / VMWare 6.5.0

[ruhearn]

Hey Hsing,

I have a customer who has contacted me about this, as well (will forward internally) but wanted to see if there was any update if this frustrating issue would be fixed? 

Thank you,

Russ

[EricNeudorfer9268]

I'm having this issue with 2.4 and vcenter 7.0.2