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 ...

[Arne Bier]

I would just take the ISE 2.4 .iso and build from scratch. ISE OVA's are hit and miss.

Just make the VM have the same spec as an OVA - you can change the Hardware Platform to be the latest, and then ensure also that the Boot up is BIOS and not EFI (it will not boot with EFI). VMXNET3 network adapters, PVSCSI Storage Controller and all the usual RAM reservations and thick disk provision malarkey.

[EricNeudorfer9268]

Thanks for the quick response @Arne Bier . That's what we decided to do after going through a few different forums and seeing all the issues. 

[Greg Gibbs]

Which OVA file(s) are you using? There are specific "6.0 and 6.5 compatible" OVA files for 2.4.

I tested the 'ISE-2.4.0.357-6.5OVA-Eval.ova' file in my lab with vCenter 7.0.3 and the install worked fine.

[EricNeudorfer9268]

I was using 'ISE-2.4.0.357-virtual-SNS3595-Medium-1200GBHD-64GBRAM-16CPU.ova'

I didn't realize there were specific 6.0 and 6.5 versions. Thanks for pointing that out.

Should I be concerned that the 6.5 is eval? It looks like alternatively there's a full version 'ISE-2.4.0.357-6.5OVA-SNS3595-Medium-1200GBHD-64GBRAM-16CPU.ova' 

I came in frustrated but you guys have been awesome, thanks.

[Greg Gibbs]

I'm using the Eval OVA as I have limited CPU/Memory in my lab. I just wanted to verify that the 6.0 and 6.5 compatible OVA would work with 7.0 as well.

You should be able to use the 6.x compatible OVA file with the sizing you need.

[ajc]

Add me to the list, I am trying to deploy an ISE 2.7 OVA file using VMWare ESXi 6.7 (I do not have vCenter) and it is giving me an error but different to the one related to "missing attributes ID". I will open a TAC Case and see if I must follow the same "workaround" using the OVF Tool. In the meantime, I am using regularly the ISO files.