If you encounter the issue where the GUI initiated Upgrade bundle download fails, there is another workaround then to ensure there is enough bandwidth to the repository.
We run a distributed ISE deployment where the the nodes are placed in two separate Data Centers on different continents. We have a 30 Mbps MPLS between the two DC but I was still seeing the download timeout. In fact it got to about a 95% completion and the 35 minutes time frame kicked in and the download was declared as failed.
Time constraints, local resources in the remote DC and Firewall rules prevented the propping up another repository in the remote DC.
However, I was able to use the Local Repository on the nodes themselves to download the Upgrade bundle to the nodes. What you have to do is as follows.
- Create a Local Disk Repository on the ISE system. For example Local_Disk_Upgrade pointing to the disk:/upgrade directory
- SSH to your remote nodes and create the /upgrade directory
- While connected to the CLI, copy the Upgrade Bundle from a Web Server to the created directory on the nodes that experienced the Download Failed error and the Primary Admin node
- The PAN node is important since the GUI download process using the local disk repository looks in it's own local repository to find the file name even though it then tells the remote node to use the file name and the local repository on the remote node to perform the download.
- Wait for the downloads to complete. Since this is download process is done outside of the GUI, you do not have to be limited to the 35 minute time limit.
- Return to the GUI, and select the node(s) that need a download, select the download button and then change the Repository to the Local_Disk_Upgrade repository created earlier. The system will see the file and then you can select it and proceed to download the file to the selected node(s).
While this process is a little more convoluted then just selecting a remote server repository, it worked and saved me the effort of setting up a remote repository.
