ISE, upgrade vs reformat?

[Dustin Anderson]

So, in the 2.0 days it was usually recommended to reformat and restore a backup vs trying to upgrade as it seemed to fail 50% of the time.

So, I just wanted to see if that is still what people do, or has it been fixed enough that if we try to go from 3.1 to 3.3 it should work? (Assuming 3.1 current patch and URT passes)

[balaji.bandi]

3.1 to 3.3 upgrade is ok rather moving from 2.X to 3.x will be big task.

Make sure you take the backup before upgrading and read the release notes always and understand caveats.

there is good recent seminar help you :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7poFnsd-8U

[Arne Bier · Accepted solution]

I hear you @Dustin Anderson - but I have since started using in-place upgrades since ISE 3.1 and done quite a number of upgrades that way - no issues.  f the VM does not need disk resizing, then in place upgrades are ok. I was getting tired of spending a lot of time building VMs, registering them and creating certs etc - a lot of work. Cisco ISE BU have done a lot of good work to make in place upgrades better.  It's fascinating to watch it in action - it allows a lot of flexibility in terms of how you wish to proceed.

[Dustin Anderson]

Thanks, we have 3765 appliances, so should be good there. It's like you said, such a process to rebuild, so I'll try in place.

[Aref Alsouqi]

I would go with the upgrade unless there is a specific reason not to do so such as resizing the VM as mentioned by @Arne Bier or an upgrade failure that is not resolvable.