reccommendation for single standalone upgrade on 1.2 to redundant node running 2.1

[mpeeters]

Just to check, we currently have a customer running standalone ISE version 1.2

There are plans to:
1. Propose a redundant unit
2. Upgrade ISE 1.2 to latest 2.1

Questions:
1. Understand that the upgrade path is lengthy. Any suggestions to achieve ISE 2.1 such as a fresh installation?. If it is a fresh installation, how do we restore configuration from ISE 1.2 to 2.1?
2. In this situation,
a. do we upgrade the standalone unit first or
b. form the redundancy then upgrade to 2.1 ?

Thank you

Collaborate With Cisco Spark

[nspasov]

Hi there. My answers below:

1. I would recommend upgrading rather than using backup/restore. The backup/restore process works well but it does not restore everything. Things like certificates, licensing, etc will have to be manually re-imported. With that said, you cannot upgrade directly from 1.2 to 2.1. You will first need to upgrade to 1.3 and then you can go directly to 2.1. There are also a few pre and post-upgrade tasks that must be completed. For more information on that you can reference the ISE 2.1 release notes:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/ise/2-1/release_notes/ise21_rn.html#pgfId-620674

2. I would definitely do the upgrade first and then join the second node. There is no point of extending the upgrade process for two nodes. That way, the second node can be freshly installed with ISE 2.1

I hope this helps!

Thank you for rating helpful posts!

[aevans]

Hi There,

Whilst I agree with Neno there is maybe merit in making a 2 node deployment to avoid outages. I guess it all depends on how big the environment is and how much work it would take to configure the NADs to point to both ISE servers.

If you are ok in having a large downtime window I would just crack on and upgrade the single node. If the window is short or you need minimal impact consider the approach above.

Cheers

Ant

Please rate helpful posts

[Peter Koltl]

If you choose 2b, you will have the opportunity to test the new version's functions before the production server is upgraded.