ISE posture with ASA/Anyconnect. What is the order of operations?

[Greg W]

I have a customer using the latest Anyconnect client on their endpoints connecting to an ASA. They have ISE deployed, and want to ensure that posture checking happens prior to the endpoint gaining access to the network. I believe this is the default behavior, but I can't find any documentation that specifically calls this out. I see lots of guides on configuring ISE posture as well as ASA HostScan, but none that say "the VPN will not be established until posturing/remediation is successful" or something similar.

I'm not as familiar with posture as I'd like to be, so pardon me if I'm asking an ignorant question, or phrasing it badly.

Thanks for any assistance!

[Rob Ingram]

Hi,
I agree I don't see any documentation stated what you want to hear. However the ISE rules if configured correctly would specifically dicate what is or is not allowed prior to successful posture. Upon authenticating, the new connection will neither be compliant nor non-compliant and would match a "unknown" state, the AuthZ Profiles would defines the redirect ACL, DACL (to limit access to the network) in order start posture process.

If posture succeeds a CoA will be sent and the connection should match the "compliant" ISE rule and access permitted. If posture fails, it would match your "non-compliant" rule.

In short get the ISE AuthZ rules setup correctly, limit access during the "unknown" state and you should have what you are looking for.

HTH