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Oct 2
Cisco ISE: Patching
Posted by Dominic Zeni
Topic: Cisco ISE 
Entry: Cisco ISE Patching
 

This entry in our Cisco ISE blog series takes a brief detour from our regularly scheduled programming to take an in-depth look into the pathing procedure of a two-node, small ISE deployment.  As it so happens, LookingPoint has an existing ISE 2.4 small deployment that we would like to bring up to the latest patch as of this writing, ISE 2.4 with patch 1.  We thought, why not document our patch upgrade into another blog entry!  So here it goes!

Current Deployment and Release

As mentioned, we are running a small deployment consisting of two nodes running version 2.4.0.357 and all ISE personas selected.  This is the ISE 2.4 GA release without any patches applied.

Cisco ISE Version 2.4.0.357

cisco ISE personas

Downloading the Software

When you apply a patch to ISE, you do not need to completely re-install the software.  As the name patch indicates, you will simply be applying a file that will perform CRUD (create, read, update, and delete) operations against the current software installed.  To access the software for the upgrade, I navigated here.  In this particular case, there is only one software item I wanted to download as shown/described below.

The Patch Bundle

As mentioned above, we will be applying “Patch1” to our existing install of ISE version 2.4.  Usually patch releases contain bug fixes.  As a general rule of thumb, you want to keep your ISE deployment on the latest patch for your “major.minor” release unless otherwise directed by the patch documentation.  Patches in Cisco ISE are always cumulative, meaning “Patch2” will include all of the fixes associated with “Patch1”, so no need to jump through intermediate patches unless specifically directed to do so by TAC or the patch documentation.

Cisco ISE Patch Bundle

 

After downloading the patch file,Cisco ISE Stop , and read the release notes and in particular, the Upgrade Information section.  Read it all.  Read it twice.

Apply the Patch!

To apply the patch, login to your Primary Administration Node (PAN) web interface and follow the instructions below. 

  1. Navigate to Administration > Maintenance > Patch Management.
  2. Click “Install Patch”
  3. Click “Browse” and then select the patch file you previously downloaded.Cisco ISE Patch Install
  4. Click “Install”.
  5. Don’t panic when you are logged out and can’t log back in.

When you apply a patch to ISE through the PAN GUI, the patch is first applied to each node in the deployment, one at a time.  After a patch is applied to a node, it immediately reboots to complete the installation.  As long as your deployment is setup in a redundant fashion (i.e. each of your NAD’s point to at least two different ISE PSN nodes), the disruption to service will be minimal, but some interruption to authentications in progress is to be expected. 

The patches apply to nodes in the following order:

  • Primary Administration Node
  • Secondary Administration Node
  • Primary Monitoring Node
  • Secondary Monitoring Node
  • Policy Service Nodes

You can keep track of a node’s progress by logging into the CLI via SSH and executing the command “show application status ise”. 

In the below output, my PAN was still initializing some services.  In this state, I won’t be able to login to the PAN GUI…must…find…patience!

Cisco ISE output PAN

Ah, yes that’s more like it!  Now that my PAN services are fully functional, I am able to login to the GUI to check the status.  The patch management process will continue on to apply the patch to my secondary administration node, and so on and so forth.

Cisco ISE PAN functional

Patch Verification

After the patch has been applied to the Primary Administration Node, we can monitor the status of the patch application to the remaining nodes, by navigating to Administration > Maintenance > Patch Management > Click Radio Button next to Patch Version 1 > Click “Show Node Status”.

cisco ISE node status patch 1

Also, while the patch is being applied you can see the node listed in a critical, non-functioning status at the Administration > Deployment menu.

cisco ISE node status patch 1 persona

Once the patching is completed across all your nodes, validate the node status is once again healthy at Administration > Deployment.

cisco ISE node status patch 1 installed

cisco ISE node status patch 1 persona installed

Finally, take a look at what you’ve done!  And don’t forget, you are incredible.

Cisco ISE Patch Complete

 

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Written By: Dominic Zeni, LookingPoint Consulting Services SME - CCIE #26686

 

If you are interested in LookingPoint installing ISE into your network, feel free to contact us here! 

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