This is a quick article to show how Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) can be installed on VMware ESXi using the .ISO file downloaded from software.cisco.com.
This article assumes that the reader is familiar with:
- VMware ESXi
- .ISO images
- Cisco ISE
Components used for this demonstration:
- ISE 2.4
- ESXi 6.0.0
Upload the .ISO to the datastore within ESXi
To make use of the ISE .iso file downloaded from the Cisco website, you should add the image file to the VMware datastore. To do this navigate to Storage > Datastore > Datastore Browser > Upload.
Create/Register a New VM
On the ESXi hosts, select ‘Create/Register VM‘.
Select ‘Create a new virtual machine’ and click ‘Next’.
Configure the hypervisor settings based on the version of ISE you are installing. ISE 2.4 uses RHEL 7.0 as shown below. Click ‘Next’ once you’ve finished.
Configure the device resources as required for your version of ISE. ISE 2.4 VM system requirements can be found here.
Before moving on, for ‘CD/DVD Drive 1’ select the ‘Datastore ISO File’ in the drop-down menu and select the .ISO image that was previously uploaded to the datastore. Once complete, press ‘Next’. You can review your configuration and proceed to build the new VM.
Once the provisioning of the VM is complete, you should be now ready to power it on and install Cisco ISE from the .ISO image.
Notes:
- You cannot use the same .ISO file at the same time for the installation of multiple VMs. If you are creating a distributed deployment, complete the .ISO image install on one VM before mounting it to the next VM.
- .OVA files do also exist if you know what ISE node you would like to install. Visit www.software.cisco.com for more information.
- Installation of ISE (depending on resource allocation and other factors) takes approximately 40 minutes.
