ISE Hardware Refresh: Assessment

Data Collection

Full Refresh Report (Primary Command)

# Complete refresh planning report - version, patches, nodes, certs, license, backup
netapi ise get-nodes --refresh

Output includes:

  • Product version (e.g., 3.5.0.527)

  • Installed patches

  • Deployment nodes (hostname, IP, FQDN, roles, status)

  • Certificate expiration dates

  • License tiers and consumption

  • Last backup status

JSON Output for jq Processing

# Full report as JSON
netapi ise -f json get-nodes --refresh | jq '.'

# Extract version only
netapi ise -f json get-nodes --refresh | jq '.version'

# All certificate expiration dates
netapi ise -f json get-nodes --refresh | jq '.certificates | to_entries[] | .value[] | {name, expiration_date}'

# Filter certs by name - jq regex: test("pattern"; "i") for case-insensitive
netapi ise -f json get-nodes --refresh | jq '.certificates[][] | select(.name | test("EAP"; "i"))'

# License tier summary
netapi ise -f json get-nodes --refresh | jq '.license_tiers[] | "\(.name): \(.compliance) (\(.endpoints) endpoints)"'

# Nodes with status
netapi ise -f json get-nodes --refresh | jq '.nodes[] | "\(.hostname) [\(.status)] - \(.roles | join(", "))"'

# Check if any cert expires within 365 days (requires date parsing)
netapi ise -f json get-nodes --refresh | jq '.certificates[][] | .name'

Capacity Planning

# License consumption, endpoint count, deployment scale
netapi ise get-nodes --capacity

Certificate Expiry Report

# Certificate expiry with days remaining and warnings
netapi ise get-nodes --certs

Legend: = OK, = Warning (<90d), = Critical (<30d or expired)

Detailed Node Topology

# Node details - hostname, IP, roles, services, status
netapi ise get-nodes --detailed

Additional Data Points

# Active sessions (current load)
netapi ise mnt sessions | wc -l

# Endpoint identity groups
netapi ise get-endpoint-groups

# Authorization profiles (policy complexity)
netapi ise get-authz-profiles

Hardware/VM Specs (SSH Required)

Hardware details are NOT available via API. Must SSH to each node.

SSH Config Fix: ISE host blocks must come BEFORE Host * in ~/.ssh/config (see RCA-2026-03-16-002).

# SSH to ISE (uses admin user, password auth)
ssh ise-01   # or ssh ise-02

# Once connected, run these commands:
show version              # Software version, build date, patches
show inventory            # Hardware: PID, serial, CPU, RAM, disk
show udi                  # Quick: PID and serial only
show disk                 # Disk usage details
show application status ise  # Service status

Example show inventory output (Virtual):

NAME: "ISE-VM-K9    chassis", DESCR: "ISE-VM-K9     chassis"
PID: ISE-VM-K9,  VID: V01,   SN: HFOPKI3IA94

Manufacturer: Red Hat
Product Name: KVM
Total RAM Memory: 16138384 kB
CPU Core Count: 8
CPU 0: Model Info: Intel(R) Xeon(R) D-2146NT CPU @ 2.30GHz
Hard Disk Count(*): 1
Disk 0: Capacity: 300GiB

Physical appliance PIDs:

PID Model Notes

SNS-3515-K9

Small/Medium deployment

Up to 10K endpoints

SNS-3595-K9

Medium/Large deployment

Up to 50K endpoints

SNS-3655-K9

Large deployment

Up to 100K+ endpoints

SNS-3755-K9

Extra Large deployment

CHLA has this - enterprise scale

ISE-VM-K9

Virtual appliance

Check hypervisor specs

Cisco EOL/EOS Reference

Check these against current version:

Version End of SW Maintenance End of Support 18-Month Window Action

ISE 2.7

2023-07-31

2026-07-31

PAST

CRITICAL - Upgrade immediately

ISE 3.0

2024-02-29

2027-02-28

Sep 2027

Plan upgrade by Q2 2027

ISE 3.1

2025-01-31

2028-01-31

Jul 2028

Monitor, plan for 3.3+

ISE 3.2

2025-10-31

2028-10-31

Apr 2028

Current stable

ISE 3.3

TBD

TBD

TBD

Latest - recommended target

ISE 3.4+

TBD

TBD

TBD

Future versions

18-Month Decision Matrix:

  • Version < 3.1 → Hardware refresh required (EOL within window)

  • Version 3.1-3.2 → Software upgrade recommended, hardware likely adequate

  • Version 3.3+ → No immediate action, monitor capacity

  • VM on old ESXi → Consider hypervisor refresh alongside ISE

  • Appliance SNx-3xxx → Check SmartNet coverage dates

Capacity Planning

Current Load

# Peak authentication rate (check MNT logs)
netapi ise mnt auth-list --hours 24 | wc -l
# Failed authentications (may indicate capacity issues)
netapi ise mnt failures --hours 24 | wc -l

Growth Projections

Metric Current 18-Month Projection

Total Endpoints

TBD

TBD

Peak Auth/sec

TBD

TBD

PSN Count

TBD

TBD

Data Collection Log

Date Data Point Value

2026-03-16

Assessment initiated

Pending data collection

2026-03-16

Home lab test (d000) - Software

ISE 3.5.0.527 Patch 2

2026-03-16

Home lab test (d000) - Hardware

ISE-VM-K9 (Virtual), SN: HFOPKI3IA94, 8 CPU, 16GB RAM, 300GB disk

2026-03-16

Home lab test (d000) - Platform

KVM on Red Hat, Xeon D-2146NT @ 2.30GHz

2026-03-16

CHLA Production - Software

ISE 3.2.0.542 Patch 3, Patch 6

2026-03-16

CHLA Production - Hardware

SNS-3755-K9 (Physical appliance)