In case you have been at Cisco Dwell US in June—and even should you weren’t—you heard the excellent news: the launch announcement of Cisco Identification Companies Community (ISE) 3.4.
For lots of community and safety directors, listening to in regards to the new features of the newest model of Cisco ISE is usually a little bit of a tease—we all know that you simply wish to get your arms on it and see the way it’s going to strengthen your community. At the moment is the belief of these lengthy weeks of ready as Cisco ISE 3.4 is prepared so that you can obtain and deploy in your community.
In case you haven’t heard about what’s accessible within the newest iteration of Cisco ISE 3.4, let this be your primer. The most important takeaway is Widespread Coverage which entails fixing considered one of our clients’ largest issues: fragmented and inconsistent insurance policies throughout disparate domains.
Widespread Coverage is designed to streamline and unify safety coverage enforcement throughout a company’s whole community. This resolution allows directors to seamlessly apply constant entry and segmentation controls to all units, customers, and functions. These segmentation and entry insurance policies are constructed based mostly on the exchanged data garnered from these finish units.
Utilizing Cisco ISE as a central alternate hub, the answer integrates community and safety domains, normalizes contextual data, and facilitates safe communication between completely different parts. This progressive method enhances zero-trust safety throughout numerous entry patterns and areas by simplifying the administration of advanced community environments. At present in beta, Widespread Coverage is anticipated for common launch this fall.
As a part of the Widespread Coverage resolution, we re-wrote our integration with Utility Centric Infrastructure (ACIs), permitting the customers to arrange a bi-directional connection to a number of APIC Knowledge Facilities—together with single pod and multi-pod materials—instantly from Cisco ISE and begin exchanging SGT/EPG/ESG context.
Along with Widespread Coverage, the Cisco ISE 3.4 launch is jam-packed with many different options too.
Lively Listing most popular DC choice
Beginning with Cisco ISE 3.4, directors can now manually prioritize Area Controllers (DC), giving them extra management over which DC is used for authentication and authorization. Within the occasion of an Lively Listing failure, Cisco ISE will mechanically change to the subsequent DC on the record, making certain that customers can nonetheless entry sources. As soon as the popular DC is obtainable once more, Cisco ISE will seamlessly failback, restoring the unique precedence order.
Nice information for many who hate ready! With the discharge of Cisco ISE 3.4, system restart occasions have been dramatically decreased to mere minutes, various barely relying on the precise function of every node. No extra lengthy espresso breaks between reboots.
Constructing on the pxGrid Direct framework launched in Cisco ISE 3.2, which simplified integration with Configuration Administration Database (CMDB) servers missing native pxGrid assist, Cisco ISE 3.4 will deliver forth a number of key enhancements:
- Sync now: In eventualities the place important modifications happen inside the CMDB, directors will not want to attend for scheduled updates. Cisco ISE 3.4 will empower admins to provoke on-demand synchronization, guaranteeing Cisco ISE entry to essentially the most up-to-date endpoint data.
- URL pusher and chronic database: Clients will now have the pliability to instantly push a JSON file containing endpoint information into Cisco ISE’s persistent database. This opens new prospects for these with no CMDB, as they will nonetheless leverage pxGrid Direct by conveniently pushing information into Cisco ISE. In contrast to the inner endpoint database, this database will likely be persistent and gained’t be purged.
Retention of use settings
In earlier variations of Cisco ISE, any customizations to desk shows, like column choice, order, or width, can be reset upon leaving the web page. With Cisco ISE 3.4, the popular desk settings will likely be saved and retained, even when switching browsers or units. No extra repetitive changes – the personalised view is right here to remain.
Localized ISE Set up
This enhancement permits directors to reinstall ISE instantly from a neighborhood ISO file saved on the ISE server, considerably lowering the set up time from the standard 5-7 hours to only 1-2 hours. This streamlined course of is especially useful in eventualities the place a reinstall is important, reminiscent of system restoration or upgrades. By minimizing downtime and accelerating the set up course of, the Localized ISE Set up characteristic enhances operational effectivity, ensures faster restoration occasions, and finally saves useful time for IT groups. This enchancment underscores Cisco’s dedication to offering sturdy, user-friendly options that optimize the efficiency and reliability of the community safety infrastructure.
FQDN to SGT Mapping
In Cisco ISE 3.4, we’ve tackled the challenges confronted by TrustSec directors in eventualities with geo-distributed or cloud deployments, the place the identical Totally Certified Area Identify (FQDN) would possibly resolve to completely different IP addresses relying on the DNS server. This will make it tough to constantly apply the identical SGT to all situations of the FQDN.
Cisco ISE 3.4 introduces an enhanced FQDN-to-SGT mapping characteristic. Directors can now choose a number of nodes to resolve the FQDN, making certain that each one ensuing IP addresses are precisely related to the corresponding SGT. This new functionality streamlines coverage enforcement throughout numerous community environments, no matter variations in DNS decision.
Pac-less Communication between Cisco ISE and TrustSec NADs
Cisco ISE 3.4 introduces Pac-less Communication, a simplified method to communication between Cisco ISE and TrustSec community units. This innovation eliminates the necessity for directors to handle PAC information, lowering overhead and streamlining the method. Pac-less communication requires Cisco IOS-XE 17.5.1 or later, on community units, however no configuration modifications are wanted on the Cisco ISE facet. The community units themselves will inform Cisco ISE of their supported capabilities, additional simplifying deployment and administration.
Log file administration
We’ve heard from you that troubleshooting Cisco ISE below a heavy load is usually a problem, particularly when log information refill quickly and significant data would possibly get buried. Cisco ISE 3.4 addresses this with enhanced log administration capabilities. Now, directors have granular management, permitting them to set each most file dimension and the variety of log information to maintain per part. This implies no extra worries about lacking essential particulars throughout peak occasions.
Lua scripting
Recognizing the necessity for better customization, Cisco ISE 3.4 introduces a robust new characteristic for superior customers: Lua scripting for RADIUS attribute manipulation. With this enhancement, clients can now execute Lua scripts instantly after processing authorization profiles, permitting them to change or add RADIUS attributes as wanted. This flexibility empowers Cisco ISE Admins to tailor Cisco ISE to their distinctive use instances and necessities, going past the capabilities of the usual coverage engine. The Lua script offers entry to all RADIUS attributes, granting full management over the authorization course of.
As you may inform there’s rather a lot packed into the newest model of Cisco ISE that’s going to make your job simpler. Click on right here for extra data on Cisco ISE.
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