When you have been at Cisco Reside US in June—and even when you weren’t—you heard the excellent news: the launch announcement of Cisco Id 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 could be a little bit of a tease—we all know that you simply need to get your palms on it and see the way it’s going to strengthen your community. At the moment is the conclusion of these lengthy weeks of ready as Cisco ISE 3.4 is prepared so that you can obtain and deploy in your community.
When you haven’t heard about what’s accessible within the newest iteration of Cisco ISE 3.4, let this be your primer. The largest takeaway is Widespread Coverage which includes fixing one in all our prospects’ greatest issues: fragmented and inconsistent insurance policies throughout disparate domains.
Widespread Coverage is designed to streamline and unify safety coverage enforcement throughout a corporation’s total community. This resolution allows directors to seamlessly apply constant entry and segmentation controls to all units, customers, and purposes. These segmentation and entry insurance policies are constructed primarily based on the exchanged info garnered from these finish units.
Utilizing Cisco ISE as a central trade hub, the answer integrates community and safety domains, normalizes contextual info, and facilitates safe communication between totally different elements. This revolutionary method enhances zero-trust safety throughout various entry patterns and areas by simplifying the administration of complicated community environments. Presently 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 Software Centric Infrastructure (ACIs), permitting the customers to arrange a bi-directional connection to a number of APIC Information Facilities—together with single pod and multi-pod materials—immediately 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.
Energetic Listing most well-liked 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 Energetic Listing failure, Cisco ISE will routinely change to the subsequent DC on the record, guaranteeing that customers can nonetheless entry assets. As soon as the popular DC is out there once more, Cisco ISE will seamlessly failback, restoring the unique precedence order.
Nice information for individuals who hate ready! With the discharge of Cisco ISE 3.4, system restart instances have been dramatically diminished to mere minutes, various barely relying on the particular 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 carry 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 info.
- URL pusher and protracted database: Prospects will now have the pliability to immediately push a JSON file containing endpoint knowledge into Cisco ISE’s persistent database. This opens new potentialities for these and not using a CMDB, as they will nonetheless leverage pxGrid Direct by conveniently pushing knowledge into Cisco ISE. In contrast to the interior endpoint database, this database might 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, could be reset upon leaving the web page. With Cisco ISE 3.4, the popular desk settings might 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 immediately from an area ISO file saved on the ISE server, considerably decreasing the set up time from the standard 5-7 hours to simply 1-2 hours. This streamlined course of is especially useful in eventualities the place a reinstall is critical, resembling 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 instances, and in the end saves invaluable 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) may resolve to totally different IP addresses relying on the DNS server. This will make it troublesome to constantly apply the identical SGT to all cases 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, guaranteeing that every one ensuing IP addresses are precisely related to the corresponding SGT. This new functionality streamlines coverage enforcement throughout various 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, decreasing 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 now have heard from you that troubleshooting Cisco ISE below a heavy load could be a problem, particularly when log information refill quickly and important info may 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 measurement and the variety of log information to maintain per part. This implies no extra worries about lacking essential particulars throughout peak instances.
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, prospects can now execute Lua scripts immediately after processing authorization profiles, permitting them to switch or add RADIUS attributes as wanted. This flexibility empowers Cisco ISE Admins to tailor Cisco ISE to their distinctive use circumstances 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’ll be able to inform there’s quite a bit packed into the newest model of Cisco ISE that’s going to make your job simpler. Click on right here for extra info on Cisco ISE.
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