If you happen to have been at Cisco Reside 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 concerning the new features of the newest model of Cisco ISE is usually a little bit of a tease—we all know that you just need to get your fingers on it and see the way it’s going to strengthen your community. At present 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.
If you happen to 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 Frequent Coverage which includes fixing certainly one of our clients’ greatest issues: fragmented and inconsistent insurance policies throughout disparate domains.
Frequent Coverage is designed to streamline and unify safety coverage enforcement throughout a corporation’s total community. This answer allows directors to seamlessly apply constant entry and segmentation controls to all gadgets, customers, and functions. These segmentation and entry insurance policies are constructed primarily based on the exchanged data garnered from these finish gadgets.
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 elements. This modern strategy enhances zero-trust safety throughout numerous entry patterns and areas by simplifying the administration of advanced community environments. At present in beta, Frequent Coverage is anticipated for basic launch this fall.
As a part of the Frequent Coverage answer, we re-wrote our integration with Utility 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—straight from Cisco ISE and begin exchanging SGT/EPG/ESG context.
Along with Frequent Coverage, the Cisco ISE 3.4 launch is jam-packed with many different options too.
Energetic 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 Energetic Listing failure, Cisco ISE will robotically change to the following DC on the checklist, guaranteeing that customers can nonetheless entry sources. 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 occasions have been dramatically lowered to mere minutes, various barely relying on the precise position 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 vital 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 probably the most up-to-date endpoint data.
- URL pusher and protracted database: Prospects will now have the flexibleness to straight push a JSON file containing endpoint information 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 information into Cisco ISE. Not like the inner endpoint database, this database will probably be persistent and received’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 probably be saved and retained, even when switching browsers or gadgets. No extra repetitive changes – the personalised view is right here to remain.
Localized ISE Set up
This enhancement permits directors to reinstall ISE straight from an area ISO file saved on the ISE server, considerably decreasing the set up time from the normal 5-7 hours to simply 1-2 hours. This streamlined course of is especially useful in eventualities the place a reinstall is important, similar to 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 in the end 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 Absolutely Certified Area Title (FQDN) may resolve to completely different IP addresses relying on the DNS server. This will make it tough 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 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 strategy to communication between Cisco ISE and TrustSec community gadgets. This innovation eliminates the necessity for directors to handle PAC recordsdata, decreasing overhead and streamlining the method. Pac-less communication requires Cisco IOS-XE 17.5.1 or later, on community gadgets, however no configuration modifications are wanted on the Cisco ISE facet. The community gadgets themselves will inform Cisco ISE of their supported capabilities, additional simplifying deployment and administration.
Log file administration
We’ve got heard from you that troubleshooting Cisco ISE below a heavy load is usually a problem, particularly when log recordsdata replenish quickly and demanding data 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 dimension and the variety of log recordsdata 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 straight 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 instances and necessities, going past the capabilities of the usual coverage engine. The Lua script supplies entry to all RADIUS attributes, granting full management over the authorization course of.
As you may inform there’s loads 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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