Be able to map ISE personas to nodes, describe standalone versus distributed deployment, and explain how RADIUS and logging traffic flow. The key point: a new appliance is Standalone, and MnT logging is Primary-collected with Secondary replication.
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Domain overview
This domain covers how Cisco ISE nodes are deployed and how personas are distributed across an enterprise. Expect questions on standalone versus distributed deployments, PSN, PAN, and MnT persona roles, node registration and promotion, and how RADIUS and logging traffic are handled across nodes and load balancers.
Exam objectives
Identifying the default Standalone persona of a freshly installed Cisco ISE appliance
Choosing load balancer behavior and session persistence for RADIUS traffic to PSNs
Explaining Primary versus Secondary MnT log collection and replication relationships
Distinguishing PAN, PSN, and MnT persona responsibilities in a distributed deployment
Assuming a new ISE appliance already runs a distributed persona; it defaults to Standalone until personas are enabled and nodes registered.
Load balancing RADIUS without session persistence or source IP affinity, causing authentication requests and accounting to land on different PSNs.
Believing Secondary MnT independently collects logs; Primary MnT is the collector and replicates to Secondary for redundancy and reporting.
Click any question to see the full explanation and answer options, or start a focused practice session above.
A customer is planning a large campus deployment with 50,000 concurrent endpoints. Which persona should be dedicated to handle the authentication load to ensure high performance?
2When configuring a load balancer for a group of PSNs, what is the best practice for handling RADIUS traffic?
3You are configuring a new ISE node for your deployment. What is the correct sequence to join a secondary node to the existing deployment?
4Which license type is required to enable advanced profiling and posture services on Cisco ISE?
5When designing an ISE deployment across WAN links, what is the primary recommendation regarding MnT nodes?
6You are deploying a distributed ISE architecture and need to ensure that the Policy Administration Node (PAN) maintains configuration integrity. Which mechanism is used to synchronize configuration changes from the Primary PAN to all secondary nodes?
7Which menu path is used to view the status of all nodes in an ISE deployment?
8In a distributed environment, if the Primary PAN goes offline, what happens to the Secondary PAN?
9Which specific ISE process is responsible for managing the communication between the PAN and PSNs?
10When adding a secondary PAN, what is the consequence if the time synchronization (NTP) differs significantly between nodes?
11What is the default persona of a newly installed Cisco ISE appliance before any configuration changes?
12What is the function of the 'PassiveID' feature in a distributed ISE deployment?
13If a PSN loses connectivity to the PAN, what happens to existing user sessions?
14Which service is required to be enabled on a PSN to allow it to receive RADIUS requests from network access devices?
15When configuring a secondary MnT node, what is the 'Primary' versus 'Secondary' relationship regarding log collection?
16You are troubleshooting a PSN that is not receiving configuration updates. Which log file on the PSN would provide the most insight into the configuration sync process?
17What is the purpose of the 'PAN' role in a deployment?
18How do you verify the current licensing status and consumption on your ISE deployment?
19Which of the following describes the 'Standalone' deployment model?
20When decommissioning an ISE node, what is the correct order of steps?
21Which TWO functions are performed by the Monitoring and Troubleshooting (MnT) persona?
22Which THREE factors influence the decision to use multiple PSNs in a deployment?
23Which THREE features are configured at the node level in the ISE Administration console?
24Which THREE resources are monitored via the ISE dashboard to ensure deployment health?
25A security architect is designing a Cisco ISE deployment for a large enterprise with 20,000 endpoints. The design must ensure that RADIUS authentication and authorization continue even if the Primary PAN and Secondary PAN both become unreachable. The architect is evaluating the roles and services that must be enabled on the PSNs to support this requirement. Which two statements correctly describe the behavior or configuration needed to meet this goal? (Choose two.)
26A network administrator is preparing to add a new Cisco ISE node to an existing distributed deployment. The new node will serve as a PSN in a remote branch office. Before registering the node, the administrator must ensure that the node meets the prerequisites for joining the deployment. Which prerequisite is required for the new node to successfully register with the Primary PAN?
27A network engineer is deploying Cisco ISE in a distributed architecture. The engineer needs to ensure that the deployment can scale to handle a large number of concurrent authentication requests. Which factor primarily determines the number of PSNs required?
Be able to map ISE personas to nodes, describe standalone versus distributed deployment, and explain how RADIUS and logging traffic flow. The key point: a new appliance is Standalone, and MnT logging is Primary-collected with Secondary replication.
The Courseiva SISE question bank contains 27 questions in the Architecture And Deployment domain. Click any question to see the full explanation and answer breakdown.
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