There is a document that comes with the ISE USB. It is an instruction about how to setup the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Not-For-Resale partner bundle in an ESXi lab environment and how you can upgrade it from 1.0MR to 1.1. The newest version on Cisco is 1.1.1, so I have followed the instruction and went from 1.0MR to 1.1.1 (aka 1.1MR).
The default VM setting on the ISE 1.0MR is 1 processor and 2GB ram. The ip address of the ISE is 10.10.10.70 and default gateway is 10.10.10.1. Using the predefined username and password given in the document, you will able to get into the CLI as well as the web GUI. (provided your have your virtual network adapter setup correctly for your hosted computer to talk to the virtual machine). In my case, I run the VM on my Hackintoch which using VMware Fusion 3. I have changed the VM setting to 2 processors and 4GB of ram.
To upgrade the ISE NFR form 1.0MR to 1.1.1, the first step is to download the update file from Cisco website. You will need your CCO account to obtain the update software. The file I have downloaded is ise-appbundle-1.1.1.268.i386.gz.
On my Hackintosh, I have enabled the web share and put the downloaded file in the web directory. After that, I log in the ISE by using SSH 10.10.10.70. The CLI of the ISE is similar to the Cisco IOS command, you can do show run to see the running configuration. To prepare for the upgrade, there are some configuration that you need to put in.
ISE/admin# conf t
ISE/admin (config)# repository iseupgrade
ISE/admin (config)# url http://10.10.10.1
ISE/admin (config)# end
ISE/admin# application upgrade ise-appbundle-1.1.1.268.i386.gz iseupgrade
After the install is complete, ISE will reboot. You can use this command “show version” to check the ISE version after the upgrade. It should be showing 1.1.1.268.
The next thing I am going to try is to setup 2 nodes using this NFR kit.