What is the deployment mode when two Cisco ISE nodes are configured in an environment?

A Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) deployment consisting of two or more nodes is defined as a distributed deployment. In this model, different nodes assume specific roles or "personas" (Administration, Monitoring, Policy Service) to provide scalability, redundancy, and high availability. A common two-node configuration involves a Primary node for Administration and Monitoring (PAN/MnT) and a Secondary node for redundancy, with both potentially serving as Policy Service Nodes (PSN). A deployment with only a single node is referred to as standalone.

B. active: "Active" describes the operational state of a specific node within a high-availability pair (e.g., the active Primary Administration Node), not the overall deployment architecture.
C. standalone: A standalone deployment consists of only one Cisco ISE node, which handles all personas (Administration, Monitoring, and Policy Service).
D. standard: "Standard" is not an officially recognized term for a Cisco ISE deployment model. The defined models are standalone and distributed. ---

1. Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide

Release 3.2

"Set Up Cisco ISE in a Distributed Environment" chapter

"Cisco ISE Deployment Models" section. The guide states

"A distributed deployment has more than one Cisco ISE node... A basic distributed deployment consists of two Cisco ISE nodes

with one acting as the primary and the other as the secondary."

2. Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide

Release 3.2

"Set Up Cisco ISE in a Distributed Environment" chapter

"Standalone Deployment" section. This section explicitly defines a standalone deployment: "A standalone deployment has one Cisco ISE node. This node runs the Administration

Monitoring

and Policy Service personas." This contrasts with the multi-node distributed model.

3. Cisco Live Presentation

BRKSEC-3699 - ISE Deployment

Staging and Planning (2020)

Slide 11

"ISE Deployment Models". The presentation clearly illustrates the two primary models: "Standalone" (1 node) and "Distributed" (2+ nodes)

reinforcing that a two-node setup falls under the distributed category.