Troubleshoot Expired ISE Admin Certificate

Introduction

This document describes how to troubleshoot and renew an expired Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Admin Certificate.

Prerequisites

Requirements

Cisco recommends that you have the knowledge of these topics:

• Cisco ISE Deployment.
• Certificate Management in Cisco ISE.

Components Used

The information in this document is based on these software version:

• Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) version 3.3 Patch4.

The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab environment. All of the devices used in this document started with a cleared (default) configuration. If your network is live, ensure that you understand the potential impact of any command.

Background Information

This document focuses on the distributed deployment; however, you can use the same troubleshooting plan on standalone node.

In ISE Distributed Deployment, the node is either Primary Admin Node (PPAN) or secondary.

This document uses ISE Admin certificate as a self-signed certificate in order to demonstrate the impact of certificate expired, but this approach is not recommended for a production system. It is better to use authority-signed certificate for admin usage.

Note: Cisco recommends you to keep your Admin certificate in health state and plan the renewal in advance, find this guide to help you track and renew ISE System Certificates (Configure Certificate Renewals on ISE).

ISE Admin Certificate (Expired)

Validate Admin Certificate Status

Step 1. Check the deployment status. Navigate to Administration > System > Deployment.

You can check the secondary nodes status, as shown, the three secondary nodes are (Not in Sync).

Deployment Status

Step 2. Review the Alarms. Navigate to Dashboard > Alarms > (Certificate Expired).

To confirm which node and which certificate is expired.

Note: If the Primary Admin Node (PPAN) expired before any secondary node you can not see any alarms from that node, that is what happened for Secondary Admin Node (SPAN) in this alarm.

Alarms (Certificate Expired)

Step 3. Check the admin certificate status. Navigate to Administration > System > Certificates > Certificate Management > System Certificates > Expand node.

1. Primary Admin Node (PPAN):

PPAN Admin Certificate Status

2. Secondary nodes.

For the secondary nodes it could be 1 of 2 options and in both cases you must apply the same action plan:

A. Can Expand the node system certificate and confirm that the admin certificate is expired:

Secondary Node Admin Certificate Status

B. Throw error ("Error loading certificates. Node not reachable at this time. Try again later.") as shown for (ise-psn2).

Secondary Node Not Reachable

Action Plan

After you confirm the admin certificate expired for all 4 nodes, you must apply these steps:

Step 1. Deregister all secondary nodes from the distributed deployment (only if the admin certificate is expired).

Navigate to Administration > System > Deployment > Check [ √ ] of the secondary nodes and click Deregister.

Note: Deregister the node means it moved to standalone. Then, you can renew the admin certificate on this node.

Deregister Secondary Nodes

Note: Remember to deregister only secondary nodes where the admin certificate is already expired and to keep the rest. In this document, all the secondary nodes are expired.

All Secondary Nodes are Deregistered

Step 2. Renew admin certificate of the Primary Admin Node (PPAN).

1. Navigate to Administration > System > Certificates > Certificate Management > System Certificates. Click +Generate Self Signed Certificate:

Generate new Self-Signed Admin Certificate

2. Select the Primary Admin Node (PPAN) (ise-ppan) and fill the certificate information:

Select the Primary Admin Node (PPAN)

3. Check [ √ ] the Admin usage.

Admin Usage

4. Set the Restart Time to Restart Now for the Primary Admin Node (PPAN). Set all nodes on the deployment either to Restart Now or Restart Later.

After you renew an admin certificate (a certificate configured for admin usage) on the Primary Admin Node (PPAN), all the nodes in your deployment must be restarted.

Set Restart Time to Now

5. Click Submit.

Note: After you renew an admin certificate (a certificate configured for admin usage) on the Primary Admin Node (PPAN) all the nodes in your deployment must be restarted. You can either restart each node immediately or schedule the restarts later. This feature allows you to ensure that no running processes are disrupted by the automatic restarts, giving you greater control over the process.

You can view and edit the scheduled restarts in the Administration > System > Certificates > Admin Certificate Node Restart window, which is available from Cisco ISE Release 3.3.

6. Verify the new admin certificate of the Primary Admin Node (PPAN).

Navigate to Administration > System > Certificates > Certificate Management > System Certificates > Expand (ise-ppan).

New Admin Certificate (ise-ppan)

Step 3. Renew admin certificate of the secondary nodes.

1. Confirm the secondary node on standalone deployment after deregistered from the distributed deployment.

Browse the node via GUI (https://<FQDN/IP>) and navigate to Administration > System > Deployment.

(ise-span) on Standalone Deployment

2. Navigate to Administration > System > Certificates > Certificate Management > System Certificates. Click +Generate Self Signed Certificate.

Generate new Self-Signed Admin Certificate

3. Select the (ise-span) and fill the certificate information.

Select the Node

4. Check [ √ ] the Admin usage.

Admin Usage

Note: Changing the certificate of the admin role certificate on ISE node restarts services.

5. Click Submit.

6. Verify the new admin certificate on (ise-span).

Navigate to Administration > System > Certificates > Certificate Management > System Certificates > Expand (ise-span).

New Admin Certificate (ise-span)

Step 4. Register the secondary nodes to the distributed deployment.

Set up your deployment personas and roles as it was before (Admin, MNT, PSN, etc).

1. From Primary Admin Node (PPAN) GUI. Navigate to Administration > System > Deployment. Click Register.

Primary Admin Node (PPAN) GUI

2. Enter the FQDN and credentials of the secondary node (User Name/Password).

Enter the DNS-resolvable fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the standalone node that you are going to register. The FQDN of the (PPAN) and the node being registered must be resolvable from each other.

Enter Secondary Node Access

3. Enable the correct persona and services.

Register Secondary Node (ise-span)

Step 5. Verify the deployment status.

Navigate to Administration > System > Deployment.

(ise-span) Added to the Deployment

Troubleshoot

Use Case 1: Deregistered Secondary Node Stuck on Distributed State (ise-psn1)

Validate the Status

Step 1. Confirm the distributed deployment status.

From Primary Admin Node (PPAN) GUI. Navigate to Administration > System > Deployment. You can confirm this node (ise-psn1) is already deregisted.

(PPAN) Deployment Nodes

Step 2. Confirm the (ise-psn1) node status.

Browse the secondary node via GUI (KD lab local) and navigate Log in > About ISE and Server.

Secondary Node (ise-psn1) Stuck on Distributed Deployment Status

Use Case 2: Deregistered Secondary Node GUI Unreachable (ise-psn2)

Validate the Status

Step 1. Confirm the distributed deployment status.

From Primary Admin Node (PPAN) GUI. Navigate to Administration > System > Deployment. You can confirm this node (ise-psn2) is already deregisted.

(PPAN) Deployment Nodes

Step 2. Confirm the (ise-psn2) node status.

Due to the admin certificate is expired in some cases you can hit these symptoms:

• (ise-psn2) GUI unreachable.
• (ise-psn2) CLI (show application status ise) ISE application is stuck on (initializing or not running).
• (ise-psn2) CLI (show tech) the node already on standalone deployment.

(ise-psn2) on Standalone Deployment

Workaround

Step 1. Renew admin certificate of the (ise-psn2) Node.

1. Log in to (ise-psn2) via CLI.
2. Enter application configure ise.
3. Enter 31 ([31] Generate Self-Signed Admin Certificate)).
4. Do you want to continue? y/[n]: y
5. Do you want to replace existing certificate after generation? y/[n]: y

Renew (ise-psn1) Admin Certificate

6. Verify the new admin certificate on (ise-psn2).

New Admin Certificate (ise-psn2)

Step 2. Register the (ise-psn2) node to the distributed deployment.

Step 3. Verify the deployment status.

The Deployment in Sync Again!

Related Information

• Deployment of Cisco ISE
• Certificate Management in Cisco ISE
• Configure Certificate Renewals on ISE
  
  

Revision History

Revision	Publish Date	Comments
3.0	26-Aug-2026	Recertification - Updated Formatting
2.0	29-Jan-2025	Initial Release
1.0	27-Jan-2025	Initial Release