Device Agents
The Connected Device Agent from Cisco ThousandEyes is designed with efficient packaging for broad deployment across consumer and business devices, including those with constrained resources. Its lightweight architecture enables integration across a wide variety of device types and platforms. While we support a broad range of device capabilities, we recommend integrating it on actively maintained firmware versions to ensure optimal performance and security. Cisco ThousandEyes has deployed Connected Devices Agents globally across millions of devices.
ThousandEyes can remotely configure your device settings and establish test schedules, allowing you to choose different frequencies for each test type.
Scheduled tests will pause if the connection is in use based on configured thresholds, safeguarding the end-user's connection and providing more accurate results. For more details, see Testing Thresholds.
You can also manually start download, upload, latency, loss, and jitter tests remotely, with results appearing in your account right away.
The Agent is designed to consume minimal CPU when idle, and resource usage scales only during active test execution. To minimize potential impact, the Agent includes cross-traffic detection mechanisms, such as CPU load and interface counters, to help determine when tests should run, ensuring they avoid periods of high device activity or user traffic.
Accessing/Deploying the Agent
The Device Agent can be accessed/deployed in the following ways:
Embedded Agent Deployment
Pre-integrated Agent on the Device
New Integration on a Device
Installing the Agent
Installing Device Agent with Docker
Installing Device Agent on Raspberry Pi (RPi)
Integrated Agent Deployment
In this deployment method, the agent is overlaid onto the root-filesystem and therefore embedded so it can be started automatically when the CPE boots.
Pre-integrated Agent on the Device
ThousandEyes works with manufacturers and OEMs to pre-integrate the Device Agent into devices. If pre-integrated, the agent can be enabled by speaking with your Account Manager. This may be a simple config update or a remote firmware upgrade on your customer's existing routers. When a device model is already supported, there is no requirement to integrate the Device Agent into the firmware, and therefore it is cost-effective. All test results are securely reported back to your account.
New Integration
Please discuss with your account manager regarding the specific supported devices within your current install base. It’s important to identify any compatibility issues, upcoming updates, or additional features that could enhance performance and user experience.
Installing the Agent
You can install the Device Agent on external devices like you would with other types of ThousandEyes agents. This is particularly useful for smaller deployments, POVs and exploratory testing. The following options are supported:
Whiteboxes
The Whitebox is a purpose-built hardware measurement agent manufactured by us, capable of measuring fixed-line broadband connections of up to 2.5 Gbps. It supports a wide range of network and application-specific measurements and can detect the presence of user-generated cross traffic.
As well as being used by volunteers in national broadband studies around the world, they’re also used to accelerate early-stage proofs of value for new customers as the Whiteboxes are ready to test out of the box, requiring virtually no setup.
Embedded Agent - Delivery and Updates Methods
How Device Agents Are Delivered
Supporting Linux kernel version 3.17 or higher, the Device Agent binary will be issued, to be embedded in the root filesystem of the CPE firmware.
The agent is then loaded into, and runs, in RAM on start. This can be at CPE boot-time - or as otherwise configured by the device firmware.
Device Agent Requirements
10 MB flash storage
64 MB RAM
Remote Updates
The agent includes the ability to remotely update itself, independently of the firmware.
Once the agent is integrated into the firmware, Cisco ThousandEyes cloud will decide which version of the agent to deliver at runtime. This can be coordinated with the ISP or manufacturer in advance, e.g. to avoid changing the agent during the daytime or peak hours for example.
Remote updates of the agent will not cause the device to restart. If an updated version cannot be downloaded or its signature cannot be verified, then the previous version will continue to run.
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