Installing an Enterprise Agent on a Raspberry Pi Device

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You can run ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents on Raspberry Pi hardware. This approach can be advantageous if your organization has locations that do not have hardware to host the agent, or that do not have technical staff to set up the agent.

With the Raspberry Pi, you can obtain low-cost hardware; configure it and the agent on it; then ship it to another location.

System Requirements

  • Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (4GB or 8GB model)

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ThousandEyes recommends that you obtain a Raspberry Pi bundle, such as from CanaKitarrow-up-right or Vilrosarrow-up-right, to ensure that all the parts you'll need are included in a single order.

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  • One of the following models of microSD card:

    • Samsung EVO Plus (32GB minimum required)

    • SanDisk Extreme (32 GB minimum required)

  • Power over Ethernet (PoE) adapter or a standard USB-C power supply

NOTE: A heat sink is not required.

Installation

  1. Download the latest image in Network & App Synthetics > Agent Settings > Enterprise Agents > Add New Enterprise Agent.

  2. Install your favorite image writer.

    For example, Etcherarrow-up-right works for both macOS and Windows.

  3. Using the USB adapter that comes with your Raspberry Pi kit, write the image to your microSD card.

  4. Select the drive of your Rasperry Pi device.

    The drive should be displayed as a 32 GB Mass Storage Device.

    NOTE: If the size displayed is smaller, this is likely because your kit's device is shipped with a small test partition.

  5. Click Flash.

    You don't need to uncompress the image file.

    [macOS only] Enter your password to authorize this action.

    NOTE: The flashing process takes a few minutes.

  6. Eject/remove the microSD.

    Doing so limits the possibility of corrupting the image.

  7. Go to the IP address of the Raspberry Pi:

    The physical appliance setup wizard opens.

  8. On https://tepi.localarrow-up-right, log in with the username admin and password welcome.

  9. In the physical appliance setup wizard, on the Appliance Access screen, set a new password.

    On this page, you can also add your SSH key. You can also set up your SSH key using this methodarrow-up-right.

  10. On the Agent screen, add your account group token.

    You can find the account group tokenarrow-up-right in the ThousandEyes application at Network & App Synthetics > Agent Settings > Enterprise Agents> Add New Enterprise Agent.

    NOTE: The ThousandEyes component BrowserBot is not supported for Raspberry Pi implementations. This means that the Enterprise Agent on Raspberry Pi cannot run page load tests and transaction tests.

  11. Click Continue.

    When installation and configuration are complete, the Review screen shows appliance status and diagnostics.

  12. Follow up.

  • You should now see your Raspberry Pi listed in the ThousandEyes application at Network & App Synthetics > Agent Settings > Enterprise Agents.

  • The default name for the agent on your Raspberry Pi is tepi (ThousandEyes Pi). You can rename the agent in the agents list by selecting it and editing its name in the details panel that is displayed.

  • You can check on your new agent's activities on the Agent Statistics tabarrow-up-right.

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