Getting Support from ThousandEyes
There are a number of ways to contact us to request assistance from the ThousandEyes Customer Engineering team. Depending on your needs and the information exchanged, one method may be preferable to others. Additionally, knowing in advance what information the Customer Engineering team requires for different types of problems can inform the choice of contact method. Moreover, providing necessary information, particularly at first contact, can reduce the time spent by both you and the Customer Engineering team in resolving questions or problems.
This article describes the methods available for customers to contact the ThousandEyes Customer Engineering team, the types of assistance provided by the Customer Engineering team, and outlines the types of information needed by our team when addressing different categories of questions or problems.
ThousandEyes provides searchable documentation covering commonly needed information, located at docs.thousandeyes.com. Users are encouraged to check the documentation for useful information prior to submitting a support request. The documentation may have the answer you need! If not, users may still gain valuable context to better describe their needs to us. If your question has no relevant articles in the documentation, let us know in your request so that we can either expand an existing article or create a new one.
For questions that aren't answered in our documentation, Customer Engineering provides technical support to customers who have existing accounts for the ThousandEyes application. Support requests can address the following:
Questions about product functionality
Configuration assistance
Requests to analyze test results
Reports of possible bugs or other platform issues
Feature requests
The scope of assistance will normally be focused on single issues. Requests submitted covering multiple subject areas may be split into separate support cases as necessary. Customers requiring extensive assistance in learning how to use the product, interpreting results or performing configuration of the product may require a referral to our Professional Services team.
Some things that can't be obtained from a support request:
Pricing information
Purchase of Enterprise Agent, Endpoint Agents or Device Layer licences, or additional units
New trial accounts or extensions of existing accounts
Product demonstrations
Changes to configuration or account information for which the requestor lacks privilege
For these and other sales-related issues, we can put you in touch with your ThousandEyes Account Manager, Solutions Engineer, or other contacts within our Sales team, or with your company’s internal ThousandEyes contact.
Customers can contact the ThousandEyes Customer Engineering team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through email, chat app and via the web at our support portal. All contacts will be logged in a case within the Customer Engineering team's ticketing system. Each case has a number of the form "S-CS-XXXXXXX", where XXXXXXX is a seven-digit number.
If needed, we may request a remote desktop session, either via an online collaboration application (such as Cisco Webex or Zoom) or with a remote desktop application used by your organization.
Email is a good choice when providing high volumes of text information, such as large sections of log files, multiple screenshots or similar attachments.
The Customer Engineering team can be reached at [email protected]. When emailing Customer Engineering, users should ideally send email from the account which is used to log into the ThousandEyes application (app.thousandeyes.com) in order to ensure that we can associate the sending email address with the correct organization and case history in our ticketing system. If you need to receive email at an address other than the one you use to log into the application, let us know in the email.
Also, if the email address associated with a ThousandEyes account is used by multiple people, such as [email protected], please include your name in the body of the email (such as in an email signature) so that we know which person on your team has contacted us.
Additional people can be included in an email to us via the CC option. Our ticketing system will add all CC'd email addresses to the support case, so that subsequent responses will be sent to those CC'd on the initial request, and will be notified of case updates.
Email responses from us use an ID tag at the bottom of the email to associate future responses with the existing case. The ID tag has the form:
Please do not remove this tag: [ref:_00ABCDeFg._1234567hIJk:ref]
Please avoid deleting this tag from your email responses, if possible. Email replies which do not have the ID tag will result in new cases being opened. Multiple cases opened for a single issue can be merged into one case by Customer Engineering, but to avoid confusion over the correct case number, email replies should contain the ID tag if possible.
For customers seeking interactive support, the ThousandEyes app provides a live chat client, which can be accessed from the Help & Support menu in the top navigation bar:
Select the Chat with Support option to display a chat window.
Begin by typing and end with the Return key to send. Once the chat has begun, files can also be sent by dragging and dropping a file on the chat client. When the chat has ended, the chat transcript is automatically generated and emailed to the user at the email address used to log into the ThousandEyes app.
Customers who log into the ThousandEyes app have easy access to the support portal https://success.thousandeyes.com, which provides support case creation, as well as displaying their support case history and other support information. Additionally, web access can be used by customers whose organizations block live chat and/or email due to security requirements.
Access the portal from from the Help icon in the top navigation bar:
Select the Contact Support option to display the customer's support portal page. Select the Cases tab to open a support case or view existing cases:
Our team may request a screen sharing session to facilitate the handling of your request. The session will be performed using Cisco Webex, Zoom or your company’s screen sharing solution.
Webex is a browser-based application that allows conferencing via audio and video, and permits sharing of the desktop on a computer running Webex. Normally, Customer Enablement Engineers use Webex when we need to view a customer's desktop in real time, or to do conference calls, such as with a ThousandEyes customer and a support engineer of another vendor. Normally, video is not necessary, and we avoid using the video function due to the greater bandwidth requirements than audio.
If a Customer Enablement Engineer needs a remote desktop sharing session via Webex, the Engineer will provide the customer with a Webex URL, which can be shared with co-workers or third parties, if desired. The URL will begin with https://thousandeyes.webex.com, which uses TLS encryption to provide privacy and security for the session (if the URL does not begin with this exact string, please inform Customer Engineering before using the URL). If the Webex is needed for viewing your desktop, be sure to close any applications displaying sensitive or proprietary information prior to starting the Webex.
Click the URL to go to the Webex login page, requests a name and email address. Click either the Join or Join by browser button to start the Webex and see options for selecting audio and video connections. As mentioned above, we don't usually need video, and prefer to avoid it to save bandwidth, so select No Video unless we've requested otherwise. For the audio setting, normally select the Call using Computer to use the computer's microphone and speakers. If the computer cannot support audio, we suggest the Call Me option, which will allow the Webex application to call a telephone number provided by the customer.
Webex meetings can also be joined by phone directly, which provides access to the audio portion of the Webex. Consult the list of access phone numbers per country. The meeting's nine-digit meeting access code will be required to join by phone.
Basic Webex functionality can be performed without installation of software (such as browser plug-ins) by using the Join by browser option. If full Webex functionality is desired, software can be downloaded in advance of the Webex to save time, and to ensure that Webex functions correctly. Go to https://www.webex.com/test-meeting.html and follow the instructions to set up and test Webex on your computer. If possible, we recommend performing the test on the same network you will use when meeting with us.
Chrome and Firefox are the preferred browsers for Webex, but Internet Explorer, Edge and Safari are supported. Full details of Webex's support for operating systems and browsers can be found in the Cisco support document Cisco Webex Web App Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.
Zoom is a collaboration tool similar to Webex, having browser-based and stand-alone clients. See Zoom's page about Getting started on PC and Mac for more information on setting up Zoom. Go to http://zoom.us/test and follow the instructions to set up and test Zoom on your computer. If possible, we recommend performing the test on the same network you will use when meeting with us.
ThousandEyes Customer Engineering can be contacted at (415) 237-EYES for high-priority issues. Callers will be routed to the next available engineer in order to receive the reported issues.
The following section describes information that will normally be required (as well as some types of information that we will never ask for) when opening a support case for various categories of problems. We recommend obtaining this information prior to opening your support request, as some types of information may take time to gather, and may be required before our Customer Enablement Engineers can begin acting upon your request.
In addition to information specific to the type of problem, providing the current account group name is always helpful, as a user may be a member of many account groups. A user's current account group is displayed in rightmost corner of the navigation bar, at the top of the ThousandEyes application:
In the image above, the user's current account group is Support.
When submitting a support request about one or more test's results, the best way to provide us information is by sharing a Snapshot link. See the article Sharing Test Data for information on generating snapshot links. Note that snapshots do not contain any alert information seen in the full test view, so see the Alerts section below for information on referencing alerts.
Problems with installation or operation of Enterprise Agent or Endpoint Agents typically require log file information from the Agent, or similar files such as an Enterprise Agent's configuration file. Information on the most commonly needed files is listed below.
Enterprise Agents
/tmp/install_thousandeyes_XXXXXXXX.log (installation of Linux package-based agents; XXXXXXXX is a random character string)
/var/log/te-agent.log
/var/lib/te-browserbot/log/te-browserbot.log (for Browserbot process errors, and page load and transaction test issues)
Endpoint Agents
Review the sections Inspect Endpoint Agent Logs and Share Data with ThousandEyes Support in the article Troubleshooting Endpoint Agent issues.
Problems that cannot be solved solely by inspection of log files may require a remote desktop session with a Customer Enablement Engineer to investigate the agent and the system on which the agent runs. For Enterprise Agents, we will need command-line access via the remote desktop to the Enterprise Agent. Normally, this means having an SSH client available to access the agent. If possible, before the remote desktop session ensure that an SSH client is installed and configured to log into the Enterprise Agent. If needed, review the instructions for configuring SSH on Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
ThousandEyes Support has access to a suite of troubleshooting tools that request data from Enterprise and Endpoint Agents. Agents behind a proxy or located in networks where RPC is not supported may not work with this suite of tools. In the event that ThousandEyes Support cannot obtain data required for troubleshooting support cases, we will request assistance from customers.
The following is a list of troubleshooting data that may be obtained remotely:
Enterprise Agent data
Agent logs: ThousandEyes Linux packages generate logs used for diagnostics and troubleshooting. These logs are requested via an RPC connection.
Packet captures: ThousandEyes Support may remotely trigger a packet capture for up to five minutes in duration. Packet captures are requested via an RPC connection. Use of this tool requires that the tcpdump linux package be installed on the host operating system.
SNMP Walk: ThousandEyes Support may remotely trigger an SNMP walk for devices discovered or monitored via SNMP. An SNMP walk is requested via an RPC connection.
Crash reports: Crash reports are created when an Agent experiences failure. These reports are requested via an RPC connection.
In the event that the above information cannot be obtained, ThousandEyes Support will request that a customer obtain this data. Instructions on connecting to Enterprise Agents via ssh from Windows hosts is available here. Instructions on connecting to Enterprise Agents via ssh from Linux and OSX hosts is available here.
Endpoint Agent data
Agent logs: Endpoint Agents generate logs used for diagnostics and troubleshooting. These logs may be requested remotely when an Endpoint Agent checks into the ThousandEyes platform.
In the event that the logs cannot be obtained remotely, ThousandEyes Support will request that a customer assist in obtaining this data. Instructions on obtaining diagnostics logs for Endpoint Agents is available here.
Every alert generated by ThousandEyes has a unique number, called an Alert ID. When submitting a support request about one or more alerts, he best way to provide us information is by providing the Alert ID. See the ThousandEyes article How Alerts work for information on obtaining and using an Alert ID.
When submitting a support request about one or more reports or dashboards, the best way to provide us information is by providing the account group (as illustrated above) and report's or dashboard's URL from the address bar of the browser, when viewing the report or dashboard in the ThousandEyes application. Example URLs of a report and a dashboard, respectively:
​https://app.thousandeyes.com/reports/?reportId=5b6b760a2f868717153c324c https://app.thousandeyes.com/dashboard/?dashboardId=5c355df732e569005082074d​
When submitting a support request about an API query, please provide the username, URL used for the query, and any XML or JSON data sent in a query (usually for writing to the API) via the HTTP POST method. For example:
username:
query URL:
https://api.thousandeyes.com/v6/tests/agent-to-server/new.jsonquery data:
{"interval": 60,"agents": [{"agentId": 113}],"testName": "Agent to Server test for www.thousandeyes.com","server": "www.thousandeyes.com","port": 443,"alertsEnabled": 0}
Do not provide us with your API token! Also be certain to remove any sensitive information from POST query data, such as passwords for web site or proxies in Web Layer tests, or for authenticated Voice Layer tests.
Customers may request enhancements to the ThousandEyes product by feature requests, which can be submitted through a support case. Feel free to tell us what you want in the product! It's best if you can also tell us why you want what you want, and provide an example/use case to illustrate the benefits of the proposed feature.
Additionally, feature requests can be submitted via your Account Manager or Solutions Engineer.
Certain information should not be provided to Customer Engineering. Information from production systems such as user passwords and password-like information should not be sent via email or chat, or exposed during a remote desktop session.
The following are examples of information which should not be transmitted via email or chat:
Passwords, such as:
for your ThousandEyes app account
for a Web or Voice Layer test
for a private key associated with a digital certificate
API tokens
Files such which contain passwords, tokens or other sensitive information, such as:
screenshots
Transaction test scripts
packet captures
configuration files (te-agent.cfg from an Enterprise Agent, for example)
In the event that sensitive information is disclosed during a support inquiry, our team may recommend you make changes to the information to ensure that no security concerns are created for your organization. Always maintain compliance with your organization's information security policies and procedures when obtaining support from ThousandEyes.