ThousandEyes Glossary
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Account group
A ThousandEyes account group within an organization represents a business unit, subsidiary, or other defined customer group such as local branch or IT department.
See What Is an Account Group? for more information.
Active alert
An alert is considered active when an associated test has failed or experienced errors for a specified number of consecutive test rounds, per the associated alert rule.
See Getting Started with Alerts for more information.
Activity log
The activity log provides a history of actions by the ThousandEyes users in your organization, including test creation, updates, deletions, login, logout, and other activities. The activity log also displays a timestamp and user metadata for each event.
See Working With the Activity Log for more information.
Affected test
In Internet Insights, an affected test is one of your ThousandEyes tests that is indirectly impacted, or could potentially be impacted, by an outage elsewhere in Internet Insights. A test can be affected even if that test is not showing any obvious errors or triggering alerts.
See My Affected Tests for more information.
Agent
Agent refers to ThousandEyes software packages (servers) installed at specific global locations, used by customers to run tests against specified domains or targets. Agents are also referred to as global vantage points. Enterprise Agents are installed and maintained by customers inside their own networks, while Cloud Agents are maintained by ThousandEyes and are available to all customers. Endpoint Agents run on end-user computers and thus don't necessarily have a fixed location.
See Global Vantage Points for more information.
Agent cluster
Agent clusters are multiple ThousandEyes Cloud and Enterprise Agents operating together to run ThousandEyes tests from a single location. Clustering simplifies the agent selection process and facilitates load balancing for new tests.
You can manage clusters for your own Enterprise Agents. For more information, see Working with Enterprise Agent Clusters.
Alert
An alert in ThousandEyes is an on-screen notification that one or more of your ThousandEyes tests is currently exceeding a defined error threshold. Alerts are assigned to tests through alert rules. ThousandEyes alerts can be sent to third-party systems using notifications.
See Getting Started with Alerts and Alerts for more information.
Alert rule
An alert rule is a condition or a set of conditions that you configure in order to highlight or be notified of events of interest in your ThousandEyes tests. When an alert rule’s conditions are met, the associated alert is triggered and the alert becomes active. It remains active until the alert is cleared. Alert rules are reusable across multiple tests.
See Getting Started with Alerts for more information.
Alert trigger
An alert trigger is the element that a specific test type is set to examine. Some of these elements are:
For Cloud and Enterprise Agent tests, the alert is triggered by agents.
For Endpoint Agent tests, the alert is triggered by visited sites or by Endpoint Agents.
See Local Alert Conditions for more information.
Application
In WAN Insights, an application (application category) is a pre-selected bundle of applications within WAN Insights, such as Voice or Google Workspace, that share similar characteristics.
See Application Categories and Adding Business-Critical Applications to WAN Insights for more information.
Automated session test
With automated session tests, you can evaluate the performance of a desktop application without the need to manually set up an IP address or hostname. These tests function similarly to ThousandEyes agent-to-server scheduled tests, except that with automated session tests, ThousandEyes selects the endpoints to monitor. Used with Endpoint Agents.
See Automated Session Tests for more information.
Browser sessions
Browser sessions is an Endpoint Agent feature that keeps track of how well websites perform when users access them from a monitored domain set. A browser session records both in-browser and network performance metrics.
See Browser Sessions for more information.
Built-in dashboard
Refers to ThousandEyes system-defined dashboards. Built-in dashboards are not editable. However, you can copy a built-in dashboard and make changes to the copy.
See Dashboards and Getting Started with Dashboards for more information.
Catalog
In Internet Insights, the catalog is a database of internet service providers, categorized by provider name, provider type, and network identifier.
See Configuring Internet Insights for more information.
Cleared alert
Cleared is a signal that an alert is no longer active, meaning that the conditions triggering it are no longer in effect. You can also manually clear an alert, or the platform can auto-clear it if an agent fails to send data for 12 hours.
See Getting Started with Alerts for more information.
Cloud Agent
A Cloud Agent is a ThousandEyes software agent that is available immediately to customers for running tests, with no administrative responsibilities. Cloud Agents provide globally distributed vantage points throughout the internet and are maintained by ThousandEyes.
See Cloud Agents for more information.
Credentials repository
The credentials repository is used in ThousandEyes Browser Synthetics transaction tests to store and control access to login credentials, while keeping secure strings, such as passwords, hidden.
See Working With Secure Credentials for more information.
Custom webhook
Custom webhooks in ThousandEyes are used to send notifications about ThousandEyes alerts to external systems.
See Custom Webhooks for more information.
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Dashboard
ThousandEyes dashboards show customized live views of your test data, as well as Internet Insights collective intelligence. For example you can set up a dashboard based on Internet Insights that shows application outages related to your main SaaS provider, alongside internet outages that affect your users’ ability to access those domains.
See Dashboards for more information.
Device layer
ThousandEyes' device-layer monitoring uses Enterprise Agents to poll your network devices using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
See Device Layer section for more information.
Embedded widget
An embedded widget is a ThousandEyes dashboard widget that is referenced in the HTML source code of an external web page to make information available to viewers outside of your ThousandEyes organization. The embedded widget provides the same information via the external web page without requiring a ThousandEyes login.
See Embedding Dashboard Widgets in External Web Sites for more information.
Enabled
Enabled applies to tests, agents, and alert rules.
A ThousandEyes test that is enabled is actively running on one or more agents. Tests that are configured but not enabled do not consume units.
An alert rule is enabled when it is applied to a particular test.
A ThousandEyes agent is enabled when it is available for tests. If you disable an Enterprise Agent, you cannot run tests on it until you re-enable it.
See Working with Test Settings for more information.
Endpoint Agent
The ThousandEyes Endpoint Agent is an application that is installed on end-user computers to measure network and application performance from the vantage point of a regular end user. Endpoint Agents can be deployed on- and off-premises to collect performance measurements from almost every possible user environment. Endpoint agents provide you with the ability to identify and diagnose end-user issues in near real-time.
See Endpoint Agents for more information.
Endpoint pair
Within WAN Insights, an endpoint pair refers to a connection between two routers located at different sites. From a data standpoint, WAN Insights endpoints are entities to which network traffic is routed, or which produce or consume traffic. Examples of endpoints include edge routers, SaaS data centers, and routing prefixes.
See Sites, Routers, Paths, and Interfaces for more information.
Enterprise Agent
An Enterprise Agent is ThousandEyes software running on a Linux platform deployed and managed by a ThousandEyes customer for their exclusive use, to test targets from inside the customer's own network, or from within infrastructure under the customer's control. By contrast, ThousandEyes Cloud Agents are managed by ThousandEyes, shared by all customers, and are used for outside-in network testing.
See Enterprise Agents for more information.
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Impacted user
Within WAN Insights, an impacted user refers to the end user of a business application within an enterprise network, who may be impacted by poor network performance.
See WAN Insights Introductory Tour, Part 1 for more information.
Instant test
An instant test is done using the Run Once button when configuring a new ThousandEyes Cloud or Enterprise Agent test, to validate the test configuration. Instant tests consume units, and thus they count towards monthly unit consumption.
See Scheduled Versus Instant Tests for more information.
Integration
ThousandEyes integrations allow you to use the ThousandEyes platform with other tools, to make the best use of ThousandEyes data for your organization. A common integration is to collect ThousandEyes alert notifications and display them in other communication systems such as Slack or PagerDuty.
See Custom-Built Integrations for ways to integrate ThousandEyes with other products; for example, displaying ThousandEyes test data in AppDynamics.
Internet Insights
ThousandEyes Internet Insights uses the collective intelligence of ThousandEyes’ entire agent network to show outages that may affect you, even if you’re not directly testing against those targets yourself. If enough ThousandEyes agents testing towards the same target report problems, ThousandEyes makes the inference that the cluster of errors represents a real outage and displays it on the Internet Insights > Outages map.
For a more complete list of terms related to Internet Insights, see the Internet Insights Terminology page.
Interval
A test interval is the frequency at which a test is run. For example, every two minutes or every hour. Intervals are configured as part of each test’s settings.
See Working with Test Settings for more information.
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Monitored domain set
A monitored domain set consists of domains that you want end-user performance monitoring information about. The best practice is to use business-relevant domains for tools and sites that your end users access. Used in Endpoint Agents > Browser Session Settings.
See Configure Browser Sessions for more information.
Metrics
In a ThousandEyes test view, metrics are different measures that can be selected using a drop-down filter list. For example, a page load test might have page load time as one of the available metrics.
See Getting Started with Views for more information.
Notification
A notification generally refers to a message sent automatically upon certain events to your email, PagerDuty, Slack, AppDynamics, ServiceNow, or other tool configured through a custom webhook. Notifications apply to alerts, WAN Insights recommendations, usage limit notifications, and to ThousandEyes documentation updates.
For more information:
See Integrations for ways to send automatic notifications from ThousandEyes alerts to third-party systems, including both custom webhooks and pre-configured third-party integrations.
See Email Notifications for information about notifications for WAN Insights recommendations.
Organization
An organization within ThousandEyes represents the overall billable entity.
See Role-Based Access Control for more information.
Outage
Outages within Internet Insights refer to global events that impact a large number of servers or Autonomous Systems (AS).
An application outage is an event for which some or all servers that belong to the same application are failing at the same point in time.
A network outage is an event with 100% packet loss in the same Autonomous System (AS) and the same metropolitan location during the same period of time.
See Internet Insights for more information.
Overage
An overage is the result of exceeding your monthly unit allowance. Overages can be enabled or disabled for a particular customer. Customers with overages disabled are prevented from using more units than their monthly allowance. For those customers who have overages enabled, the overage may or may not be billed at the end of the month, depending on the customer's plan.
See Overages for more information.
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Path Quality
The WAN Insights Path Quality metric aggregates network performance measures (loss, latency, and jitter), and expresses the result as a single weighted percentage. This percentage expresses the likelihood of violating a defined quality threshold in the near future, which is a risk to be mitigated.
See Understanding Quality for more information.
Package
In Internet Insights, a package is a collection of Internet Insights providers with the same type and region, for example North America ISPs. Customers license a package in order to display outages originating from the providers included in the package.
See Configuring Internet Insights for more information.
Package license
For Internet Insights, a package license allows you to select a group of global providers to monitor. You can purchase multiple licenses and re-assign them as needed.
See Configuring Internet Insights for more information.
Provider type
Within Internet Insights, a provider type refers to the primary service focus of various global connectivity providers, for example SaaS or ISP. For providers that might offer more than one type of service, the provider type is determined in part by the type of data that ThousandEyes is able to collect through various types of testing.
See Configuring Internet Insights for more information.
Quality of Experience
The Quality of Experience (QoE) score in WAN Insights is a calculated score based on aggregated Quality of Service (QoS) measurements for loss, latency, and jitter. Note that the QoE score indicates a level of risk, not an actual network outage.
See Understanding Quality for more information.
Quality of Service
Quality of Service (QoS) in WAN Insights measures network performance at the circuit level, between endpoint pairs. Quality of service is measured separately for loss, latency, and jitter, as a weighted percentage that expresses how close each performance measure is to its threshold.
See Understanding Quality for more information.
Quota
Quotas are used to ensure that unit consumption, either at the organization or the account group level, does not exceed a defined monthly cap or threshold. If the quota is exceeded, you will not be able to set up new scheduled tests, and/or some scheduled tests may be automatically disabled in order to stop unit consumption.
See Setting Quotas for more information.
Recommendation
Context: Test Recommendations
For some integrations with third-party products, the ThousandEyes platform can offer recommended tests. Once you have set up the integration, ThousandEyes can suggest useful tests for monitoring the services you rely on.
For more information, see
Context: WAN Insights
A recommendation from WAN Insights refers to making network path or traffic routing changes at a particular network site in order to improve performance for a particular application category.
See Understanding Recommendations for more information.
Recorder
The ThousandEyes Recorder provides an integrated development environment (IDE) for creating, validating, and enhancing transaction test scripts based on your browser actions.
See ThousandEyes Recorder for more information.
Role
Users are assigned to roles, which have a set of permissions applied. The permissions determine how much functionality the user can partake of on the ThousandEyes platform. ThousandEyes has three default roles, though customers can create customized roles within their organization, too.
See Role-Based Access Control for more information.
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Saved event
A saved event is a way to permanently save a time segment of test data. A saved event is similar to a snapshot, but is specific to a particular test, is private to your account group, and does not expire.
See Retaining Data Beyond the 90-Day Limit for more information.
Shared by ThousandEyes
Shared by ThousandEyes refers to built-in test configurations provided by ThousandEyes. You can choose to activate or enable these tests for your own use.
See Getting Started With Cloud and Enterprise Agent Tests for more information.
Snapshot
Snapshots apply to dashboards and also to test data.
Dashboard snapshots represent a specific time range of the dashboard’s data. Snapshots can be created on demand, or created automatically according to a schedule and emailed to a list of recipients. See Dashboard Sharing and Snapshots for more information.
For test data, the snapshot feature allows you to provide a URL to a read-only ThousandEyes test results web page at a specified point in time, viewable by anyone who has the link. See Sharing Test Data for more information.
Test
A ThousandEyes test is a synthetic network probe with a user-specified target that runs at regular intervals from a ThousandEyes software agent. Tests are user-configurable and consume units.
See Tests for information on scheduled tests run from Cloud or Enterprise Agents.
See Automated Session Tests and Scheduled Tests for information on tests run from Endpoint Agents.
Test layer
A ThousandEyes test layer refers to layers of operation, but is not the same as the OSI 7-layer network model or the TCP/IP 4-layer model. The ThousandEyes test layers are Routing, Network, DNS, Web, and Voice. Test data over time is displayed in test views. Multiple test layers may be available within a single test view.
See Tests for more information.
Test round
A test round refers to a single measurement performed by a ThousandEyes scheduled test, as executed by one or more ThousandEyes agents, for a single point in time. For example, for a test running at 5-minute intervals, a single test round might show test results for 12:00 midnight UTC, while the next round would show results for 12:05 am UTC.
See Scheduled vs Instant Tests for more information.
Timeout
A test timeout specifies how long to wait before assuming that the test target is unresponsive.
See Working with Test Settings and Test Type Layers and Units for more information.
Transaction test script
A transaction test script is used in ThousandEyes Browser Synthetics transaction tests that simulate a multi-step user journey through a web site, for example online shopping.
For more information, first review the ThousandEyes Recorder page, and then review the entire section under Transaction Test Developer Guide.
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Unit, unit consumption
Units are the measure by which tests run on Cloud or Enterprise Agents are charged. Throughout the month, configured tests consume units against the customer's monthly unit allowance, which in turn impacts customer billing. Generally, customers cannot consume more units than their plan allows. Each test consumes a certain number of units based on the test type, interval, timeout, and the number and type of ThousandEyes agents running the test.
See About Units and Calculating Units for more information.
See Usage-Based Billing and FAQs: Usage for more information.
User
A ThousandEyes user is someone registered to use the ThousandEyes user interface and/or the API.
See Role-Based Access Control for more information.
View
A ThousandEyes view refers to test data shown on a timeline. Every test in ThousandEyes has a Views screen, and each view has multiple view layers that represent different levels of networking, from the underlay all the way through HTTP and voice layers. There are views available under Cloud & Enterprise Agents, Endpoint Agents, Devices, and Internet Insights.
For information on the various view types, see:
WAN Insights
ThousandEyes WAN Insights is a predictive network optimization tool that uses a statistical model to examine historical data from your Cisco SD-WAN, in order to find the best paths for application traffic.
For a more complete list of terms related to WAN Insights, see the WAN Insights Terminology and Reference page.
Widget
Widgets are customizable visual data displays on ThousandEyes dashboards. Widget types include tables, bar and pie charts, time series, color grids, and maps. You can embed them on other web pages as well.
See Dashboard Widgets and Embedding Dashboard Widgets in External Web Sites for more information.
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