Endpoint Agents

The ThousandEyes Endpoint Agent is an application that is installed on Windows or macOS machines to collect network- and application-layer performance data when users access specific websites from within monitored networks.

Introduction to Endpoint Agents

Endpoint Agents allow customers to leverage regular end-user desktops and laptops as test devices for measuring internal and external application performance. As Endpoint Agents can be deployed on and off-premise to readily available machines in any location or network, performance measurements can be run from almost every possible user environment.

Deploying Endpoints gives you the ability to identify and diagnose end-user issues in near real-time. Unlike Enterprise Agents, Endpoint Agents run natively on Windows and Mac OSX operating systems and can be deployed on mass using standard automated deployment tools. Figure 1 below shows a typical example of deployment locations for Endpoint, Enterprise and Cloud Agents.

Figure 1. Example Endpoint, Enterprise and Cloud Agent deployment locations

Endpoint Agents include the following features that are responsible for measuring the application performance:

• Synthetic Tests: A synthetic test template combines scheduled and dynamic tests to monitor a specific application. All the major applications have a defined synthetic test template, and you can also create a custom template for applications that do not have a predefined template.

  • Scheduled Tests - Scheduled tests run from Endpoint Agents at regularly scheduled intervals. These tests run without user interaction and can be deployed on Network (agent-to-server tests) and Web (HTTP server tests) layers.

  • Dynamic Tests - Dynamic Tests are similar to Scheduled Tests but, in addition they allow you to configure an Endpoint Agent to dynamically create tests to IP addresses and ports it detects when an application opens a connection.

• Real User Tests - Endpoint Agents record in-browser and network performance metrics whenever users navigate to monitored domains from monitored networks.

• Network Access - This feature records the performance of the Endpoint's physical wired or wireless connections, gateways, VPNs, proxies, and DNS servers.

You have full control of when and under what conditions the tests run. For example, a Scheduled Test deployed to a laptop can be switched on or off as it (the laptop) transits through different locations, wireless and wired networks, VPNs, and proxies. Similarly, the Real User Test recordings will only occur when the Endpoint Agent is on a specified network and also limited by configured target domains.

All the collected data and metrics are displayed in one intuitive Endpoint Experience > Views page. The Views page separates Scheduled Tests, Dynamic Tests, Real User Tests, and Network Access data by layers and the interactive timeline presents performance data that can be used to rapidly search through historical data. An example of the Views page, the interactive timeline, layers, metrics, and filters can be seen in Figure 2 below. With your Endpoint Agent data, you can create proactive alerts, email, and create highly customizable dashboards. All Endpoint Agent data is available via our API.

Figure 2. An example of just one of the many ways interactive data is presented: Endpoint Experience > Views

There are two types of Endpoint Agents: Endpoint Agent and Endpoint Agent Pulse. The key difference between the two is that Endpoint Agent Pulse does not include the real user test feature. Throughout this article and the subsequent articles, all topics discussed apply to both products unless explicitly mentioned.

This article further explains: where and how to deploy Endpoint Agents, configuration options, how to run tests, end-user tools and experience, how to navigate your way through the UI and the layers of test views, how to create dashboards, how to troubleshoot deployments and operations, user permissions and much more.

Deploying Endpoint Agents

Typically, organizations have multiple teams that manage their IT estate so to assist in the deployment and planning stages and to ensure the right teams are involved do check the pre-deployment requirements. the teams who manage functions such as software deployments, end-user access control, VPN-access, proxies and anti-virus systems must be involved as early as possible, so the Endpoint deployment runs smoothly. Use the following links for detailed instructions on how to install Endpoint Agents.

• Downloading the Endpoint Agent Installer

• Installing the Endpoint Agent

• Installing the Browser Extension

• Installing Endpoint Agent for Windows OS via Group Policy

Endpoint HTTP proxy support

The Endpoint Agent (and pulse) support the use of HTTP proxies. The network performance from an Endpoint Agent to a proxy is automatically measured during Scheduled Tests (as a part of synthetic tests) or Real User Test results. The network performance tests consist of a hop-by-hop path trace and end-to-end latency, loss, and jitter tests. Network tests are unable to reach the final target when a proxy is in use (Figure 3 below shows a proxy in use and the Network layer tests unable to reach the final target), therefore, all network tests are performed to the proxy instead.

Real User Tests proxy

The proxy used by Browser Sessions is not configurable but automatically detected from the host system. See Figures 3 and 4 below for examples of how we present proxy data.

Figure 3. Details view showing proxy measurements: Endpoint Experience > Views > Real User Tests > Visited Pages > Sessions

Figure 4. Endpoint proxy displayed in Path Visualisation view: Endpoint Experience > Views > Real User Tests - . Network > Path Visualization

Scheduled Tests proxy

You can configure and store multiple proxy configurations and apply them to all tests or set a unique per-test proxy. The proxy configuration supports static assignments, PAC files, and Basic and NTLM proxy authentication methods. To apply a saved proxy configuration for all scheduled tests use the settings on the Endpoint Experience > Agent Settings page or for the per-test proxy scenario apply a proxy configuration on the Endpoint Experience > Test Settings page. This was mentioned previously but as a reminder here it is again: we currently only support HTTP proxies and if you need to use Endpoint with an HTTPS proxy get in touch with our Customer Engineering Team for further assistance.

For detailed instructions on proxy configurations and options see the Proxy Configuration article. For more details on how to navigate through the Views page to see your proxy measurements head to the Test, Real User Test, and Network Access Views and metrics section.

Endpoint Agent updates

We usually ship Endpoint Agent updates every 2 weeks for both the Windows and Mac OSX operating systems. The Endpoint applications have auto-update process that runs at regular intervals to check, download, and install package updates. The Chrome browser extension automatically updates whenever a new Endpoint version is published in the Chrome Store. For full details on how the Endpoint Agent update process works see the How does the Endpoint Agent work article.

Endpoint Agent permissions

We have several endpoint-related permissions for user and user group management. For full details on how to create custom roles with Endpoint permissions see the Role-based Access Control article.

To provide administrators with more granular control over displaying information that could identify an end-user or resource, the permission View endpoint data that identifies the user has been split into the following three permissions:

• View endpoint data that identifies Endpoint Agents - Allows users to see the names of Endpoint Agents in the views. Users without this permission will see a numeric ID instead of the agent name.

• View endpoint data that identifies users - Allow users to view the name of the user on a computer where the Endpoint Agent is installed. Users without this permission will see a numeric ID instead of the name of the user on the computer with the Endpoint Agent. The "Users" option will not be available as a filter.

• View endpoint data that identifies the network - Allow users to view the names of the IP networks being monitored as well as SSIDs and names and addresses of network devices such as routers, firewalls, and proxies. Users without this permission will see a numeric ID instead of the network or device name or address.

Introduction to the Endpoint Agent Capabilities

Scheduled Tests

Endpoint Agent and Pulse both run web-layer HTTP-server and network-layer Agent-to-Server Scheduled Tests types. Both test types are only IPv4 compatible. Scheduled tests can run at set intervals from a minimum of 1 minute to a maximum of 1 hour. All scheduled tests perform network-layer end-end and path trace tests. If a proxy is being used the network layer tests will target the proxy and not the end target. Scheduled Tests can be configured to run several types of checks against your target e.g. verify SSL, page content or HTTP response codes.

Endpoint Agent in conjunction with its web-browser plugin can be configured to monitor end-users web Browser Sessions automatically or end-users can manually start recording their Browser Sessions using their browser extension. When recording Browser Sessions the agent will also perform network-layer end-end and path trace tests and collect Network Access data. For full details on scheduled test configuration options see the Creating Scheduled Tests on Endpoint Agents article.

Dynamic Tests

Dynamic Tests (previously called Automated Session Tests) collect data from applications that are developed on Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platforms; for example, Webex or Zoom. These tests are dynamic, so they execute only when a user uses an application on their device (therefore, the system and network resource utilization is optimal). The data collected from these tests can be used for troubleshooting issues faced by the user while using the application. Dynamic tests are a part of Synthetic tests and for instructions on how to configure and manage the Synthetic tests see the Configuring options for Synthetic Tests article.