Install the Endpoint Agent

This article describes how to install the Endpoint Agent on the various supported operating systems.

To install the Endpoint Agent, run the graphical installer (for download instructions, see Download the Endpoint Agent). The installer requires the user to agree to the software license to proceed with the installation.

Installation on Windows

The Windows installer package (MSI) installs all the components necessary for the Endpoint Agent to function. The Windows MSI installer, like any other Windows software package, can be invoked interactively by a user who has administrative privileges on the target machine.

The installation can be done in either of the following ways:

Interactive Installation

You can install the Endpoint Agent interactively by following these instructions:

  1. Launch the installer from the location on your machine.

  2. Accept the terms of the license agreement in the installation wizard and click the Next button.

  3. Follow the instructions in the installation wizard and continue to the next steps.

  4. You can provide the Connection String to register the agent with the correct account group in the ThousandEyes platform.

    Alternatively, you can skip entering the connection string and run the following command after the installation to register the agent with the desired account group:

    te_agent --register <connection_string>

    You need to run the registration command from the administrator console on Windows.

For information on additional configuration options, including browser extension installation and Extended Network Tests support, see Endpoint Agent Installation Reference before continuing.

Although browser extensions are an opt-in feature during installation, ThousandEyes does not recommend installing the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browser extensions via the installer as it might conflict with the existing Group Policy settings.

If you are using Group Policy to manage browser extensions for organization-distributed add-ins, we recommend not selecting the Browser Extension option during the Endpoint Agent installation and instead adding the browser extension separately.

You can refer to the Install the Endpoint Agent Browser Extension article for alternate methods to install the browser extension.

  1. Upon successful installation, the Endpoint Agent doesn’t create any entries under the Applications Menu. All the Endpoint Agent products are installed at: C:\Program Files (x86)\ThousandEyes\

Silent Installation

You can install the Endpoint Agent silently, or schedule silent installation as part of an installation script. In such cases, use the following instructions via the command line:

msiexec.exe /i <path_to_msi> /quiet /norestart ACCOUNT_CONFIG="<connection_string>"

Here the Connection String parameter determines the account group with which the agent needs to be registered.

For example, the following command will install the Endpoint Agent via the MSI located at C:\Endpoint Agent-x86-1.2.0.msi and will save the installation output to the file C:\ThousandEyesInstall.log:

msiexec.exe /i "C:\Endpoint Agent-x86-1.2.0.msi" /quiet /norestart ACCOUNT_CONFIG="<connection_string>" /qn /l*vx "C:\ThousandEyesInstall.log"

Alternatively, you can install the agent using the following command:

msiexec.exe /i <path_to_msi> /quiet /norestart

Subsequently, you need to run the following command to register the agent with the desired account group:

te_agent --register <connection_string>

You need to run the registration command from the administrator console on Windows.

For information on additional configuration options, including browser extension installation and TCP support, see Endpoint Agent Installation Reference before continuing.

The Endpoint Agent does not require a machine restart upon installation. But there may be a case where Windows OS requires a reboot, and this can be part of your company’s internal IT policy too. ThousandEyes recommends you use the /norestart flag in the installation command line. If the silent installation fails, the output log file will contain the necessary information to pinpoint the root cause of the failure.

Verifying Your Installation

Upon successful installation, all the installed files can be seen in the folder - C:\Program Files (x86)\ThousandEyes\Endpoint Agent

The Endpoint Agent can be uninstalled from the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel or Apps & Features interface in the Setings:

Installation on MacOS

The macOS installer (.pkg file) installs all the components necessary for the Endpoint Agent to function except the Chrome extension (for details see Chrome Extension). The macOS .pkg installer, like any other macOS software package, the macOS .pkg installer can be invoked interactively by a user with administrator privileges on the target machine.

Following is an example of the downloaded installer file name:

  • Endpoint Agent-x64-1.190.0.pkg

  • Endpoint Agent Pulse-x64-1.190.0.pkg

The installation can be done in either of the following ways:

Interactive Installation

You can install the Endpoint Agent interactively by following these instructions:

  1. Download the installer package. It will download all the necessary components.

  2. Double-click (open) the .pkg file on the target machine.

  3. Follow the instructions on the installation wizard to complete the installation.

  4. On the command line with administrative privileges (sudo), run the following command with the Connection String to register the agent with the desired account group:

sudo /Applications/ThousandEyes\ Endpoint\ Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/te-agent --register <connection-string>

Silent Installation

You can install the Endpoint Agent silently, or schedule silent installation as part of an installation script. In such cases, use the following instructions:

  1. Download the installer. It contains the .pkg file and the necessary components.

  2. Install the .pkg: installer -pkg <path_to_pkg> -target /

  3. Execute: /Applications/ThousandEyes\ Endpoint\ Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/te-agent --register <connection-string>

    Here the Connection String parameter determines the account group with which the agent needs to be registered.

If the silent installation fails, the output log file will contain the necessary information to pinpoint the root cause of the failure. The system manages the installation output log file, which is /var/log/install.log.

Verifying Your Installation

Upon successful installation, the Endpoint Agent appears in the system’s Applications folder:

The Endpoint Agent can be uninstalled by either dragging and dropping the application icon into the Trash or by right-clicking the icon and selecting Move to Trash:

Adding the ThousandEyes Chrome Extension

If you used the .pkg installer interactively, when the installation completes, Chrome opens and displays the ThousandEyes browser extension in the Chrome Web Store.

To install the extension to your Chrome profile, click the Add to Chrome button:

Verifying Your Installation

After installation, the extension will be visible in Chrome’s extension page under More Tools” > “Extensions:

If all the components are installed correctly and are running on the target machine, the Chrome extension will appear on the Chrome browser toolbar:

However, if the Endpoint Agent is not installed or if there’s a problem in any of its components, the extension’s icon will appear grayed-out.

Updating the Chrome Extension

The ThousandEyes Chrome extension needs to be installed only once when you install the Endpoint Agent on the target machine for the first time. After the initial installation, the extension will be automatically updated whenever a new extension is published in the Chrome Web Store.

It can take up to four hours for the ThousandEyes Chrome extension to automatically update from the time it was published.

Alternatively, you can set up automatic installation of the Chrome extension on users' computers. This can be done by following the instructions recommended by Google. If you use this automated method, use the following as the extension's ID: ddnennmeinlkhkmajmmfaojcnpddnpgb

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