NPCAP Driver Upgrade Management

This document is relevant only for the upgrade of NPCAP driver to version 1.55. This document will be archived on 31 December 2022.
The Endpoint Agent Client seeks leverage of the NPCAP library to support running certain network tests on Windows devices. ThousandEyes has identified a need to upgrade to a newer version of the NPCAP driver. This upgrade helps ThousandEyes stay current and support organizations that rely on more recent NPCAP versions for other services/software. However, in some rare situations, auto-upgrading to the newer version may have some unknown impact on the device. To mitigate this risk, ThousandEyes recommends you test this upgrade.
This document explains the phases and the corresponding steps involved in testing the impact of the newer version of the NPCAP driver.
This upgrade is only for the devices where the Endpoint Agent installer had installed the NPCAP driver version 1.1 during the initial installation. If the installer did not install any version of the NPCAP driver during the initial installation, it will not install the new version either.
Phase 1 : Manual Testing
The manual testing phase allows you to download an updated installer (available from 2 August 2022) and run it manually to upgrade the NPCAP driver version on some of your devices.
Following are the links to download the updated installer:
​Endpoint Agent-x86​
​Endpoint Agent-x64​
​Endpoint Agent Pulse-x86​
​Endpoint Agent Pulse-x64​
Phase 2 : Automated Early Release Testing
Pre-requisites
The following conditions/ set up must be done to test the upgrade in this phase:
Create an additional testing Account Group - You can refer these instructions) to create a new Account Group.
Assign some users to this group - The amount of agents in this test release depends on the size of your organisation. ThousandEyes recommends about 1% of the total agents, with a minimum of 10 agents. These test users should be a representative sample of your builds, not just IT teams. The instructions to transfer ownership of the agents to this new account group can be found here.
Create a support case to move this Account Group to the early release track.
Upon successful completion of the above tasks, an automatic update will be applied to the testing Account Group on 27 September 2022. You can then test the impact of the NPCAP upgrade for the agents in this Account Group.
Phase 3 : General Availability of the Upgrade
In this phase starting on 28 September 2022, you will be upgraded automatically to the version 1.55 of the NPCAP driver. No action is required from your side.
Report an Upgrade Issue
Please open a support case if you experience issues with the upgrade. In some scenarios, ThousandEyes may disable auto-updates temporarily on your production Account Group until the issue gets resolved.
Auto updates are important for stability, security, and product function.

Endpoint Agent Installation Reference

Configuring

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Outline

Phase 1 : Manual Testing

Phase 2 : Automated Early Release Testing

Pre-requisites

Phase 3 : General Availability of the Upgrade

Report an Upgrade Issue