Installing Enterprise Agents on Cisco Nexus Switches with Application Hosting

This article covers the steps to install a ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent on supported Cisco Nexus switches using Cisco Application Hosting, rather than using the guestshell. For guestshell instructions, see Installing Enterprise Agents on Cisco Switches with DCNM

Prerequisites

• A ThousandEyes account with permissions to install new agents. For more information on setting up a ThousandEyes account, see Getting Started with Account Setup.

• A supported Cisco Nexus switch. For more information on supported devices, see the Nexus Switching Support Matrix.

Installation Instructions

1. Log into the ThousandEyes web application.

2. Navigate to Cloud & Enterprise Agents > Agent Settings > Enterprise Agents > Agents.

3. Click Add New Enterprise Agent.

4. In the pop out panel, navigate to Cisco Application Hosting > Nexus Switches.

   

Download the TAR File

The TAR file can either be downloaded directly to the switch by using the NX-OS copy command, or downloaded via a web browser from the ThousandEyes webapp and then transferred to the Nexus switch:

ThousandEyes recommends using the copy command if possible, as it reduces the download process to a single step, and will also verify access to thousandeyes.com from the switch.

Depending on your network configuration, you may need to specify which VRF to use to reach downloads.thousandeyes.com as part of the copy command.

Copy Command

1. In a terminal window on the Cisco Nexus switch, run the copy command shown in the ThousandEyes webapp to download the TAR file. It should look something like this:

   copy https://downloads.thousandeyes.com/enterprise-agent/thousandeyes-enterprise-agent-VERSION.cisco.tar bootflash:

If you encounter an error running the copy command, follow the instructions in Browser Download instead.

Browser Download

1. From the Cisco Application Hosting > Nexus Switches screen, click the Download - TAR button.

2. In a terminal window, use SCP, FTP, TFTP, or USB storage to copy the TAR file to the switch's bootflash: directory. We recommend using the same method used to copy the NX-OS system software image onto the switch. For more information, see Installing NX-OS.

Generate and Run Commands

1. From the Cisco Application Hosting > Nexus Switches screen, configure the required fields (and any optional ones you want) to generate the basic command structure for installing and starting the agent:

   

   • App ID: The name used in the NX-OS CLI to manage the application hosting container.

   • Bridge ID: The number of the application hosting bridge instance created to connect the container to an L3 network on the switch. For more information, see Configuring Application Hosting Bridge Connections.

   • IP Address: The IP address assigned to the interface inside the container.

   • Agent Hostname (Optional): The hostname assigned to the agent within the container. By default, this is the same hostname as the switch.

   • Name Server IP: The DNS IP address used within the container.

   • Gateway IP: The default gateway IP address used within the container. This is usually the IP address of the application hosting bridge.

   • Name Server IP 2 (Optional): An alternate DNS IP address.

2. Once the basic commands have been pre-configured, copy them from the web browser to a local machine.

3. Edit and expand the commands as necessary. Additional run-opts commands can be added as needed. For available commands, see Docker Agent Configuration Options.

4. Once the commands are ready, in a terminal window on the Nexus switch, run the commands in order from top to bottom, excluding the copy command.

Limitations

• NX-OS version 10.3(3) and earlier does not support configuring multiple interfaces.

Troubleshooting

NX-OS Copy Command Does Not Work With HTTPS

There is an existing bug that prevents the NX-OS copy command from working with HTTPS. This prevents users from downloading the ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent TAR file directly to the device.

Workaround

To workaround this issue, we recommend you download the TAR file, and then copy it to the switch using the same method used for copying the NX-OS system software image to the device.