Upgrading Operating Systems for Enterprise Agents

This article provides an overview of upgrading your operating system to a supported version for the ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent, and provides links to specific upgrade instructions for supported environments.

Supported Operating Systems

For a full list of supported operating systems, see Enterprise Agent System Requirements.

Support Lifecycle

As operating system providers end support for versions of their operating systems, ThousandEyes will reduce or end support for Enterprise Agents on those operating systems. For more information on the lifecycle status of supported operating systems, see Enterprise Agent Support Lifecycle.

Additional Information for Installation Types

Linux Packages

Customers who choose to install the ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent onto their own Linux system using the Linux Package installation method are responsible for system maintenance.

ThousandEyes has tested and documented the upgrade process for supported Linux distributions.

Docker Enterprise Agents

The current Docker container is built using the base Ubuntu 20.04 container image. Ubuntu 18.04 containers need to be re-launched using the Ubuntu 20.04 image.

For most setups, the command sequence will be:

docker pull <name>
docker stop <running-agent>
docker rm <running-agent>
docker run <same options as previous launch>

Cisco Switch Virtual Appliances

Cisco switch-based deployments must be replaced. Consult the section below and either the Installation for Cisco IOS XE Containers or Installation for Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series Switches deployment guides for guidance.

ThousandEyes Virtual Appliances

ThousandEyes virtual appliances are based on supported Ubuntu LTS releases. See Supported Operating Systems - Ubuntu for more information on the specific supported Ubuntu release and support lifecycle.

For operating system upgrades, customers are responsible for upgrading the TEVA to the latest supported version. ThousandEyes will make best efforts to communicate affected customers through alerts in the ThousandEyes web application, emails to subscribers, and the Changelog.

Replacing Enterprise Agents

ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents can be replaced, rather than upgraded, either by clustering agents, or by transferring the agent identity files.

Agent Clustering

This method consists of deploying a new agent, clustering together the new agent with the old one, and then deleting the old agent from the cluster. The act of clustering transfers test associations and agent characteristics.

Complete instructions for replacing Enterprise Agents using the agent clustering method are available here.

Transferring Agent Identity Files

During the installation of a replacement Enterprise Agent, identity files from an existing Enterprise Agent are transferred to the replacement system. The platform will make no distinction between the original agent and the replacement agent.

Complete instructions for replacing Enterprise Agents using agent identity files are available here.

Requesting Support Consultations

Some customers may use the upgrade process as an opportunity to consider new agent deployment options, such as replacing virtual machines with containers. ThousandEyes Customer Engineering is available via our in-application chat function, or via email at [e-mail] to answer any questions that you may have.