Cisco RoomOS Devices Integration

Cisco's RoomOS is the cloud-connected operating system that enables your Cisco devices to deliver great hybrid work experiences – enhancing productivity and collaboration. The Endpoint agents are natively incorporated into RoomOS devices and provide hop-by-hop network path visibility when these devices are part of the meetings. These agents can be activated explicitly using Control Hub, the same integration used for Windows and macOS clients. Therefore, network administrators get a familiar troubleshooting experience.
This document lets you learn how to set up the Endpoint agents on RoomOS devices.

Pre-requisites

  • Activate the ControlHub integration by following all the steps mentioned here.
  • Get the connection string for the account group you want the agent on the device to register with. Please make sure that this account group corresponds to the one where ControlHub integration was enabled in the previous prerequisite step.
  • Ensure sufficient Endpoint licenses (Advantage or Essentials) as this integration consumes one Endpoint license per device.
  • The version for RoomOS Device firmware must be RoomOS 11.7.1.6 16945c93906 or higher.

Getting Started

  1. 1.
    To enable the Endpoint agent on select devices (you can skip this step if you intend to enable the agents for all the devices in the organization):
    First, enable the feature for the organization:
    • On the left navigation bar, select Devices in the Management Section.
    • At the top of the screen, choose Settings.
    • In the ThousandEyes section, turn on the Enable ThousandEyes Agent toggle.
    • Do not click the Add button for the Connection String. That needs to be done on the individual device configuration shown in the next steps.
    To activate a single device:
    • On the left navigation bar, select Devices in the Management Section.
    • Search for the device that you intend to enable.
    • On the right-hand side, in the Configuration Section, select All Configurations.
    • In the search bar, type ThousandEyes Connection String.
    • Enter the connection string you obtained in the first step.
  • Select Next, then Apply, and then Review.
  • Repeat the steps for the devices you would like to enable.
  1. 2.
    To enable the Endpoint agents on all the devices:
    • On the left navigation bar, select Devices in the Management Section.
    • At the top of the screen, choose Settings.
    • In the ThousandEyes section, turn on the Enable ThousandEyes Agent toggle.
    • Click the Add button.
    • Enter the connection string you obtained in the first step.
  • Save the changes to activate all the devices. Also, any new devices added in the future will get activated automatically.
It takes about 10 minutes for an agent activated through ControlHub to register in ThousandEyes. This happens only for the first time an agent is enabled. However, you can restart the device to register the agent instantly.
  1. 3.
    Upon activating the agents, go to the Agent Settings section in the ThousandEyes application and make sure the agent is registered. You will see the devices listed by their SEPMAC name (Ethernet address).

Configuring Endpoint Agent Tests

After installing the agent, you need to enable the right set of tests. The ThousandEyes Endpoint Agent provides you with the following test types:
  • Automated session tests automatically identify and test remote targets for collaboration applications, based on observed network connections to dynamic remote servers.
To configure automated session tests, navigate to Endpoint Agents > Test Settings > Automated Session Tests and click Add New Test.
For detailed instructions on setting up automated session tests, see Configure Automated Session Tests.
  • Scheduled tests are HTTP server or network tests that are run from Endpoint Agents at regularly scheduled intervals so you get a continuous baseline from the end user's vantage point.
To configure a scheduled test, go to Endpoint Agents > Test Settings. You can configure a web-based or network test, and set a test interval ranging from every minute to once every hour.
For detailed instructions on schedule tests, see Configure Schedule Tests.

How to verify Endpoint Agents are sending data?

Once the agents are activated and devices have participated in a few meetings you can go to the ControlHub troubleshooting page to verify the integration is working and that agents are sending data.

Limitations

  • At present, the integration supports Webex meetings only. Support for other meeting types including Microsoft Teams will be done in the future.
  • The integration does not support deployments with Proxy. Support for the proxy is in development and will be made available in the future.
  • This integration works only on the current portfolio RoomOS-11 devices and does not support DX/SX/MX.
  • For deletion of Endpoint Agents:
    • Endpoint agents deleted via the ThousandEyes dashboard can be recovered only if the agent version is 1.166.0 or higher. Also, it may take the agents up to one hour to start functioning again post-recovery.
    • Endpoint agents with the version below 1.166.0 cannot be recovered if deleted.
    • If you cannot recover the Endpoint agent, you can use ControlHub to reactivate it. However, it might show up as a duplicate of the previously removed agent in filters until the data produced by the deleted agent becomes obsolete.

Next Steps

After completing this integration, the following links will help you in getting the most out of the ThousandEyes Endpoint Agents: