The Virtual Appliance is a virtual machine containing a pre-built ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent, which can be quickly imported into virtualization software, configured and made available for use in testing. This article describes the requirements and steps required to install and use the ThousandEyes Virtual Appliance.

System requirements

Working network to the virtual machine
At least 2 gigabytes of memory for the virtual machine

Overview

The installation process for a Virtual Appliance consists of two parts:

Import the Virtual Appliance into your virtualization software (hypervisor)
Installation instructions fall into one of two groups, depending on the type of hypervisor:
- Virtualization software that supports Open Virtualization Format (OVA/OVF):
  Oracle VirtualBox, VMWare products, Microsoft Hyper-V for Windows Server 2012, 2016
- Virtualization software that does not support Open Virtualization Format (OVA/OVF):
  Microsoft Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008
Configure the Virtual Appliance

Importing the Virtual Appliance

Where to find what you need

Before starting with the import it is necessary to know where these resources can be accessed.

Enterprise Agents are listed in the Agent Settings.
If no agents have been installed yet the listing will show No Enterprise Agents Found

User-added image

To import a Virtual Appliance agent from this area, click the Add New Enterprise Agent Button.
Follow the steps below to proceed with the Import from this area of the ThousandEyes platform.

Import with Open Virtualization Format (OVA)

Download the latest thousandeyes-va-<version>.ova file from the Cloud & Enterprise Agents > Agent Settings > Enterprise Agents > Agents page.
Click the Add New Enterprise Agent Button on the left hand side of the Agent Settings Screen.
There are several package types and options under this Menu. Under the Package Type “Appliance” should be selected: Click the button in the listing labeled Download - OVA for Virtual Appliance shown above the link for this Installation Guide.
Double-click the downloaded thousandeyes-va-latest.ova file, or import it based on the virtualization software if this does not occur automatically. Click the import button and the progress of the installation will be shown.
Go through the steps in the VM application you have.
Note: We recommend at least 2GB RAM memory allocated for the Virtual Appliance.
- Oracle VirtualBox - instructions can be found on the VirtualBox manuals, at this link.
- VMware Fusion (5.x) - instructions can be found on the VMware Fusion knowledgebase, at this link.
- VMware Fusion (4.x) - to import an OVA file into VMware Fusion 4.x, you first need to convert the .OVA file that we ship to a .VMX. This is managed through a standalone converter published by VMware, and is available at this link. Once you have converted the file to a .VMX file, then it can be imported by following the instructions found on the VMware Fusion Knowledge Base, at this link.
- VMware Workstation (9.x) - Instructions can be found on the VMware Workstation knowledgebase, at this link.
- VMware ESXi (4.x-6.x) - Instructions can be found on the VMware Community forum, at this link.
- Microsoft Hyper-V - Instructions can be found in this ThousandEyes Knowledge Base article.
No matter which platform you choose, you will need to configure your guest (virtual machine) to use a bridged network connection, so that the guest has unimpeded network and Internet access. (see screenshot below).
- NOTE: For VMware hypervisors, VMXNET 3 adapter type is recommended. Flexible adapters are currently not supported.
Configure the Virtual Appliance.

Imported OVA appearing in VirtualBox

Network Settings showing Bridged Adapter selected

Virtual Appliance View following Start

Proceed to the section linked here on Configuring the Virtual Appliance to continue configuring of the Open Virtualization Format (OVA).

Import with Microsoft Hyper-V format

The instructions below use Hyper-V Manager from Windows Server 2016, but the steps are similar for prior versions of Hyper-V.
Download the latest thousandeyes-va-<version>.zip file from the Cloud & Enterprise Agents > Agent Settings > Enterprise Agents > Agents page.
Click the Add New Enterprise Agent Button on the left hand side of the Agent Settings Screen.
There are several package types and options under this Menu. Under the Package Type “Appliance” should be selected: Click the button in the listing labeled Download - OVA for Virtual Appliance shown above the link for this Installation Guide.
Extract the zip file to the location that you would like to keep your Virtual Appliance files. We recommend using the default Hyper-V virtual machines folder.
Note: You cannot move the files after completing these steps.
Run Hyper-V Manager and click on "Import Virtual Machine...".
Click "Browse" to the select location of the extracted files. This folder should contain two folders: "Virtual Hard Disks" and "Virtual Machines" as well as the file "config.xml".
Select "Copy the Virtual Machine (create a new unique ID)" and leave "Duplicate all files so that the same virtual machine can be imported again" unchecked, then click Import.
After the virtual machine has been imported, click "Settings...".
Select "Network Adapter" from the left pane.
In the drop-down menu under "Network:" select the appropriate network that you would like this virtual machine to connect to. This network should be accessible to you, and have access to the Internet.
Click Ok.
You can now run the virtual machine by clicking "Connect..." then "Start".
Configure the Virtual Appliance.

Configuring the Virtual Appliance

In order to get a new agent to appear in the Agents Settings page listing the newly downloaded ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent (TEVA) Virtual Appliance will need to be configured.

After the system starts a screen will appear that will show and IP address for the management console and default access credentials
Access the ThousandEyes Virtual Appliance interface through the URL in that screen and login with the credentials shown.
Open a browser entering the URL presented on the screen. Enter the default username and password given.
Change the Virtual Appliance management console Web Interface Password and Click the “Change Password” Button.
Following that enter the Account Group Token in the field that will show up under the Agent Section. This should appear automatically after changing the password.
Retrieve the Account Group token from Cloud & Enterprise Agents > Agent Settings > Enterprise Agents > Agents > Add New Enterprise Agents view. It can be found under the link labeled "Show Account Group Token for Installation". This will reveal the token so it may be copied for use.
Paste the Account Group Token into the Account Token field. The field should turn green.
Yes is selected for Browserbot by default since this component is required for Page Load and Transaction test types.
Click the Continue button.
Following that The Review Section will appear and Diagnostics will begin to run. Some errors will show up initially as red then turn to green. Wait a few minutes.
When the agent checks in with the Account Group Token it should appear in the listing. For convenience if there are a number of agents listed the new Enterprise Agent will be listed.
Initially the status of the agent will show up in Red as Offline. Check back in to the management console Web Interface and wait for Appliance Status and Diagnostics to show up in Green. When this happens click the Complete Button. See Supplemental Screenshots for a visual detail of this and the following steps.
The Network Section of the Web Interface will be shown. Select the Status Section once more and click the Run Diagnostics Button
Flipping back to the Agent Settings page the Agent Status in the Listing should show Status/Last Contact in Yellow.
At this point Agent versions will show up in the detail. The agent will be automatically updating its version with the ThousandEyes Platform. In order to do this it needs to be able to communicate with the platform. See the Related Articles section for more. While this is happening check that your Agent status periodically again: Cloud & Enterprise Agents > Agent Settings > Enterprise Agents > Agents > Add New Enterprise Agents. Wait for the Agent to check and upgrade to the latest version. This can be confirmed after the Status/Last Contact field shows up in Green and the time following last contact in minutes shows. Opening up the detail for the agent listing will show the Versions of the Agent and Browserbot components (no longer in red) upgraded to the latest version.

Supplemental Screenshots

The following screenshots appear while completing configuration. During this process the agent is communicating with the platform and updating. Expect to see these views during that process: