Cisco ThousandEyes

Description

Cisco ThousandEyes, the cloud-based network intelligence tool, delivers expanded visibility, automated insights, and seamless workflows to ensure digital experiences across any network—whether on premise, on the Internet, or in the cloud. ThousandEyes is the authority when monitoring SaaS, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. With unparalleled real-time analytics and insights, it enables IT admins to quickly identify and resolve issues for a reduction of downtime and improved user experience.

In Cisco ThousandEyes, network solutions specialists Aaron Trompeter and Robert Webb offer a deep dive into the intricacies and power of the Cisco ThousandEyes platform and demonstrate how to leverage it to solve complex problems and optimize your digital experience. Through real-world experiences and use cases, the authors demonstrate how to plan and design network monitoring solutions, as well as how to improve performance and availability. You’ll also learn how ThousandEyes can be integrated with other Cisco products and third-party tools.

This is an essential resource for any network administrator, DevOps engineer, IT professional, enterprise IT team, cloud engineer, application team, and service provider responsible for managing and optimizing the performance of an organization’s network infrastructure and application performance.

• Explore Cisco ThousandEyes and its capabilities, and learn how to harness its potential for your organization
• Delve into agent setup, test configurations, alerts, and dashboards, and learn how to apply them effectively
• Understand the intricacies of monitoring and troubleshooting network performance issues, and use these skills to enhance network efficiency
• Conduct advanced tests using transactional scripts and integrations, and use them for complex problem-solving
• Implement best practices for test optimization and device monitoring to ensure optimal functionality
• Understand the importance of account settings and automation and their roles in streamlining operations
• Align the role of business strategy in the context of digital experience monitoring with your organization’s goals

Introduction xvi
Chapter 1 Introduction to ThousandEyes and Its Capabilities 1
How ThousandEyes Was Conceived 1
Understanding ThousandEyes Use Cases 2
Fundamental Network Metrics 3
    It’s the Network 3
    Operational Impact 3
        Packet Loss 4
        Network Latency 7
    Maximum Theoretical Throughput 11
        Results 15
Review Questions 16
Chapter 2 Agent Setup 17
Enterprise Agents 17
    Enterprise Agent Installation 18
        Cisco Application Framework Installation 18
        Open Virtual Appliance Installation 25
        Enterprise Agent Using Docker 33
        Enterprise Agent Using Linux 37
    Enterprise Agent Utilization 39
    Agent Cluster and Agent Clustering 41
    Enterprise Agent Placement 44
Cloud Agents 45
Endpoint Agents 46
Review Questions 48
Chapter 3 Configuring Tests 49
Tests for Enterprise and Cloud Agents 49
    Routing Layer 49
        Configure Inside-Out BGP Visibility 51
    Network Layer 53
        Agent to Agent Test 53
        Agent to Server Test 56
    DNS Layer 58
        DNS Server Test 59
        DNS Trace Test 62
        DNSSEC Test 64
    Web Layer 66
        HTTP Server Test 66
        Page Load Tests 70
        Transaction Test 73
        FTP Server Test 74
    Voice Layer 76
        SIP Server Test 78
        RTP Stream Test 80
Endpoint Agent Tests 82
    Adding Multiple Tests to a Template 90
    Dynamic Tests 90
    Real User Tests 97
        Monitored Domain Set 97
        How Real User Tests Work 97
Review Questions 99
Chapter 4 Configuring Alerts 101
Alert Rules 101
Alert Conditions 103
Alert Notifications 104
    Email Notifications 104
    Webhooks 105
Alert Suppression 107
Finding the Source of the Alert 109
Alert History 110
Review Questions 110
Chapter 5 Dashboards 111
Dashboard Basics 111
Widgets 114
Creating a New Dashboard 116
Review Questions 121
Chapter 6 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Network Performance Issues 123
Understanding Views 123
Understanding Network Monitoring 125
    System/Application Testing 127
    End-to-End Network Testing 127
    Hop-by-Hop Network Testing (Path Visualization) 129
SD-WAN Performance Monitoring 134
    Network Overlay 134
    Network Underlay 135
MPLS Performance Monitoring 136
MTU Best Practices 137
    Overlay Network MTU 138
    Underlay Network MTU 140
    Alerting 141
Overloaded: An NFL Story 142
Review Questions 145
Chapter 7 Scripted Synthetic User Testing with Transaction Tests 147
What Is Selenium? 148
Page Load Test Versus Transaction Test 148
Set Up and Create a Transaction Test with the ThousandEyes Recorder 149
Troubleshooting and Debugging Transaction Test Scripts 153
Transaction Test Script Best Practices 154
Viewing the Transaction Test Data 155
Full Stack Observability for the Network Engineer 158
    Output 158
    Input 159
    Processes 161
Review Questions 162
Chapter 8 Integrations 163
API Basics 163
Custom Webhooks 166
ServiceNow Integration 168
Cisco Integrations 175
    Cisco Catalyst Center (Formerly Cisco DNA Center) 175
    Cisco Meraki 181
    Cisco Webex Control Hub 185
    Cisco AppDynamics 187
    Cisco SD-WAN 192
OpenTelemetry Integration 197
Review Questions 202
Chapter 9 Best Practices: Test Optimization, Collaboration, and Stories from the Field 203
ThousandEyes Test Optimization 203
    End-to-End Testing: Probing Mode 206
        Cumulative Acknowledgements 206
        Selective Acknowledgements 208
        SYN 210
    Path Visualization 211
        Path Trace Mode 211
        No. of Path Traces 215
        Probing and Path Trace Modes for Different Agent Types 216
Monitoring Collaboration Meetings 216
    Webex 218
        Cloud & Enterprise Agents 218
        Endpoint Agents 218
        Internet Insights 221
    Teams 222
        Cloud and Enterprise Agents 222
        Endpoint Agents 227
        Internet Insights 230
    Zoom 231
        Cloud and Enterprise Agents 232
        Endpoint Agents 232
        Internet Insights 233
Stories from the Field 235
    FTP Throughput Analysis and Optimization 235
    User Experience Versus Application Performance Metric—Call Center SLA 239
    Connections Failing at Load Balancer 241
    Load Balancing with 20% Failure Rate 243
    When MSS Matters 244
    Bizarre Failure Is Not Adding Up 248
        Problem Description 248
        First Progress 249
        Hypothesis 250
        First Significant Finding 250
        Eureka! 251
Review Questions 253
Chapter 10 Device Monitoring 255
ThousandEyes Device Monitoring 255
    Device Discovery 259
    Scheduled Discovery 262
    Discovered Devices 264
    Device Details 265
    Device Alerts 266
    Device Notifications 269
    Device Views 269
    Path Visualization with Device Monitoring 272
Operational Insights 273
    Replacing a Device with a New Piece of Hardware 273
    Polling 273
    Topology 273
    Agent Clusters 274
Review Questions 274
Chapter 11 Account Administration 275
Adding a New User 275
    Default Roles 276
    Account Groups 277
    Role-Based Access Control 279
    Single Sign-On with ThousandEyes 281
        Identity Provider Setup 282
        ThousandEyes Setup 282
        Imported Metadata Configuration 284
    Activity Log 285
        Time Selector 286
        Add a Filter 287
        Download Logs 288
    Usage 289
        Usage Tab 290
        Quotas Tab 291
Review Questions 293
Chapter 12 Automation—Use Cases and Case Studies 295
Use Case 1: Automated Testing Basics 295
    Webhooks on GitHub 296
Use Case 2: Jenkins 297
Use Case 3: Ansible Playbook 299
Use Case 4: Kubernetes 300
    Scaling ThousandEyes via Automation 301
Operationalizing 301
    Dashboards for Comparisons 301
        Inside Your Network vs. Outside Your Network (the Internet) 302
        Comparing ISPs 304
        Comparing In-Office and Outside-of-Office User Experience 304
        Comparing Inside a Building by Floors and Zones 306
    Data Center Monitoring 306
    VXLAN Versus Traditional Layer 2/Layer 3 307
    Agent Placement 307
    Additional Note for Cisco Nexus Devices 308
Review Questions 308
Chapter 13 Business Strategy for Engineers 309
Bridge the Divide: Aligning Technical Expertise with Business Strategy 309
Appendix A Answers to Review Questions 315
Appendix B Troubleshooting 323
Glossary 333

9780138309183    TOC  8/1/2024

Aaron Trompeter is a technical solutions architect within the ThousandEyes global enterprise segment at Cisco, focusing on visibility and operational awareness for onprem, SaaS, and cloud native. In this role, he aligns his passion for education and learning with his motivation for helping the infrastructure community grow and learn to harness tools to provide use cases that fit each organization. Prior to this role, Aaron spent 6 years as a data center TSA within Cisco and had a few other roles within Cisco as a service provider specialist and software engineer in the Cloud Engineering unit. Aaron has more than 20 years of experience in the IT and engineering areas and has continued to focus on networking and software.

Rob Webb began his technical career when, at 17 years old, he enlisted in the military as a teletype technician. His military service spanned more than 28 years, during which time he trained and worked in telecommunications systems, F-4 and F-16 avionics systems, and, eventually, Cyber Warfare Operations. Most of this time was spent working part-time in the Air National Guard. This allowed Rob to not only get the benefits of military training and experience but also to pursue a full-time career outside the military. He went from pulling cable to IT professional services to protocol analysis to pre-sales engineering/solutions architecture. Rob even ran his own consulting service, WEBNET Communication, where he achieved industry-recognized certifications in protocol analysis, which include Certified Network Expert (CNX), Sniffer Certified (SCM), and Certified NetAnalyst.

Rob has spent his career solving complex problems for customers and helping them design and implement monitoring solutions so they can better solve those problems themselves. He has spent many hours collecting and analyzing packets to understand not only what is happening in each situation, but also what should be happening and what can be done to improve it. He often refers to these as opportunities for optimization. Rob joined ThousandEyes as a sales engineer in March, 2020.

When Rob is not working, he keeps busy by enjoying outdoor activities such as fishing and photography. Now he combines the two in his sportfishing photography. You can follow Rob on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/robertwebbcyberguy) or Instagram (@photographyinspiredbylife).

Additional information