Deployment

ThousandEyes Agent

Deploy the ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent in Kubernetes and verify that it registers correctly with ThousandEyes Cloud.

20 minutes

This section guides you through deploying the ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent in your Kubernetes cluster.

Installation Steps

Step 1: Create the ThousandEyes Token

  1. Log in to the ThousandEyes platform at app.thousandeyes.com/login

  2. Navigate to Network & App Synthetics > Agent Settings > Enterprise Agents > Add New Enterprise Agent

  3. Click the Appliance tab

  4. Copy your Account Group Token

  5. Base64 encode the token:

bash 
echo -n 'your-token-here' | base64
  1. Save the base64-encoded output for the next step

Get ThousandEyes Token

Step 2: Create the Secret

Create a file named credentialsSecret.yaml with your base64-encoded token:

yaml 
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: te-creds
type: Opaque
data:
  TEAGENT_ACCOUNT_TOKEN: <your-base64-encoded-token-here>

Apply the secret:

bash 
kubectl apply -f credentialsSecret.yaml

Step 3: Create the Deployment

Create a file named thousandEyesDeploy.yaml with the deployment manifest shown below (customize the hostname with your username, like tihard):

yaml 
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: thousandeyes
  labels:
    app: thousandeyes
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: thousandeyes
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: thousandeyes
    spec:
      hostname: te-agent-USERNAME
      containers:
      - name: thousandeyes
        image: 'thousandeyes/enterprise-agent:latest'
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        command:
          - /sbin/my_init
        securityContext:
          capabilities:
            add:
              - NET_ADMIN
              - SYS_ADMIN
        env:
          - name: TEAGENT_ACCOUNT_TOKEN
            valueFrom:
              secretKeyRef:
                name: te-creds
                key: TEAGENT_ACCOUNT_TOKEN
          - name: TEAGENT_INET
            value: "4"
        resources:
          limits:
            memory: 3584Mi
          requests:
            memory: 2000Mi

Explanation of settings

  • The agent requires elevated privileges (NET_ADMIN, SYS_ADMIN) to perform network tests
  • The TEAGENT_INET: "4" environment variable forces IPv4-only mode (required for some network configurations)
  • The /sbin/my_init command is required for proper agent initialization and service management
  • The imagePullPolicy: Always ensures you always pull the latest image version
  • Adjust the hostname field to uniquely identify your agent in the ThousandEyes dashboard
  • The ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent has relatively high hardware requirements; you may need to adjust these depending on your environment

Apply the deployment:

bash 
kubectl apply -f thousandEyesDeploy.yaml

Step 5: Verify the Deployment

Verify the agent is running:

bash 
kubectl get pods

Tip

You can use:

bash 
watch -n 1 kubectl get pods

to monitor until the pod is running. Use this tip any time we’re waiting for something to start.

Check the logs to ensure the agent is connecting. It may take a little bit to get similar output to what is below.

bash 
kubectl logs -l app=thousandeyes

Step 6: Verify in ThousandEyes Dashboard

Verify in the ThousandEyes dashboard that the agent has registered successfully:

Navigate to Network & App Synthetics > Agent Settings to see your newly registered agent.

ThousandEyes Agent List

Success

Your ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent is now running in Kubernetes! Next, we’ll integrate it with Splunk Observability Cloud.

Troubleshooting Guidance

If for some reason you didn’t see the agent, check to make sure you encoded the token (first step).

Background

ThousandEyes does not provide official Kubernetes deployment documentation. Their standard deployment method uses docker run commands, which makes it challenging to translate into reusable Kubernetes manifests. This guide bridges that gap by providing production-ready Kubernetes configurations.

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