Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Solution Integrations Guide, Releases 26.x and Later

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Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Solution Integrations Guide, Releases 26.x and Later

Provision Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent in a Service VPN or Transport VPN (VPN0)

Updated: April 24, 2026

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Configure Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent in a service VPN to gain visibility into SD-WAN overlay and underlay network performance.

You can provision the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent in a service VPN for more visibility into the performance of the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN overlay and underlay networks.

When you host the ThousandEyes agent on a router, you can deploy it in either a Service VPN or the Transport VPN (VPN0), based on your functional requirements and network topology. Deploying the ThousandEyes agent in VPN0 offers a simple routing approach when you need to send probe traffic over a single available underlay WAN link. In environments with multiple WAN links, Cisco recommends deploying the ThousandEyes agent in a Service VPN. This deployment method gives you granular control and enables you to create policies that direct probe traffic over specific underlay WAN paths, effectively simulating real-world traffic flows. If you deploy the ThousandEyes agent in VPN0 in a multi-WAN environment, the router load-balances probe traffic across all available WAN links, which may result in non-actionable monitoring insights.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that DNS and NAT are correctly configured so that the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent can access and connect to the Cisco ThousandEyes application.

  • Upload Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent software to SD-WAN Manager software repository.

    Note

    If multiple versions of the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent software are present in the SD-WAN Manager software repository, while provisioning the agent, SD-WAN Manager installs and activates the latest version of the agent software.

  • For application monitoring use cases, deploy the ThousandEyes agent in the Service VPN and use an SD-WAN data policy to send ThousandEyes probes across transports

Procedure

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. Create feature template for the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent:
  2. Attach the ThousandEyes Agent feature template to device template:
  3. Repeat Step 2 for each device on which you want to deploy the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent.

DETAILED STEPS

1.

Create feature template for the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent:

  1. From the Cisco SD-WAN Manager menu, choose CONFIGURATION > Templates.

  2. Click Feature Templates, and click Add Template to select an appropriate device model.

    Note

    In Cisco vManage Release 20.7.x and earlier releases, Feature Templates is titled as Feature.

  3. Choose the supported devices to which you want to apply this template.

  4. In the Other Templates section, click ThousandEyes Agent.

  5. Template Name: Enter a name for the template. Ensure that the template name is unique.

  6. Description: Enter a description for the template.

  7. In the BASIC CONFIGURATION section, configure these fields:

    Account Group Token Enter the Cisco ThousandEyes Account Group Token.
    VPN

    1. Set the VPN CONFIGURATION as a Global or a Device Specific setting.

    2. Enter the ID of the service VPN in which you want to provision the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent.
    Agent IP Address

    Enter an IP address for the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent.

    This IP Address should be unique within the fabric and should not overlap with the IP addresses of other branch agents.
    Agent Default Gateway Enter a default gateway address. This IP address is assigned to the virtual port group of the router.
    Note

    You can create and allocate a service subnet for the agent network. Two usable IP addresses are required to provision the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent on each Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN device. One of the IP addresses must be assigned to the agent and second IP address to the router virtual port group.

  8. In the ADVANCED section, configure these fields:

    Name Server

    (Optional parameter from Cisco vManage Release 20.7.1 and Cisco IOS XE Release 17.7.1a)

    Enter the IP address of your preferred DNS server.

    This server can exist within or outside the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN fabric but must be reachable from the service VPN.
    Hostname (Optional) Enter the hostname that the agent must use when registering with the Cisco ThousandEyes portal. By default, the agent uses the Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN device's hostname.
    Web Proxy Type

    (Optional) If the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent must use proxy server for external access, choose one of these as proxy type:

    • Static

    • PAC

    Static proxy settings:

    • Proxy Host: Set the CONFIGURATION as a Global setting and enter the hostname of the proxy server.

    • Proxy Port: Set the CONFIGURATION as a Global setting and enter the port number of the proxy server.

    PAC settings:

    • PAC URL: Set the CONFIGURATION as a Global setting and enter the URL of the proxy auto-CONFIGURATION (PAC) file.

  9. Click Save.
2.

Attach the ThousandEyes Agent feature template to device template:

  1. From the Cisco SD-WAN Manager menu, choose CONFIGURATION > Templates.

  2. Click Device Templates.

    Note

    In Cisco vManage Release 20.7.x and earlier releases, Device Templates is titled as Device

  3. Find the device template for the target device.

  4. For this template, click …, and click Edit.

  5. Click Additional Templates.

  6. Click Update.

  7. Update necessary variables, if any, and click Next.

  8. Review the CONFIGURATION and click Configure Devices.
3.

Repeat Step 2 for each device on which you want to deploy the Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent.

The Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise agent is deployed on the chosen devices. The agent registers with and establishes secure communication with the cloud-based Cisco ThousandEyes application to receive necessary updates and CONFIGURATION.

What to do next

You can configure various tests and see resultant network and application telemetry data on the Cisco ThousandEyes portal.