Install Test Agent Appliance

The installation topic covers procedures to install the Test Agent Appliance as a bootable image on a custom x86 hardware, install the Test Agent Appliance on a Proxmox server and Google Cloud Platform, and register the Test Agent Appliance using the local console.

A Test Agent Appliance is a full-fledged Test Agent designed to test network performance, which is integrated with an optimized Debian Linux OS. The Test Agent Appliance can be packaged and delivered in a number of ways:

Dedicated Test Agent—You can download a Test Agent Appliance Software image and install on a custom x86 hardware.
Test Agent Virtualized Network Function (TA VNF)—You can upload a Test Agent Software image to a virtualization platform and run on a virtual machine (VM) running on a hypervisor.

Before You Begin

Before you begin the Test Agent Appliance installation:

Ensure that no firewalls are blocking the connection to Routing Director on TCP port 6800.
Ensure that the platform on which you are installing Test Agent Appliance has a minimum of 4.1 GiB storage space.

Install the Test Agent Appliance on a custom x86 hardware

You can boot a Test Agent Appliance directly from a USB flash drive. You can use the USB flash drive-based deployment as an alternative to the virtual machine-based deployment.

To install a Test Agent Appliance on a custom x86 hardware, you must:

Create a bootable USB flash drive by using command-line tool such as dd or applications such as Etcher or Win32 Disk Image. For more information, see Create a bootable USB flash drive.
Boot the custom x86 hardware from USB flash drive by using the BIOS boot manager. For more information, see Boot the custom x86 hardware from USB flash drive.

Create a bootable USB flash drive
Boot the custom x86 hardware from USB flash drive
Register a Test Agent Appliance from the local console

Create a bootable USB flash drive

You can create a bootable USB flash drive in one of the following ways:

To create a bootable USB flash drive by using Etcher:
1. Download the latest image of the Test Agent Appliance from the Software Download page.
2. Download and install Etcher on your device to create a bootable USB flash drive.
3. Insert a USB flash drive with at least 4.1 GB of free space into your hardware.
4. Launch Etcher, and select the Test Agent Appliance image from the hard disk of your x86 hardware.
5. Select the USB flash drive where you want to write the image.
6. Click Flash to start the process.
  
  Once the image has been flashed, you can eject your USB flash drive.
7. Eject the USB flash drive.
  
  The USB flash drive is now ready to be used as a bootable disk.
  
  For more information about Etcher, see Etcher documentation.
To create a bootable USB flash drive by using Win32 Disk Image, see Create a Bootable USB flash drive Using a Windows Device.
To create a bootable USB flash drive by using dd command on Max or Linux, see Create a Bootable USB flash drive Using a MAC OS X.

Warning: Make sure that the USB flash drive has a memory of 4.1 GiB for temporary installation files, and any existing content on the USB flash drive is erased.

Boot the custom x86 hardware from USB flash drive

You can boot the custom x86 hardware from USB flash drive by using the BIOS boot manager.

To boot the custom x86 hardware from USB flash drive:

Insert the bootable USB flash drive into a USB port on your custom x86 hardware.
Power on the x86 hardware, and press DEL, ESC, F2, or F12 depending on the hardware to access the BIOS menu.

You can now access the BIOS boot manager to check the USB selection.
Go to Boot Order settings and move the USB flash drive to the top of the priority list.
Select Save to update the settings and reboot.

The boot process takes up to 20 seconds, and once complete a login prompt is displayed.
Log in to the system by using the system credentials. The username is 'admin' and the password is 'admin'.
Navigate to Utilities and select Install to disk.

Once the installation is complete, you are prompted to remove the USB flash drive and reboot the hardware.

Note: Remove the USB flash drive before you reboot your x86 hardware.
Reboot your x86 hardware.

You have successfully installed Test Agent Appliance on an x86 hardware, and the custom x86 hardware now boot as a Test Agent Appliance.

Before you can use the Test Agent Appliance, you must register Test Agent Appliance with the Routing Director.

Register a Test Agent Appliance from the local console

When you reboot the custom x86 hardware, the Test Agent Admin Menu appears. To use the Test Agent Appliance, you must first configure the management interface to enable connectivity with Routing Director. Once you configure, you can proceed with registration.

Configure the management interface on Test Agent Appliance

To configure the management interface on a Test Agent Appliance:

Reboot the custom x86 hardware to access the Local Console.

The text-based Test Agent Admin Menu appears automatically when you reboot the custom x86 hardware.
Select Configure management, and click OK.

A Select Management Interface page appears.
Select the interface for management traffic, and click OK.

The Select Interface speed page appears.
Select the speed and duplex settings for the selected management interface, and click OK.

The page appears asking whether you want to use a VLAN tag for the management interface.
(Optional) Specify the VLAN tag. If your network setup requires VLAN tagging, select Yes and specify the appropriate VLAN ID.
Select one of the following IPv4 address types, and click OK.
- None—To not configure an IPv4 address type.
- Static—To manually specify the IPv4 address.
- DHCP—To automatically assign IPv4 address.
Select one of the following IPv6 address types, and click OK.
- None—To not configure an IPv6 address type.
- SLAAC—To automatically configure a stateless address.
- Static—To manually specify the IPv6 address.
- DHCP—To automatically assign IPv6 address.
Once you configure an IPv6 address, a page is displayed asking whether you want to enable IPv6 support for the NTP client.
Specify NTP servers as comma-separated list for accurate time synchronization, and click OK.

The page appears asking whether the information you specified is correct.
Verify the information, and click Yes.

Now, you are taken back to the Test Agent Admin Menu where you can register Test Agent Appliance with Routing Director.

Register a Test Agent Appliance by using Secret

To register a Test Agent Appliance by using Secret:

On the Routing Director GUI—

Navigate to the Test Agents (Inventory > Active Assurance > Test Agents) page.
Click the Add Test Agent button.

The Add Test Agent page appears.
Select Test Agent Appliance as the type of Test Agent.
Specify the Name, Tags, and Description for the Test Agent.
Click Create.

A message confirms that Routing Director has successfully added the Test Agent Appliance, and you are redirected to the Test Agent Details (Inventory > Active Assurance > Test Agents > Test Agent Details) page.
On the Download & Run tab, copy the secret key generated by Routing Director by using the Copy button next to the Secret text box. You can use this secret key to establish a connection with Routing Director.

On the Test Agent Admin Menu—

Configure the management interface as described in Configure the management interface on Test Agent Appliance.
Select Register/Connect from the text-based Test Agent Admin Menu.

The Register/Connect Menu page appears.
Select Register using secret, and click OK.

The Enter registration information page appears.
Specify the following details, and click OK.
- IP address of the Routing Director Test Agent Gateway.
- TCP port number that connects to Routing Director. The default TCP port number is 6800.
- Secret that you copied from the Download & Run tab.
A confirmation message appears displaying that the registration is successful.

Once the registration is successful, Test Agent Appliance is listed on the Test Agents (Inventory > Active Assurance > Test Agents) page on the Routing Director GUI.

Note: If the Routing Director uses a self-signed certificate, navigate to Utilities > SSL Certificate Validation on the Test Agent Admin Menu and disable the SSL certificate validation.

Register a Test Agent Appliance by using username and password

You can register a Test Agent Appliance by using username and password on the text-based Test Agent Admin Menu.

Note:

The preferred method for registering a Test Agent Appliance is by using a secret.

Warning:

The username and password authentication does not work if Single Sign-On (SSO) and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) are enabled.

To register a Test Agent Appliance by using username and password:

Select Register/Connect from the Test Agent Admin Menu.

The Register/Connect Menu page appears.
Select Register using user/password and click OK.

The Enter registration information page appears.
Specify the following details, and click OK.
- IP address of the Routing Director Test Agent Gateway.
- TCP port number that connects to Routing Director. The default TCP port number is 6800.
- Email address associated with your Routing Director account.
- Name for Test Agent Appliance.
Enter your Routing Director account password for authentication, and click OK.

A Select organization page appears.
Select your organization from the list, and click OK.

A confirmation message appears displaying that the registration is successful.

Once the registration is successful, Test Agent Appliance is listed on the Test Agents (Inventory > Active Assurance > Test Agents) page on the Routing Director GUI.

Install Test Agent Appliance on Proxmox

Proxmox is an open-source virtualization platform where you can deploy a Test Agent Appliance as a virtual machine (VM). This method helps you to run a Test Agent Appliance in a virtualized environment instead of dedicated physical hardware,

To install Test Agent Appliance on Proxmox server:

Create a VM without an operating system.
1. Log in to the Proxmox Web UI.
2. Click the Create VM button from the left-nav bar.
  
  The Create: Virtual Machine page appears.
3. In the General tab, specify the VM ID to identify the VM.
4. In the OS tab, select Do Not Use Any Media to prevent the VM from booting from a CD-ROM or ISO file.
5. In the Disk tab, click the Delete (trash can) icon to delete the default disk.
6. In the CPU, Memory, and Network tabs, specify details based on the VM requirements, and click Finish. For more information, see Proxmox VM settings.
Note: For a Test Agent, the requirements are:
- CPU— Miniumum1 vCPU (Recommended—2 vCPU)
- Memory—Minimum 256 MB RAM (Recommended—4 GB RAM)
- Disk Space—4.1 GB Disk
Create a directory to store qcow2 images.

Before you begin, download the latest image of the Test Agent qcow2 from the Software Download page.
1. In the Proxmox UI, click Host from the left-nav bar and click Shell to open the terminal.
2. Use the following command to create a directory:
3. Navigate to created directory and run the following command to download the image:
After you download, proceed to import the qcow2 image.
Import the qcow2 image.

On the Proxmox Shell, run the following command:
Note:
The <values> used in the commands are placeholders. You must replace them with required values based on your configuration need.
Attach the qcow2 virtual disk to the VM.
1. Select the VM you created and navigate to the Hardware > Hard disk.
2. Select the newly imported QCOW2 disk that is listed under Unused Disk and click the Edit button.
  
  The Add: Unused Disk page appears.
3. Select the bus type VirtIO Block from the drop-down list and click Add.
  
  You have successfully attached qcow2 disk to the VM as a VirtIO Block device.
Change the boot order.
1. Navigate to the Options > Boot Order.
2. Select Boot Order and move the VirtIO Block Disk to the top.
3. Click OK.
Start the VM.
1. Navigate to the Console menu.
2. Click Start Now to boot the Test Agent Appliance.
You have successfully deploy the Test Agent Appliance on Proxmox. You can use the cloud-config metadata to establish a communication with Routing Director.

Install Test Agent Appliance on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

You can install a Test Agent Appliance on various virtualization platforms like Google Cloud Platform (GCP). You can select a platform based on your infrastructure and scalability needs. Virtualization platforms provide flexible deployment options, centralized management, and automated scaling.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a suite of cloud computing services by Google. It enables you to run applications, store data, and manage workloads on a secure and scalable infrastructure.

On GCP, you can deploy the Test Agent Appliance on a Google Compute Engine (GCE) virtual machine by importing the Test Agent image into your GCP project.

Before you begin
Upload Test Agent Appliance Image on GCP
Register Test Agent Appliance as a Compute Engine Image
Create and Configure a GCE Instance using the Registered Image
Troubleshooting GCP Deployment
(Optional) Troubleshooting using the serial console

Before you begin

Download the Test Agent image file with the .gcp.tar.gz extension from the Software Download page.
Ensure you have an active Google Cloud account and appropriate IAM permissions such as Storage Admin and Compute Image Admin. For more information, see Authorization and access control.
Since the connection is initiated from the GCP towards Routing Director, ensure that firewalls do not block the connection to Routing Director on TCP port 6800.

To install Test Agent Appliance on GCP, you must:

Upload Test Agent Appliance image on GCP. For more information, see Upload Test Agent Appliance Image on GCP.
Register the Test Agent Appliance as a Compute Engine image. For more information, see Register Test Agent Appliance as a Compute Engine Image.
Create and configure a GCE instance using the registered image. For more information, see Create and Configure a GCE Instance using the Registered Image.
Troubleshooting GCP Deployment. For more information, see Troubleshooting GCP Deployment.
(Optional) Troubleshooting using the serial console. For more information, see (Optional) Troubleshooting using the serial console.

Upload Test Agent Appliance Image on GCP

To install Test Agent Appliance on GCP, you must first upload the virtual Test Agent image (.gcp.tar.gz) to your Google Cloud Storage bucket and register it as a Compute Engine image.

To upload the Test Agent Appliance image:

Sign in to Google Cloud Console.
Go to Navigation menu > Storage.
Create a new storage bucket or use an existing bucket to host the Test Agent Appliance image.
In the Objects tab for the bucket, click Upload files and upload the downloaded .gcp.tar.gz Test Agent appliance image.

For more information on uploading an image, see Upload an object to a bucket.

Register Test Agent Appliance as a Compute Engine Image

To register Test Agent Appliance as a Compute Engine Image:

Go to Navigation menu > Compute Engine > Images and select Create an image page.
Specify the following:
- Name—Specify a name for the Test Agent Appliance image.
- Source—Specify the Source from which you want to create an image. This can be a persistent disk, a snapshot, another image, or a disk.raw file in Cloud Storage.
- Cloud Storage file—Browse to the uploaded .gcp.tar.gz file.
- Location—Specify the location to store the image from the drop-down list,
- Encryption—Specify the encryption key. You can choose between a Google-owned and a Google-managed encryption key.
Click Create.

Google Cloud processes and registers the image. For more information, see Create an Image.

Create and Configure a GCE Instance using the Registered Image

You can create a Compute Engine virtual machine (VM) instance based on the registered image and configure networking, security, and registration metadata.

To create a GCE instance:

Go to Navigation menu > Compute Engine > VM instances and select the Create an instance page.

The Create an instance tab appears.
In the Name section, specify a name for your instance.
In the Machine configuration, Operating system, Networking, Observability, and Security sections, select a required instance type and specify values for the properties that you want to configure.
In the Advanced options section, configure instance properties related to metadata. Specify the cloud-config metadata required to register the Test Agent Appliance with Routing Director.

For more information, see cloud-config format.
Click Create.

After the provisioning is complete, your instance appears in the VM instances list on GCP. For more information, see Methods to create and start an instance.

When the VM starts, the VM is also displayed on the Test Agents page (Inventory > Active Assurance) in Routing Director as a new Test Agent Appliance.

Troubleshooting GCP Deployment

If your instance fails to register or boot correctly, you can use Google Cloud troubleshooting tools:

Go to Compute Engine > VM instances.
Select the Test Agent Appliance instance.
Click Serial port 1 (console) under Logs.
Review boot messages and cloud-config registration logs.

For more information, see General Troubleshooting.

(Optional) Troubleshooting using the serial console

You can enable the interactive serial console to directly access the Test Agent Appliance through the web browser:

Navigate to the VM instance Edit page.
Under the Security section, enable Enable interactive serial console.
Click Save.
Access the console through the Serial port interface.

You can use this method to manually configure or troubleshoot the Test Agent Appliance if cloud-config metadata fails.

You can now access the Test Agent Appliance through the interactive serial console to review boot messages, verify cloud-config metadata, and manually troubleshoot configuration issues. For more information, see Troubleshooting using the serial console.

Format of the `cloud-config` Metadata

On virtualization platforms, you can specify the cloud-config metadata (user data) in the designated user-data sections. During deployment of a virtual machine, cloud-init uses cloud-config (a YAML-based file format) to automate the initialization of virtual machines. You can customize cloud-config metadata to define network configurations and application-specific parameters. When you deploy a Test Agent Appliance on GCP, the cloud-config metadata helps to automate Test Agent Appliance configuration. It establishes secure communication with the management server registering Test Agent Appliance with Routing Director.

You can use the following cloud-config file as reference: