Reverse Path Visibilitywith Agent-to-Agent Tests

Archana K7, Product Marketing Manager

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About ThousandEyesThousandEyes delivers visibility into every network your organization relies on.

Founded by network experts; strong

investor backing

Relied on for critical operations by leading enterprises

Recognized as an innovative

new approach

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4 top 6 US Banks

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View Across Internal and External NetworksHosting / SaaS

Provider

1 Internal network – Monitor WAN, Datacenter

Internet

3 Monitor any service, application from global vantage points

2 Monitor IaaS, SaaS service hosted in the cloud

Cloud AgentEnterpriseAgents

Branch

Data Center

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• Agent-to-Server– Test Target is an application or service endpoint

• Agent-to-Agent– Monitoring location and test target are both agents– Cloud–Enterprise or Enterprise–Enterprise

Network Tests

• Visibility and insight into the network used to connect between each testing location and target

• Usually bundled with other types of tests - HTTP, Page Load

What

Types

When • Hop-by-hop network path and node level data• Packet loss, Jitter, Latency, Bandwidth

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Reverse Path

• A to B B to A • Packet’s do not flow symmetrically over a network

• Peering relations between ISP’s • Load-balancing algorithms • Multiple ECMP paths

• Traceroute based monitoring techniques focus ONLY on forward path

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Bidirectional Path Visibility

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Accurate real-time representation of forward & reverse paths providing visibility into internal and external networks

More precise diagnostic data to help isolate faults with directional and hop by hop granularity significantly reducing MTTT

Unified visualization to simplify deployment workflows and management

Agent-to-Agent Tests

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Bidirectional View Across Internal and External Networks

Hosting / SaaS Provider

1 Internal network – Monitor WAN, Datacenter

Internet

3 Monitor any service, application from global vantage points

2 Monitor IaaS, SaaS service hosted in the cloud

Cloud AgentEnterpriseAgents

Branch

Data Center

4 Discover Forward & Reverse paths. Outbound ISP performance

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• Internal WAN Monitoring– Discover ECMP paths – Precise metrics in both directions

• Performance of outbound/egress path from branch office or datacenter– Compare ISP performance across forward and reverse path

• Forward and Reverse Path MTU

Agent-to-Agent Use Cases

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NAT Traversal

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NAT Basics

Enterprise Agent

Web ServerNAT

10.0.0.2:1025 <-> 49.1.4.23:3827

10.0.0.2:1025 -> 1.2.3.4:80 49.1.4.23:3827 -> 1.2.3.4:80

NAT Table

1.2.3.4:80 -> 49.1.4.23:38271.2.3.4:80 -> 10.0.0.2:1025

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• NAT configurations allow communication originating from the internal network

• Externally originating communication normally require forwarding rules on the NAT

NAT Basics

Enterprise Agent

NAT

1.2.3.4:80 -> 49.1.4.23.3:827

Cloud Agent

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• Agent-to-Agent tests require NAT device to allow externally generated communication – Requires security department to open a port – Increases configuration rules

• NAT Traversal facilitates communication between endpoints across NAT devices w/o the need for inbound rules

NAT Traversal

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How NAT Traversal works

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qHow to configure Agent-to-Agent testsqLive Demo qHow to configure NAT traversal

Demo

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Step1: Add an Agent-to-Agent TestAgent-to-Agent tests is a part of

Network tests

Select a target agentSelect from available agents as the test source

Select the direction for the test

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Step 2: Configure Alerts

Add End-to-End alerts for Agent-to-Agent tests

Specify the direction of the tests for the alerts

Map the alerts to the test

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Step 3: Explore the Network views

Target service

Network metrics are calculated per direction

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Step 4: Explore Path Visualization showing forward and reverse paths

Loss only see in the reverse path

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How to enable NAT Traversal Flag Enable NAT Traversal Flag for Enterprise agents under “Advanced Settings”

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See what you’re missing.

Watch the webinar

https://www.thousandeyes.com/resources/reverse-path-visibility-webinar