vSTREAM Agent on Windows
Contents
Introduction
This is a simplified installation procedure that has been thoroughly tested by our engineers on virtual as well as physical host.
A complete and detailed installation guide is available on MyNetscout.
You can install vSTREAM Agent on a virtual or physical machine running one of the following 64-bit Microsoft Windows versions:
- Windows Server 2012 R2 (minimum of R2 required regardless of SP level)
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019*
(*) not officially supported by NETSCOUT, but successfully tested by COMCERT.
Solution
 | Starting with release 6.2.1, vStream Agent is an entirely new product and must be installed as a fresh release. Legacy vScout and vStream Embedded agents cannot be upgraded to vStream Agent and MUST be removed. vStream Agent requires a different type of license than vScout and vSTREAM Embedded. |
 | This article applies to vStream Agent versions 6.2.1 and above. For vStreal Embedded version 6.2.0 and below, read the article vStream Embedded on Windows. |
Before you install
Some considerations before we start:
- You don't want to use NetScout's default communication ports as they are relatively common and could be in use on the host, now or in the future.
- You want to see the name of the agent in Device Configuration to be identical to the host's name.
- You know the IP address of the nGeniusONE Server (NGS).
- You are familiar with nGeniusONE
- You are familiar with Windows CMD and/or PowerShell
Firewall
These communication are required. Make sure they are allowed by every firewall in the path between the host running vStream Agent and NGS:
From NGS to vStream Agent (basic communication = required):
- tcp/7080
- tcp/7443
- tcp/7501
From vStream Agent to NGS
- udp/395
From vStream Agent to any InfiniStream NG
- GRE (IP protocol number 47) or udp/50100
Pre-configuration considerations
- vStream Agent offers the posibility to store application session detailed records (ASR) and data packets on the host itself. The amount of disk space used for this purpose is restricted; it must be at least 1GB/10GB respectively. Any value configured below this value will effecitvely disable that functionality. We recommend to start with 1GB and 10GB for the XDR store and packet store respectivily.
- vStream Agent can monitor more than one interface and those interfaces can be different from the interface used to communicate with NGS and NGIS.
In the example below:
- vStream Agent will be configured with a 1GB ASR store
- vStream Agent will be configured with a 10GB Packet store
- Interface eth0 is used for both management and monitor interface
- vStream Agent is allowed to use 2 CPU and 4 GB of memory on the host
From 1 to 16 vCPU can be assigned to vStream Agent to spread the load workload among each processor but at the cost of additional licenses. Valid ranges for allocated memory are 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 10240, 12288, 14336 and 16384).
| Keep in mind that vStream Agent uses up to the equivalent of 100% of the number of vCPUs assigned to it. vStream Agent processes may appear on more than the number of vCPUs assigned, but the total usage will never exceed 100% of the total vCPUs assigned. |
Create custom storage path
A custom path where to store XDR records (\xdr) and packets (\pkt) must be created upfront. In our example, we decided to use E:\nsagentstore for that purpose.
If the path does not exist, vSTREAM Agent will use the default storage path located at:
%INSTALLDIR%\rtm\pa\data
Installation
Visual C++
We prefere to use the MSI installer and silent install as this method can be automated.
Before you can install vSTREAM Agent using the MSI installer, you must download and install at least one of the following versions of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable.
- 2015
- 2017
- 2019
One of these versions may already be present on the target machine.
vSTREAM Agent
Now, download the vStream Agent msi installer to the target machine's c:\temp folder. If that folder doesn't exits, create it.
Open a command shell as Administrator and run the following command to install the agent:
msiexec /i c:\temp\vStream_agent.msi /qn INSTALLDIR=C:\NETSCOUT\vSTREAM HTTP_PORT=7080 HTTPS_PORT=7443 NSCOMM_PORT=395 NSCONSOLE_PORT=7501 NSCONFIG_SERVER_IP=10.165.30.183 MON_INF=1 MGMT_INF=1 NUM_CPUS=2 MEM_SIZE=4096 XDRSTORE_SIZE=1000 PKTSTORE_SIZE=10000 CONFIG_PARAMS="STORAGE_PATH=E:\nsagentstore NUM_FWD_CPUS=1 "
If the target server has multiple network interfaces, you may want to select the desired interface by substituting the interface's number (here 1) by its name as found by running ipconfig. The monitor (MON) and ad management interface (MGMT) can also be modified after installation with the nstray utility found in %INSTALLDIR%\rtm\bin.
Installation is silent and will take about 35s to complete (more on a busy system). To see if the installation has finished, check MSI***.log or look for the running processes (see Test).
Test
Logs
Logs are located in %temp%
Check for running processes
To check if vStream Agent is running, open Task Manager > Processes and look for the following Background processes. All these processes must be running.
- nsprobe
- procmanager
- paservice (32 bit)
- tfaengine.exe
You may also run the following command
<INSTALLDIR>\rtm\bin\ps.bat
Stop/start/restart
To stop the agent, run the following batch file:
<INSTALLDIR>\rtm\bin\stop.bat
To start the agent, run the following batch file:
<INSTALLDIR>\rtm\bin\start.bat
Cleaning up
We recommend removing all the temporary configuration files from the c:/temp direcotory after verification.
Uninstall
If for any reason the agent needs to be uninstalled, open Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a program. This is the preferred way for removing the agent.
Use the following command to perform a silent uninstallation of vStream Agent:
msiexec /x is-6210-xxx-vSTREAM_agent-x64.msi /qn
The original install folder <INSTALLDIR> should not exist or be empty after successful removal of the agent. We recommend removal of this folder once verified.
