vSTREAM Agent on Windows

 

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.

 

Solution

 

 

 

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 reflect 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 (NetScout Discovery Protocol = recommended):

• udp/395 

From vStream Agent to any Next Generation InfiniStream (NGIS)  (packet forwarding = recommended)

• 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 2vCPU and 2GB of memory on the host

 

From 1 to 16 vCPU can be assigned to vStream Agent to reduced the load on each processor but this will use additional licenses.  Valid ranges for allocated memory are 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 10240, 12288, 14336 and 16384).

 

 

Create storage path

The path where to store XDR records and packets must be created upfront.  In our example, we decided to use F:\nsagentstore for that matter.

 

Create configuration files

Create the file %temp%/.nsprobeid with the following content. Replace HOSTNAME with the actual hostname or any string value you need to proper identify this vStream Enbedden in nGeniusONE. The name can be up to 127 characters long.  It can only contain alphanumerical characters, period (.) and hyphen (-). NO SPACES, NO UNDERSCORE (_), NO SPECIAL CHARACTERS:

<hostname>

 

Installation

Copy the most recent version of the rpm to the /temp directory on the host. It is recommended to keep the original file name for future reference.

Run the following command to install the agent:

C:\temp\is-6210-xxx-vStream_agent-x64.exe /s /v/qn /v"INSTALLDIR=C:\NETSCOUT NSHTTP_PORT=7080 NSHTTPS_PORT=7443 NSCOMM_PORT=395 NSCONSOLE_PORT=7501 NSCONFIG_SERVER_IP=<IP_NGS> MON_INF=1 MGMT_INF=1 NUM_CPUS=1 MEM_SIZE=2048 STORAGE_PATH=F:\nsagentstore XDRSTORE_SIZE=1000 PKTSTORE_SIZE=10000 NUM_FWD_CPUS=1"

 

Test

Open Taskmanager to see if the required processes are running.

The installation log is located under %temp%\vStream.log

 

Clean-up

We recommend removing all the temporary configuration files from the /tmp direcotory after verification.  These files cannot be used to reconfigure the agent.

 

Modifying the configuration

To modify the configuration, edit this file and restart the agent:

<tbv>

 

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:

C:\is-6210-xxx-vStream_agent-x64.exe /s /x /v/qn