Cisco ThousandEyes (ENTEIT)

The official Cisco ENTEIT v1.0 curriculum is structured across 13 comprehensive core modules and 11 hands-on lab exercises based directly on official Cisco course standards:

1. Module 1: Introducing Cisco ThousandEyes:

   • Solution overview, architecture, and high-level use cases for digital experience monitoring across WAN, SaaS, and multi-cloud environments.

2. Module 2: Introducing Cisco ThousandEyes Agents and Tests:

   • Understanding vantage points: Cloud Agents, Enterprise Agents, and Endpoint Agents; synthetic test capabilities and multi-layer telemetry.

3. Module 3: Deploying Enterprise Agents:

   • Deployment options, system prerequisites, firewall/proxy rules, hypervisor installations (VMware ESXi, Hyper-V), Linux packages, Docker containers, and native Cisco Catalyst 9000 switch application hosting.

4. Module 4: Describing ThousandEyes Routing, Network, DNS, and Voice Tests:

   • BGP Route Monitoring & AS Path Visualization (detecting route flapping, path changes, and BGP hijacks).
   • Network Tests (Agent-to-Server and Agent-to-Agent) tracking packet loss, latency, and round-trip time (RTT).
   • Hop-by-Hop Path Visualization mapping layer 3 transit nodes and Autonomous System boundaries.
   • DNS Server, DNS Trace, and DNSSEC validation testing.
   • Voice Tests: SIP Server availability checks and RTP Stream simulation calculating Mean Opinion Score (MOS), discards, and packet delay variation (jitter).

5. Module 5: Describing Cisco ThousandEyes Web Tests:

   • HTTP Server tests measuring response codes, connection times, and SSL handshakes.
   • Page Load tests with full browser rendering and object-by-object waterfall breakdown.
   • Multi-step Transaction tests scripted using the ThousandEyes Recorder browser extension.
   • API and FTP testing for RESTful and secure file endpoints.

6. Module 6: Introducing Endpoint Agents:

   • End-user digital experience monitoring architecture, system requirements, synthetic tests, and automated session monitoring (ASM) for remote/hybrid workforces.

7. Module 7: Deploying Endpoint Agents:

   • Enterprise rollout via Group Policy Objects (GPO), Microsoft Intune, and Jamf; browser extension deployment (Google Chrome & Microsoft Edge); local Wi-Fi and gateway performance metrics.

8. Module 8: Troubleshooting with Cisco ThousandEyes:

   • Layer-by-layer troubleshooting methodology, isolating whether failures stem from client devices, corporate LAN/WAN, ISPs, public clouds, or SaaS applications; correlating Device Layer SNMP topology and interface drops.

9. Module 9: Using Internet Insights:

   • Leveraging global collective intelligence from thousands of vantage points to identify macroscopic Internet outages, application provider failures, and transit ISP degradations.

10. Module 10: Configuring Alerts:

    • Default and custom alert rules, dynamic threshold sensitivity, alert suppression windows, and multi-channel notifications (Email, Webhooks, Slack, PagerDuty, ServiceNow).

11. Module 11: Customizing Dashboards and Reports:

    • Real-time dashboard widgets, multi-metric cross-layer correlation views, role-based dashboards, and scheduled executive reports (PDF/CSV).

12. Module 12: Monitoring Solutions:

    • End-to-end monitoring strategies for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, SaaS platforms (Microsoft 365, Webex, Salesforce), and public clouds (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud).

13. Module 13: Administrating the System:

    • Organization and Account Groups, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Single Sign-On (SSO), usage and quota management, and ThousandEyes REST API integration.

Official Hands-On Lab Outline:

• Lab 1: Schedule a Test
• Lab 2: Deploy Enterprise Agent
• Lab 3: Configure Network, DNS, and Voice Tests
• Lab 4: Configure Web Server Tests
• Lab 5: Configure Transaction Tests
• Lab 6: Deploy and Configure an Endpoint Agent
• Lab 7: Configure Account Administration
• Lab 8: Utilize Device Layers
• Lab 9: Examine Internet Insights
• Lab 10: Configure Alerts
• Lab 11: Build a Dashboard and Report

While there are no formal mandatory prerequisites enforced by Cisco for the ENTEIT course, having a solid grounding in enterprise networking fundamentals and core protocols is strongly recommended. Ideal prerequisite knowledge includes:

1. Networking Fundamentals (CCNA Level):

   • Basic understanding of network concepts and protocols comparable to the Cisco CCNA (Implementing and Administering Cisco Solutions) curriculum.

2. Transport & Internet Protocols:

   • Familiarity with fundamental protocols including ICMP, UDP, TCP, HTTP, HTTPS, SSL/TLS, and DNS.

3. Enterprise Routing & WAN Architecture:

   • High-level familiarity with IP routing concepts, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Autonomous Systems (AS), and Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN).

4. Cloud & Operating System Basics:

   • Conceptual understanding of cloud services (SaaS, IaaS), basic Linux/Windows system administration, and virtualization (virtual machines and Docker containers).

Our instructors guide you through all ThousandEyes-specific deployment steps, configuration syntaxes, and troubleshooting workflows step-by-step during the training.

Completing the official Cisco ENTEIT v1.0 training equips network and IT professionals with high-demand network assurance and observability skills:

1. Comprehensive Digital Experience Monitoring:

   • Ability to implement and operate Cisco ThousandEyes across complex enterprise, hybrid cloud, and third-party Internet environments.

2. Agent Deployment Mastery:

   • Skills to install and configure Enterprise Agents across hypervisors, containers, and Cisco Catalyst switches, as well as mass-deploy Endpoint Agents on employee workstations.

3. Synthetic Test Configuration:

   • Hands-on proficiency in designing and running BGP routing, network path, DNS server/trace, HTTP server, page load waterfall, transaction recorder, and voice RTP/SIP tests.

4. Rapid Root Cause Isolation via Path Visualization:

   • Competency in interpreting hop-by-hop Path Visualization to pinpoint packet loss, latency spikes, and routing anomalies across internal LAN/WAN, ISPs, and cloud gateways, drastically decreasing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR).

5. Macro-Level Outage Detection with Internet Insights:

   • Capability to correlate local user degradations with global collective intelligence to immediately confirm whether outages stem from transit providers, CDNs, or SaaS platforms.

6. Intelligent Alerting & ITSM Incident Automation:

   • Expertise in establishing noise-free, threshold-based alert rules and integrating notifications with enterprise incident workflows including ServiceNow, PagerDuty, and Slack.

7. 24 Cisco Continuing Education (CE) Credits:

   • Qualify for 24 official Cisco CE credits to automatically recertify active CCNA, CCNP, or CCIE credentials without sitting for written exams.

Upon completion, learners emerge with verified enterprise network observability capabilities essential for maintaining high application availability, user experience, and modern cloud network operations.