The nGenius Integrated Agent is self-contained virtualized probe software that is integrated and deployed within a third-party network device. Optimized for deployment in the branch office and at the network edge, nGenius Integrated Agent greatly reduces the costs associated with extending real-time user monitoring and service visibility to remote locations by leveraging a third-party network platform as a monitoring point. The total cost of ownership is lowered by reducing the IT footprint, remote management capabilities and decreasing power consumption. The nGenius Integrated Agent is an Intelligent Data Source that feeds valuable performance metrics into the nGenius Solution for comprehensive analysis of WAN traffic to the branch from the data center, cloud service providers, other branches, as well as local LAN traffic.

Deployed as part of a pervasive visibility strategy, the nGenius Integrated Agent creates a unified and scalable end-to-end view of all traffic traversing the network. The nGenius Integrated Agent, when used as part of the nGenius Solution provides IT organizations with a highly scalable, flexible and cost effective service delivery management approach that identifies and resolves issues before users are impacted.

The nGenius Integrated Agent for Cisco UCS Express and Cisco ISR
The nGenius Integrated Agent for Cisco® Unified Computing System™ Express (UCS Express) and Cisco® ISR cost-effectively integrates industry-leading nGenius Virtualized Probe technology into Cisco Integrated Services Routers (G1 & G2) to extend real-time user monitoring and service visibility to the branch environment. The nGenius Integrated Agent for Cisco provides the following capabilities:

• Cost-effective monitoring of application and network traffic to and from the WAN
• Local troubleshooting for the branch LAN without the need to dispatch a technician
• Branch-to-branch monitoring for detailed visibility into decentralized networks and cloud computing
• Accurate response time analysis and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from the branch user perspective
• Validation of WAN optimized traffic
• End-to-end views and reports from the data center, through the core, out to the branch

Click here to see a short nGenius Integrated Agent for Cisco ISR product overview and demonstration.

Deployed inside the virtual machine, the nGenius Virtual Agent software provides real-time visibility into the virtual computing environment by monitoring all application traffic traversing the Hypervisor. This includes all interactions between virtualized applications contained in a single server, traffic in and out of the physical virtual server, and traffic associated with another virtual server platform. The nGenius Virtual Appliance supports native VMware® vSphere® standard switch and vSphere distributed switch (vDS) for extended environments. In addition, nGenius Virtual Agent supports the Cisco® 1000V series switch providing a high degree of seamless deployment flexibility. Server administrators can control access to traffic visibility through virtual LAN (vLAN) mapping to ensure data privacy and security.

• Monitors all traffic on the host hypervisor
• Identify new servers and applications dynamically created by vMotion

Configuration choices for application and transaction visibility
To provide full visibility into application transactions within the ESX and ESXi server environments, the nGenius Virtual Agent provides the following configuration options:

• Span or probe mode - extract performance metadata by processing application traffic locally
• Tap mode - send raw traffic to external nGenius InfiniStream appliance for deep packet analysis

Virtual Probe mode – This option provides visibility to the performance statistics for all application traffic within the virtual server. The nGenius Virtual Agent installed in VMware collects and communicates network data with nGenius Solution just like any other nGenius Intelligent Data Source.

Tap mode - The Tap mode allows all traffic within the virtual host to be sent to a nGenius InfiniStream appliance for enabling real-time deep packet analysis, forensic analysis and application profiling.

Capabilities include:

• Self-contained, protected/dedicated virtual appliance with no impact on other virtual appliances
• Identify the spawning of new virtualized applications
• Automatically recognize application movement to different servers
• Recognize when virtual applications no longer available
• Flexible options enable configuration as a probe mode or a tap mode