[atlas] VM probes (was Re: Feature request for IP record route feature in RIPE Atlas)

Hi all,

first of all, I see a few problems with VM probes.

It's important for the Atlas measurements to be comparable, which can be
a problem if you just run a virtual probe on someones hardware in a
datacenter somewhere. Or to put it simple: we want to measure networks,
not virtualization hardware.

Another problem might be, that a hosting company might not be okay with
information like traceroutes being publicly available. That might be an
issue for the customer, but also for RIPE, who is hosting the data, and
some thought should be put into this.

Also, since people are using the results for scientific purposes, it
should at least be possible to differentiate between results of hardware
and software probes.


> what virtualisation technology
> would people prefer (as we cannot support all of them)?

Just a random thought: Why run a complete VM for that? Why not just a
binary?

> How would we manage
> these (think of field-upgrades) and how to administer them (at the moment
> it's easy, since we supply the whole device with keys and firmware).

If it's a binary, you could ship it via package managers, i.e.
debian/ubuntu/centos packages.


Regards,
Sebastian



On 09.11.2015 13:43, Robert Kisteleki wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> At the risk of assigning more work to myself than I anticipate: there's an
> action item on me to come up with some thoughts and questions to the
> community about the VM probes. For example: what virtualisation technology
> would people prefer (as we cannot support all of them)? How would we manage
> these (think of field-upgrades) and how to administer them (at the moment
> it's easy, since we supply the whole device with keys and firmware).
> 
> Regards,
> Robert
> 
> 
> On 2015-11-09 13:34, Stephan Wolf wrote:
>> +2 for VM probe
>