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

On 2015/11/10 13:36 , Colin Johnston wrote:
> After having lived and still work in a Solaris physical metal land, I took onboard the virtual machine world for a webservice/emailservice.
> The virtual world is cheaper in long run.
> However does require a vm/ov image.
> 
> I think it is important cloud as such as machines are monitored and I thought vm probe would for great for that

One way of looking at it, are the people who want a VM willing to
guarantee that the VM performs better than the current Soekris boxes we
use for anchors? And is there is way of monitoring that they live up to
their promises.

Somehow shipping hardware around the world sounds rather old fashioned.
But sometimes old fashioned methods works best.

For ordinary probes, we have absolutely no control over the network.
Probe hosts don't have to guarantee anything. So I wonder if blackbox
testing would even allow distinguishing between an overloaded VM and a
probe on a very bad consumer line.

Philip