RIPE Atlas

ericafterdark · Feb 7, 2022, 10:02 AM

If you've never heard of the Atlas project, here is a link: https://atlas.ripe.net/.

Here is some information:

With your help, the RIPE NCC is building the largest Internet measurement network ever made. RIPE Atlas employs a global network of probes that measure Internet connectivity and reachability, providing an unprecedented understanding of the state of the Internet in real time.

The project is looking for people to host probes that will help to fill in gaps in the coverage. I believe they prefer dual-stack, but it probably depends on the situation. I got one of the probes a few weeks ago and it's interesting to see the information it's providing to the project. The probe is very small. I comes with a USB power supply, but I'm powering my probe with a USB port on one of my servers. If you're interested in contributing, it's very easy to apply for a probe.

As the probes are currently not in stock they offer a software probe application as well.

https://atlas.ripe.net/docs/software-probe/

Anyone managed to get this operational on a pfSense machine?

johnpoz · Feb 7, 2022, 12:19 PM

@eirikrcoquere said in RIPE Atlas:

Anyone managed to get this operational on a pfSense machine?

I don't see any freebsd version listed on their site.. While they have link to the source code, so it should be possible to compile for freebsd. Wouldn't it better to just run this on something behind your pfsense.. On a vm or docker even - they do list a docker version to download.

ericafterdark · Feb 7, 2022, 12:21 PM

@johnpoz said in RIPE Atlas:

@eirikrcoquere said in RIPE Atlas:

Anyone managed to get this operational on a pfSense machine?

I don't see any freebsd version listed on their site.. While they have link to the source code, so it should be possible to compile for freebsd. Wouldn't it better to just run this on something behind your pfsense.. On a vm or docker even - they do list a docker version to download.

Yeah noticed that as well. I think I am just going to wait for the hardware device to arrive.

johnpoz · Feb 7, 2022, 12:24 PM

@eirikrcoquere even if they had a freebsd package - not sure I would install on pfsense, unless it was vetted by pfsense to not cause any problems.

Installing packages that are not part of the pfsense repository would/could come with some risk of causing an issue.

stephenw10 · Feb 8, 2022, 12:16 AM

Could probably run it in bhyve in pfSense.... if you really wanted to.

Fun project perhaps. Looks like it runs in OpenWRT so pretty small footprint.
Edit: In fact it's available as a package for OpenWRT so probably trivial.

Steve

Sergei_Shablovsky · Dec 28, 2023, 12:51 PM

@bimmerdriver I have a small problem with Atlas Probe, could You be so please to take a look https://forum.netgate.com/post/1144963

And additional question: how to limiting Anchor Probe to working exactly with certain WAN IP in case that I have several uplinks WAN IPs?

Thank You so much!

Sergei_Shablovsky · Jan 17, 2024, 9:06 AM

@johnpoz said in RIPE Atlas:

@eirikrcoquere even if they had a freebsd package - not sure I would install on pfsense, unless it was vetted by pfsense to not cause any problems.

No, unfortunately only Centos-based system are both for Atlas Probes (small-factor, compact, 32/64-bit CPU architecture, networking node, https://atlas.ripe.net/about/probes/) and Atlas Anchors (19-inch rack version, more powerful, act like dedicated networking node to serve a lot of ordinary Anchor Probes requests and measurements within RIPEs infrastructure, https://atlas.ripe.net/about/anchors/).

From official RIPE GitHub
Currently this source code supports building a RPM package for CentOS 7.

Installing packages that are not part of the pfsense repository would/could come with some risk of causing an issue.

Good point. Because small research show that Atlas Probe software have not 100% polished… (With all respects to RIPE Atlas Lab stuff enforcement!)

Last RIPE Atlas software Probe version are 5040 (2021-10-21), so….abandoned for 2+ years???

Sergei_Shablovsky · Jan 16, 2024, 11:32 PM

@johnpoz said in RIPE Atlas:

@eirikrcoquere said in RIPE Atlas:

I don't see any freebsd version listed on their site.. While they have link to the source code, so it should be possible to compile for freebsd.

Do You know someone here on forum who so inspired for experimentation do compile code for FreeBSD ?

stephenw10 · Jan 17, 2024, 1:25 AM

I'd probably post in development. There are a few people who have pfSense build environments. I'm not one of them.

Sergei_Shablovsky · Jan 23, 2024, 5:02 AM

@stephenw10 said in RIPE Atlas:

I'd probably post in development. There are a few people who have pfSense build environments. I'm not one of them.

So, I just trying to post here, in “Off-topic…”