Running a RIPE Atlas Probe on NixOS with Starla

A RIPE Atlas v2 hardware probe reached end-of-life, prompting a switch to Starla — an unofficial Rust reimplementation of the RIPE Atlas software probe. Starla ships a NixOS module with hardened systemd configuration, CAP_NET_RAW for raw sockets, and a built-in Prometheus exporter. Setup involves adding the flake's nixosModules.default, generating an Ed25519 SSH key on first boot, and registering the public key with RIPE. The probe runs entirely outbound via SSH tunnels to RIPE controllers on port 443, supports all measurement types (ping, traceroute, DNS, HTTP, TLS, NTP), and consumes negligible resources (~5 MB RSS). Key caveats include Starla being unofficial and the importance of backing up the probe's SSH key to preserve credit history.