Hello, If you resurrect / reinstall / relocate a probe and you expect to have different network conditions in its new life, then it is better to install it as a new one. If however you are just changing the hardware or just need to replace it's key, then it's better to reuse the ID (the host can always re-register the same probe with a different key). Your case of no longer using a VPS is probably the first of these two. Every disconnected probe is automatically labeled as such, and eventually becomes "abandoned". You can signal to the world if a particular probe is not expected to come back at all by "writing it off". We'll add this as a self-service feature in the UI, in the meantime you can just let us know (at atlas@ripe.net) and we'll mark it for you. Cheers, Robert On 2023-11-06 20:53, Simon Brandt via ripe-atlas wrote:

Hello folks, dear Atlas team,

I would like to discuss the case, where a virtual probe is decommissioned because the place where you ran it will no longer be available. For example, a VPS which you have rented somewhere, but you've decided to cancel that service.

Does it make sense to create and keep a backup of the virtual probe, so that you can re-deploy it later (with another AS)? Or is it better to delete the virtual probe and create a new one?

Also: is there an official way to decommission a virtual probe permanently?

I felt like this could be interesting for other people too, so i decided to discuss this question publicly.

BR, Simon