Monitoring networks by detection of noisy agents

Usually agents probe other agents across the network to determine health of a network. However, it is also useful for agents to probe themselves. Such a test probe is off-network in that it does not leave a server rack. The off-network probes can be used to detect noisy agents, which can be excluded from further consideration in evaluating overall network quality. The off-network probing of the agents can be done in a loopback interface of the host device or via a top-of-rack switch to another distinct agent in the rack.