Re: Asterisk Server

In article <mn.dd2e7d7b9f7f09a1.48968@blueyonder.invalid>,
Jono <nothanks@blueyonder.invalid> wrote:
>Anyone care to help me spec a machine that I can rack mount & install
>Trixbox/Asterisk upon?
>
>Would prefer solid state memory over HD drive.....
>
>Also need up to 12 channels of ISDN2e/BRI. Long story short, BT want
>over £3k to install a PRI.
>
>So, here's the shopping list:
>
>Rackmount Case
>Motherboard
>IDE/SD card (is it SD I'm after?)
>Processor
>ISDN2e Line Cards (2 x 4 port?)
>RAM

How many incoming lines do you actually need?

However, £3K from BT vs. the install for 6 x ISDN2e connections plus the
on-going rental on them... Are you sure it's not going to be cheaper in
the long-run to get the PRI?

With regard to server - how many extensions?

Although that's a bit of a moot point, given that you might need a
mother board with 2 PCI slots on it, so you'll struggle to get anything
under a 3GHz Pentium or 2GHz Xeon which would be more than adequate,
even with a moderate amount of transcoding going on (which you probably
won't be doing). Stick 512MB of RAM in it and you'll be fine - the later
versions of asterisk do not seem to have any memory leak issues, they
grow until they've had a max. number of calls through and stay there IME.
Eg. Top sorted by memory on a clients site:

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
26389 root -11 0 40856 13m 4548 S 0.0 5.6 23:07.04 asterisk
This is asterisk 1.2.13. Uptime is 32 days and this has a 4-port ISDN2e
interface on one side (mISDN driver) and 20 extensions in a busy sales &
admin office on the other. CPU is a 1GHz Via C7 and it has 128MB of RAM
avalable to the OS (It has 256MB in total, but 128M is a ramdisk which
the OS boots into off flash)

Basically what I'm saying is that any modern box will do you just fine,
so go with something you're familiar with if you've built/bought
"server" boxes in the past. The "usual" rules I'd suggest would be to
compile a custom kernel that matches the hardware, and turn off all the
non-used hardware on the mobo (eg. usb, sound, etc.) if you can. As for
booting off flash - you can get devices big enough these days to put a
"live" system on, I developed my own booting system which doesn't touch
the flash after it's booted, but you might just want to stick a laptop
drive in there to get you going...

Have you considered an IAX/SIP trunk to someone who could provide a
service using g729? Might work on a dedicated ADSL line if you have a
good business service to a decent ISP, and can get most of the 833Kb/sec
upload speed. (Although you'd only need a fraction of it on g729 with
an IAX trunk)

Gordon

In article <mn.dd7a7d7b11eb5777.48968@blueyonder.invalid>,
Jono <nothanks@blueyonder.invalid> wrote:

>Or perhaps I could converse with someone who has developed their own
>booting system....

Drop me an email. And I've found some 8-port single PCI IADN2e cards too
- not cheap but under £1000 for the cards.

There are multiple-slot cards that can be daisy-chained together too
which eases the interrupt load on the host process that Tim alluded to,
but a single 8-port (ie 16 channel) card would be ideal for your needs.
All this is a 1-U rack case booting off flash too ...

>> Have you considered an IAX/SIP trunk to someone who could provide a
>> service using g729? Might work on a dedicated ADSL line if you have a
>> good business service to a decent ISP, and can get most of the 833Kb/sec
>> upload speed. (Although you'd only need a fraction of it on g729 with
>> an IAX trunk)
>
>Yes, although another 4 channels of ISDN2e is not out of the question -
>gives me a total of 12. I can rent an ISDN2 channel for less than an
>ISDN30 channel & the installation cost of another 2 pairs is much much
>less than the £3k BT want for the PRI.

OK. Might be a cheaper upgrade option though - use the existing ISDN2es
for incoming and an Internet trunk for outgoing - mix & match? Depends
on how many incoming calls you're expecting though!

Gordon

"Gordon Henderson" <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> wrote in message
news:fijf9o$1oo5$1@energise.enta.net...
> In article <mn.dd7a7d7b11eb5777.48968@blueyonder.invalid>,
> Jono <nothanks@blueyonder.invalid> wrote:
>
>>Or perhaps I could converse with someone who has developed their own
>>booting system....
>
> Drop me an email. And I've found some 8-port single PCI IADN2e cards too
> - not cheap but under £1000 for the cards.
>
> There are multiple-slot cards that can be daisy-chained together too
> which eases the interrupt load on the host process that Tim alluded to,
> but a single 8-port (ie 16 channel) card would be ideal for your needs.
> All this is a 1-U rack case booting off flash too ...
>
>>> Have you considered an IAX/SIP trunk to someone who could provide a
>>> service using g729? Might work on a dedicated ADSL line if you have a
>>> good business service to a decent ISP, and can get most of the 833Kb/sec
>>> upload speed. (Although you'd only need a fraction of it on g729 with
>>> an IAX trunk)
>>
>>Yes, although another 4 channels of ISDN2e is not out of the question -
>>gives me a total of 12. I can rent an ISDN2 channel for less than an
>>ISDN30 channel & the installation cost of another 2 pairs is much much
>>less than the £3k BT want for the PRI.
>
> OK. Might be a cheaper upgrade option though - use the existing ISDN2es
> for incoming and an Internet trunk for outgoing - mix & match? Depends
> on how many incoming calls you're expecting though!
>
> Gordon

I am only a hobbyist when it comes to Asterisk, I have never deployed
it in a real business environment, but I would like to ask what are the
arguments against using 100% VOIP trunks?
--
Graham

%Profound_observation%

Graham. wrote:
> I am only a hobbyist when it comes to Asterisk, I have never deployed
> it in a real business environment, but I would like to ask what are the
> arguments against using 100% VOIP trunks?

Well, if your internet connection goes down, you have no backup. If you
have 12 staff who are unable to make or receive phonecalls, then this is
going to add up quickly.

An argument for 100% VOIP trunks is that you can move your business
around without depending on BT being able to move the numbers. For
instance, if you lost power in your building, then you could setup
anywhere else with an internet connection.


OTOH, even BT ISDN lines aren't always 100% reliable. Things can go wrong.

Tim

In article <474d7112$0$516$bed64819@news.gradwell.net>,
Tim <nutnews@kooky.org> wrote:
>Graham. wrote:
>> I am only a hobbyist when it comes to Asterisk, I have never deployed
>> it in a real business environment, but I would like to ask what are the
>> arguments against using 100% VOIP trunks?
>
>Well, if your internet connection goes down, you have no backup. If you
>have 12 staff who are unable to make or receive phonecalls, then this is
>going to add up quickly.
>
>An argument for 100% VOIP trunks is that you can move your business
>around without depending on BT being able to move the numbers. For
>instance, if you lost power in your building, then you could setup
>anywhere else with an internet connection.

That more or less sums it up.. There are backup strategys avalable,
depending on your needs - eg. one customer of mine makes all their
outgoing calls via their Intnernet connection, but all their incoming
calls come via their existing BT (analogue) lines, but should the
Internet line be down, then the system will use their analogue lines, if
possible. (They make a lore more calls than they take)

Another customer has 8 staff, a local PBX and makes and takes all their
calls via their Internet line, but if it were unavalable, the remote
virtual PBX automatically falls over to dialling their analogue line
with the ADSL connection, which at present just has a DECT phone on it,
but they're looking at an analogue card for the PBX so they can keep
on using their desk phones rather than play find the DECT. Their call
volume is very low right now, so this works for them - if it were a busy
sales office it might be different.

In both cases if a JCB digs up the road they're SOL.... Until they can
get to the control panel via some means (or by phoning from a mobile!)
and putting a divert to a mobile in-place...

Another "against" issue is bandwidth required. A business-class connection
with 833Kbps upstream speed should be able to support 10 simultaneous
full bandwidth (G711 codec) calls. (in practice you'll get 9) but if you
need more calls, or have less bandwidth, then you will need to use a
compressed codec - GSM is one we all use every day on our mobiles, but
G729 is better quality for even less bandwidth...

A plus side is saving money - not always on call charges, but on
BT installations and monthly rental - an ISDN2e is £93 a quarter or
something like that - a single analogue line a third of that, and with
a good ADSL connection can carry 4 times the telephone calls.

The key I've found is getting a good ADSL connection and if you're
running a business, get a business class service! I've seen too many
people whinging about VoIP not working or being unrealiable when they're
trying to run a business of a £9.99 el-cheapo ADSL line...

>OTOH, even BT ISDN lines aren't always 100% reliable. Things can go wrong.

Exactly, and how many companies have a strategy for that failling?

Gordon