asterisk users - Sep 2006 - WAS: 64 analog phones NOW: Selection criteria and recipie for a good Asterisk install [long]

Has anyone tried RedFone?? It is supposed to offload a lot of that bus
overhead to the external unit doing TDMoE. 

=====================Jeronimo Romero
EUS Networks
Email: jromero@euscorp.com
Cell: 917-332-7238
Office: 212-624-5943
Web: www.euscorp.com
=====================
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
> bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of John covici
> Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 12:14 PM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: RE: [asterisk-users] WAS: 64 analog phones NOW: Selection
> criteria and recipie for a good Asterisk install [long]
> 
> OK, pardon my ignorance -- but what can you tune on such a system?
> How does Linux handle separate buses?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> on Thursday 09/28/2006 Colin
Anderson(ColinA@landmarkmasterbuilder.com)
> wrote
>  > >I concur with your approach, but "Tier 1" means as
little here as
it
>  > >does when evaluating Internet backbone carriers.  could you
expand
on
>  > >what evaluation criteria you use?  I'm going to be
pre-speccing
some
>  > >stuff myself this month...
>  >
>  > Sorry I should have been more clear. A good Asterisk install needs
a
>  > holistic approach to use a hippy dippy phrase. A Tier 1 server,
which
> is a
>  > midrange to high end name brand server from the Big 3 (Dell,
HP/Compaq,
> IBM,
>  > am I missing someone?) is usually highly optimized for bus
bandwidth
>  > although that design was intended for a different use - usually
massive
> disk
>  > I/O. As well, a Tier 1 server will have two seperate, independent
PCI
> buses
>  > and this to me is a critical feature - it allows you to completely
> separate
>  > your TDM traffic from network, disk I/O etc. On my big production
> Netfinity,
>  > I took great care to ensure the Digium cards were all on their
lonesome
> on a
>  > single bus, and everything else on the other bus. This is how I can
run
> two
>  > TE110's in a single box with no problems. zttest does not give me
100%
> all
>  > the time, but on the other hand it *never* drops below 99.9987%,
even
> under
>  > load. I selected this Netfinity because of the obvious care put
into
> it's
>  > design, but the specs are unimpressive: quad Xeon 700's. CPU is
over
> rated
>  > for Asterisk, IMO unless you are doing tons of transcoding and if
you
> are
>  > doing that, then your design is flawed.
>  >
>  > Anyway, the holistic approach (to go on a small rant for the newbie
> lurkers)
>  > be summed up as follows:
>  >
>  > 1. Good box, see above
>  > 2. Good LAN - this is so critical and so often overlooked in the
day
> and age
>  > of guys crimping their own cables and running $150 switches. You
can't
> do
>  > that, and if you do, you do so at your own peril. Managed swiches,
>  > professional cable installation. This is not a problem for me since
I
> *am* a
>  > professional cable installer but I have actually witnessed people
> making
>  > patch cables with a flat blade screwdriver and a hammer!
>  > 3. Tuning of the LAN - VLAN's are good. QoS packets are good.
Switches
> that
>  > honor the QoS packets are good.
>  > 4. Handset selection - this is another biggie. I've selected Snom
> 360's, and
>  > yes they have warts, but they are feature rich for the price and
Snom
> is
>  > really good about revising firmware. When you select handsets, GET
YOUR
>  > USERS INVOLVED.
>  > 5. Tuning of Asterisk box itself - this cannot be under emphasized.
> This is
>  > a very important step and tuning methodologies vary according to
> distro,
>  > skill of the admin, and particular circumstances. I've learned
*way*
> more
>  > than I ever wanted to about processor affinity sinc I started using
>  > Asterisk.
>  > 6. Termination of PSTN. Basically I would never do an Asterisk
install
> where
>  > I was forced to do something stupid like aggregate a dozen Centrex
> lines or
>  > some mickey mouse deal with FXO ATA's or whatever except for a
hobby or
>  > prototype install. PRI, BRI, IAX or SIP, don't mess around with
> anything
>  > else.
>  > 7. Relationship with provider. What is their SLA? Is it the
incumbent
> or the
>  > clec? An incumbent will be more expensive and more difficult to
deal
> with
>  > but they will tend to be more reliable. A clec will be cheaper and
they
> will
>  > be way more accomodating but you will most likely not get five
9's
from
>  > them. A VoIP provider should never be trusted, period. You will not
get
> five
>  > nines from them, ever. Plan failover situations accordingly.
>  > 8. Plan plan plan plan. A good install of ANYTHING is 80% planning
20%
> doing
>  > it. What is your plan when your primary PSTN provider fails? What
is
> your
>  > plan if your Asterisk box goes pear shaped? My dialplan can survive
> either
>  > PSTN, WAN or LAN failure (albeit with reduced functionality). I
also
> keep a
>  > cold spare, an identically configured box that I can literally
throw
> into
>  > the rack, turn it on, plug in the PRI's and no problem.
>  > 9. Internet bandwidth and latency. I am fortunate enough to have a
> great IP
>  > provider. Ask for demos - most guys will install a 90 day trial or
> something
>  > like that. Do not believe the brochure, get the product installed
and
> put it
>  > under load.
>  > 10. Traffic prioritization at the IP demarc - total no brainer.
>  > 11. Constant, constant user feedback and remediation. If you are
not
> talking
>  > to your users, your install will ultimately fail even if you have
the
> best
>  > of everything. Underpromise and overdeliver. Never loose sight of
the
> basics
>  > - they have to pick up the phone, and it has to work. Always.
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> 
> --
> Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
> How do
> you spend it?
> 
>          John Covici
>          covici@ccs.covici.com
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> asterisk-users mailing list
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Jeronimo Romero wrote:
> Has anyone tried RedFone?? It is supposed to offload a lot of that bus
> overhead to the external unit doing TDMoE. 
> 
	We're going to be deploying it within the next month.  We're mostly
looking at the fault-fail-over aspect of it, but certainly having a dedicated
external unit for managing PRI -> TDM is also of interest / use to us. 
I'll let you know how it goes.

-- 
	--Michel Vaillancourt
	Senior Telephony Engineer
	Neoxo Inc  (www.neoxo.com)
	+1 514 395 1106 ext 117

On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 03:17:15PM -0400, Jeronimo Romero
wrote:
> Has anyone tried RedFone?? It is supposed to offload a lot of that bus
> overhead to the external unit doing TDMoE. 
Offloading? What exactly?

A quad E1 (4 E1 cards, much more than is needed for the 64 lines
mentioned in the topic) takes 8Mb of actual data per second, overheade
not included.

It doesn't take much horsepower: A decent single-CPU P4 server could
easily handle the full capacity of that card, assuming that there are no
other load factors such as conferences, compressions and such.


However if you get a network segment into the picture, you now have to
take into account not only your server and the other server, but also
all the network infrastructure in between. E.g.: the switch(es), QoS,
etc.

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