I've been evaluating Asterisk for a while, and things seem to be going very well. The issue of redundancy and automatic fail-over is now on my mind. I searched the archives and googled for solutions, but didn't really come up with much. We'll be using queues (modified), which precludes some of the standard redundancy solutions, since the queue needs to know all the agents and calls to effectively decide what to do. (Correct me if I'm wrong as to distributing queues.) As far as I can tell, I need to be able to fail over to a backup server. What's the best way to go about this? Obviously one can just have the clients re-connect to the new server, but with 50 machines, that can be a major pain. Both could have the same network, and just swap network cables and re-login. One could log into both and the second wouldn't send calls to the agent unless it got calls from the main switch in the event of failure. I'm sure there other solutions. I've come across other products like Ranch Networks (their web site is rather uninformative, although it seems promising) and Redfone's foneBRIDGE (which seems it may help.) I'll be using Sangoma cards on the Asterisk box, if that matters. Does anyone have experience they'd like to share on effective ways to do this? -Norman
Hello... I have been studying how to get Asterisk redundancy with Linux-HA. You can have 2 asterisk boxes, then install the linux-HA (Heartbeat) software and if one of the asterisk servers fails the other will take his IP so the clients registered on that server can re-register in the other. The redundancy can be hot stand by, in this case, both servers attend a part of the users. Also it's possible to have differents trunks connected in the servers and configure them in order to use the other's trunks in case of all lines busy. And of course, is possible configure the servers to have the same dial plan as there were only one server. I have been also studyng how to use Linux Virtual Server in order to get load balancing across a cluster of asterisk servers. On 7/18/07, Norman Franke <Norman at myasd.com> wrote:> I've been evaluating Asterisk for a while, and things seem to be > going very well. The issue of redundancy and automatic fail-over is > now on my mind. I searched the archives and googled for solutions, > but didn't really come up with much. > > We'll be using queues (modified), which precludes some of the > standard redundancy solutions, since the queue needs to know all the > agents and calls to effectively decide what to do. (Correct me if I'm > wrong as to distributing queues.) > > As far as I can tell, I need to be able to fail over to a backup > server. What's the best way to go about this? Obviously one can just > have the clients re-connect to the new server, but with 50 machines, > that can be a major pain. Both could have the same network, and just > swap network cables and re-login. One could log into both and the > second wouldn't send calls to the agent unless it got calls from the > main switch in the event of failure. I'm sure there other solutions. > > I've come across other products like Ranch Networks (their web site > is rather uninformative, although it seems promising) and Redfone's > foneBRIDGE (which seems it may help.) > > I'll be using Sangoma cards on the Asterisk box, if that matters. > > Does anyone have experience they'd like to share on effective ways to > do this? > > -Norman > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >
On Jul 19, 2007, at 5:16 PM, asterisk-users-request at lists.digium.com wrote:>> On 7/18/07, Norman Franke <Norman at myasd.com> wrote: >>> I've been evaluating Asterisk for a while, and things seem to be >>> going very well. The issue of redundancy and automatic fail-over is >>> now on my mind. I searched the archives and googled for solutions, >>> but didn't really come up with much. > > To add to what Edgar said, yes, use linux-ha. It works nicely in > combination with DRBD. DRBD uses a dedicated network interface on > each box with a crossover cable between the two. It does a block > level copy of the entire filesystem, so you have two machines that are > identical. The you use the linux-ha heartbeat to monitor the OS and > asterisk. If anything goes wrong, it can fail over to the second > machine. > > This is pretty easy to set up with Analog lines. With PRI's you'd > need the fonebridge or the FSV-4PFS from http://www.failsafevoip.comThanks, I wasn't aware of the FSV-4PFS box. Can one switch it remotely (e.g. over the network?) All of my dynamic data is stored in a database (using Asterisk RT to read queue and agent settings.) So, that eases part of the problem. It would be nice to have a way to gracefully switch boxes, e.g. all new calls to the backup box, wait until all calls on the primary normally end, and then take server down for an upgrade. It's impossible to tell what the Ranch Networks box does from their web site. Anyone using it? -Norman Franke www.myasd.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20070719/7609a8a9/attachment.htm
Noah, Thanks for the input. I'm thinking the problem with the stop gracefully is that it would confuse the auto fail-over appliance, in that it would either detect the server is dead and hard switch the T1s or keep sending calls there which Asterisk would reject. I'm thinking a better method may be the fail-over switch coupled with some logic in the client and server, perhaps using SIP NOTIFY to inform clients they should disconnect when idle, and reconnect to the specified alternate server. Once everyone is off, then taking that box down and upgrading. Asterisk supports SIP NOTIFY, so that may be the most workable. -Norman> Hi Norman - > >>> To add to what Edgar said, yes, use linux-ha. It works nicely in >>> combination with DRBD. DRBD uses a dedicated network interface on >>> each box with a crossover cable between the two. It does a block >>> level copy of the entire filesystem, so you have two machines >>> that are >>> identical. The you use the linux-ha heartbeat to monitor the OS and >>> asterisk. If anything goes wrong, it can fail over to the second >>> machine. >>> >>> This is pretty easy to set up with Analog lines. With PRI's you'd >>> need the fonebridge or the FSV-4PFS from http://www.failsafevoip.com >> >> Thanks, I wasn't aware of the FSV-4PFS box. Can one switch it >> remotely (e.g. >> over the network?) > >> From what I understand, it has its own heartbeat-type monitoring of > asterisk. If asterisk fails, it will automatically fail the PRI over > to your backup machine. Can you manually force the failover? I think > so, but I'm not positive. You can ask the failsafevoip people > directly. I've exchanged emails with them before and they are > knowledgeable and responsive. > > >> It would be nice to have a way to gracefully switch boxes, e.g. >> all new >> calls to the backup box, wait until all calls on the primary >> normally end, >> and then take server down for an upgrade. > > If you're using heartbeat, and it's directly monitoring the asterisk > process, you should be able to issue a "stop gracefully" command. > That will bring asterisk down when all the calls are complete. Then, > heartbeat should fail over to the other machine. Of course, if > someone is on a long call and you've already issued a "stop > gracefully" command, your "asterisk cluster" won't accept any new > calls until that long call is finished. > > > - Noah-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20070727/c81df2ba/attachment.htm