asterisk users - Aug 2007 - 2 asterisk servers, how to connect them together?

Hi...

I have what is, I am sure, a relatively common & straightforward problem
(no, NOT that kind of problem!)... I'm trying to hook two asterisk servers
together so I can make a "distributed" PBX.

Here's the scenario:

[MASTER] is in the office. It has unrestricted access to the internet, and a
fixed IP address. It has 3 SIP hardphones configured & working, plus a
couple of softphones which log in/out as necessary. The phones are on
extensions 5100-5104, with a special extension 5999 which just plays music.

[HOME] is at home. It has internet access only through a Microsoft ISA 2003
firewall, and has a dynamic IP address. It has 1 SIP hardphone configured,
and working, on extension 5110. I can add a second hardphone to verify that
this (new build) server is working OK, but all of the messages indicate it's
fine.

What I want to do, obviously, is have ALL of the extensions (5XXX)
"pretending" to be on the same PBX. i.e. if I dial 5100 (on [MASTER])
from
5110 (on [HOME]), the call goes through & everyone's happy; and vice
versa,
calling 5110 from 5100.

I know I need to use IAX to achieve this (as IAX can negotiate its way past
the firewall), but I can't find the magic incantations for IAX.CONF (on
either server) to make them talk nicely to each other. They did, very
briefly, as the [MASTER] server spotted the IP address of [HOME], added it
to the peer list, & my heart rose; but, now it's dead again. Rather than
post my broken conf files here, can anyone suggest a nice'n'easy way to
get
this to work?

Many thanks in advance.
Ade.

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.0/959 - Release Date: 17/08/2007
17:43

Panic over...

I have a weird network problem (now solved), whereby incoming packets
arrived directly to the Asterisk box (eth1); but outgoing packets attempted
to leave via the LAN (eth0)... solved it by sending the IAX packets thru the
firewall at both ends of the connection (i.e. binding IAX to the LAN address
instead of the WAN address).

Freaky? You betcha...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com 
> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
> Ade Vickers
> Sent: 18 August 2007 23:47
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Subject: [asterisk-users] 2 asterisk servers, how to connect 
> them together?
> 
> Hi...
> 
> I have what is, I am sure, a relatively common & 
> straightforward problem (no, NOT that kind of problem!)... 
> I'm trying to hook two asterisk servers together so I can 
> make a "distributed" PBX.
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.0/960 - Release Date: 18/08/2007
15:48

You may want to start from here: http://astrecipes.net/index.php?n=204
l.


On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 00:46:45 +0200, Ade Vickers  
<javickers at solutionengineers.com> wrote:
> Hi...
>
> I have what is, I am sure, a relatively common & straightforward
problem
> (no, NOT that kind of problem!)... I'm trying to hook two asterisk  
> servers
> together so I can make a "distributed" PBX.
>
> Here's the scenario:
>
> [MASTER] is in the office. It has unrestricted access to the internet,  
> and a
> fixed IP address. It has 3 SIP hardphones configured & working, plus a
> couple of softphones which log in/out as necessary. The phones are on
> extensions 5100-5104, with a special extension 5999 which just plays  
> music.
>
> [HOME] is at home. It has internet access only through a Microsoft ISA  
> 2003
> firewall, and has a dynamic IP address. It has 1 SIP hardphone  
> configured,
> and working, on extension 5110. I can add a second hardphone to verify  
> that
> this (new build) server is working OK, but all of the messages indicate  
> it's
> fine.
>
> What I want to do, obviously, is have ALL of the extensions (5XXX)
> "pretending" to be on the same PBX. i.e. if I dial 5100 (on
[MASTER])
> from
> 5110 (on [HOME]), the call goes through & everyone's happy; and
vice
> versa,
> calling 5110 from 5100.
>
> I know I need to use IAX to achieve this (as IAX can negotiate its way  
> past
> the firewall), but I can't find the magic incantations for IAX.CONF (on
> either server) to make them talk nicely to each other. They did, very
> briefly, as the [MASTER] server spotted the IP address of [HOME], added  
> it
> to the peer list, & my heart rose; but, now it's dead again. Rather
than
> post my broken conf files here, can anyone suggest a nice'n'easy
way to
> get
> this to work?
>
> Many thanks in advance.
> Ade.
>
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