Hi, I am in need of ordering a new server here for our asterisk solution. Since the corporate standard is Dell we need to stick to a dell server. We used to deploy 2900III without any issues, however now they are almost not available any more and are looking at a new solution. Has anyone tried any of the new Dell R (series) servers with Asterisk, utilizing Digium PRI cards? The biggest issue I can see is that in the future we may want to get a transcoder card, however none of the new servers have a standard PCI slot available any more as with the new Nathelem chips having gotten rid of the basic bridge I guess. Any suggestions? Thanks S.
Sascha Ferley wrote:> Hi, > > I am in need of ordering a new server here for our asterisk solution. Since > the corporate standard is Dell we need to stick to a dell server. We used to > deploy 2900III without any issues, however now they are almost not available > any more and are looking at a new solution. > Has anyone tried any of the new Dell R (series) servers with Asterisk, > utilizing Digium PRI cards? > > The biggest issue I can see is that in the future we may want to get a > transcoder card, however none of the new servers have a standard PCI slot > available any more as with the new Nathelem chips having gotten rid of the > basic bridge I guess. >We're using an R200 with a TE220B dual T1 card for 8 months now without issue. As for the PCI problem, Digium makes a PCI Express transcoder card (TCE400B). As long as the server you buy has a built-in disk controller you should have two open PCI Express slots to play with. -Dave
Sascha Ferley wrote:> The biggest issue I can see is that in the future we may want to get a > transcoder card, however none of the new servers have a standard PCI slot > available any more as with the new Nathelem chips having gotten rid of the > basic bridge I guess.http://www.digium.com/en/products/voice/tce400b.php There is a PCI-Express version of that card available, so there is no need to restrict yourself to servers with PCI slots available. -- Kevin P. Fleming Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies 445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA skype: kpfleming | jabber: kpfleming at digium.com Check us out at www.digium.com & www.asterisk.org
On Dec 23, 2009, at 4:21 PM, Sascha Ferley wrote:> Hi, > > I am in need of ordering a new server here for our asterisk solution. Since > the corporate standard is Dell we need to stick to a dell server. We used to > deploy 2900III without any issues, however now they are almost not available > any more and are looking at a new solution. > Has anyone tried any of the new Dell R (series) servers with Asterisk, > utilizing Digium PRI cards? > > The biggest issue I can see is that in the future we may want to get a > transcoder card, however none of the new servers have a standard PCI slot > available any more as with the new Nathelem chips having gotten rid of the > basic bridge I guess. > > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks > > S.Personally, not a big fan of Dell Servers. That being said, I've deployed Asterisk in many of the new R series 1 & 2 U servers with Digium cards. Initial deployments have been without issue. Longterm have had the random drive failure and heat issues I've come to experience with Dell servers. ---fred http://qxork.com
On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 4:21 PM, Sascha Ferley <sascha.ferley at infineon.net> wrote:> Hi, > > I am in need of ordering a new server here for our asterisk solution. Since > the corporate standard is Dell we need to stick to a dell server. We used to > deploy 2900III without any issues, however now they are almost not available > any more and are looking at a new solution. > Has anyone tried any of the new Dell R (series) servers with Asterisk, > utilizing Digium PRI cards?I am also required to buy Dell per company standards. I have two R805s, which is one of the rare times where Dell is selling servers with the six-core Opterons. I have a Digium TE-420 (PCI Express) in each. No problems so far, but they've only been live a few weeks. The R805 has 16x dimm slots which you can populate with a total of 128GB of ram. Our other R805 is NOT used for asterisk, but it's hammered with heavy Oracle loads, has an attached Dell sata drive box, and has had no problems other than early deployment problems with the driver / firmware / crashes with the external Dell sata card. Once we upgraded everything and fully replaced the card the problems were resolved. It's been up solid for at least six months.