asterisk users - Sep 2004 - Is Dual CPU machine solution for using Asterisk with other general apps (like home automation, web server, ...) in home environment ?

Hi,

I'm currently thinking of putting more functionalities to Linux server box.
Major is Asterisk, but would also like to add video surveillance, home
automation and limited (for only domestic up to 4 users) web, file and
mailserver apps.

I know there are problems running Asterisk with other such apps on same
machine - but wonder if I can take advantage of dual processor machine in
this situation (where one CPU would run Asterisk, and other for all other
non-critical apps) ?
Can P4 with hyperthreading help ?
How good is Linux support for dual CPU or hyperthread technologies ?

Any experience, advice, more info or pointers for further exploration for
this situation ?

Thanks in advance,

Regards,

Robert.

> I'm currently thinking of putting more functionalities to Linux server
box.
> Major is Asterisk, but would also like to add video surveillance, home
> automation and limited (for only domestic up to 4 users) web, file and
> mailserver apps.
> 
> I know there are problems running Asterisk with other such apps on same
> machine - but wonder if I can take advantage of dual processor machine in
> this situation (where one CPU would run Asterisk, and other for all other
> non-critical apps) ?
> Can P4 with hyperthreading help ?
> How good is Linux support for dual CPU or hyperthread technologies ?
> 
> Any experience, advice, more info or pointers for further exploration for
> this situation ?
Running other apps on the machine is not a problem at all. It all depends
100% upon how the apps are actually used and not on the fact they are
running. In other words, * doesn't consume any significant cycles when
no calls are in progress; apache doesn't consume anything if no one is
hitting pages; etc, etc.

The only way to know whether its going to function for sure is either
to know/understand how processor intensive your apps are (including *),
or, try and evaluate it.

If * is only used for call setup (eg, no transcoding, no digium cards),
then cycles are basically only used during the short duration call
setup process. If * is expected to handle multiple codecs (eg, trans-
code) and you have one or more digium cards installed (that require
interrupt servicing), obviously the processor is more heavily loaded
and the issue becomes 'how many simultanous calls is it expected
to support'.

Likewise, if your home surveillance is configured to handle full motion
streaming video with storage, that's an entirely different load then
is storing a 32k jpg once per minute. Same with mailserver; if you
subscribe to ten asterisk-type lists with 200+ postings per day each, 
that's very different then a home system receiving ten emails per day.

Lots of folks have implemented * on 200 mhz systems (and smaller), 
but very few have actually load tested their systems to know where
the cutoff is before echo cancellation (as one example only) is
impacted.

Only you can guess at the load given the mix of apps that you're
expecting.