asterisk users - Apr 2005 - Issues of reliability, hardware, platforms

I'm sure this has been debated before, I'd like to get peoples input. I
see
the hard drive as the single most likely point of failure on an * PBX. How
reasonable would it be to run the OS and config files from a CF card, mount
the /var/partition on a hard drive for the CDR recortds, logs and databases,
and do some kind of test on bootup that would turn off those features if the
hard drive was unavailable (failed)?

I am messing around with a firewall that mounts from a cf card, it got me
thinking about asterisk from a cf card, as there would be little chance of
failure.

Other than that, what have you done to ensure reliability. I am planning a
RAID1 hard drive install for my serious pbx customers, in my experience that
makes for a very reliable machine.

Chris Mason
NetConcepts
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Chris Mason (Lists) wrote:
>I'm sure this has been debated before, I'd like to get peoples
input. I see
>the hard drive as the single most likely point of failure on an * PBX. How
>reasonable would it be to run the OS and config files from a CF card, mount
>the /var/partition on a hard drive for the CDR recortds, logs and databases,
>and do some kind of test on bootup that would turn off those features if the
>hard drive was unavailable (failed)?
>
>I am messing around with a firewall that mounts from a cf card, it got me
>thinking about asterisk from a cf card, as there would be little chance of
>failure.
>  
>
This all assumes that CF cards are more reliable than hard drives (and 
power supplies).
>Other than that, what have you done to ensure reliability. I am planning a
>RAID1 hard drive install for my serious pbx customers, in my experience that
>makes for a very reliable machine.
>  
>
The best solution is a cluster setup, with multiple machines, and no 
single point of failure.

-SteveK

> This all assumes that CF cards are more reliable than hard 
> drives (and power supplies).
That seems to be the commonly accepted fact. With no moving parts, purely
silicon, it should be as reliable as any electronics can be. Hard drives are
notoriously failure prone.


> The best solution is a cluster setup, with multiple machines, 
> and no single point of failure.
Another way of looking at it is you have multiplied your chance of failure.
Unless you have built in redundancy so that one of the clustered machines
takes over from failed hardware, you will lose some of th einstallation,
which may not be acceptable.
I am very keen on the CF Card solution, I think it has great promise.

Chris

I have two Asterisk boxes installed but am not sure how to setup the 
configuration for what I want to do.

One box has two FXO cards in it that will connect two PSTN lines.  I want to 
have Asterisk transfer the incoming calls to the other box which has an FXS 
card in it.  That box should ring that call through to a handset attached to 
the FXS card.

Any advice on how to make this work would be appreciated.