asterisk users - Nov 2005 - Mission-Critical Deployments

I work for a company that is nearing the end-of-life on its existing
Nortel Meridian switch and is considering Asterisk.  We have
approximately 200 existing extensions, and probably 150 out of those 200
are using basic analog phones and would stay that way.  The rest would
have VOIP phones at the desk.

We're seriously considering switching to Asterisk.  I've done quite a
bit of tinkering with Asterisk for my home, but I'm not certain about a
few aspects of how we might deploy Asterisk in the enterprise.

Here are my questions:

1. Where could I look for some resources on server sizing?  Is it
   any problem to support this number of users with a single server?

2. What do we need to do for our data network to make VOIP reliable?
   QoS, basic traffic prioritization on the switch, vlan, ???

3. What's the best way to integrate these 150 analog extensions?
   I've seen interface boxes that usually come in 24-port sizes.  Some
   have an Ethernet/SIP interface to hook up to Asterisk, and others
   have a T1 interface.  What sounds best and is the most reliable?

4. What is a good company to contract with for emergency support?
   Digium?

5. What are people doing to make VOIP phones resiliant in the face of
   power outages?

Is there anybody here that would be willing to serve as a reference
check for Asterisk should we pursue that path?

Thanks,

-- John

On 11/17/05, John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>
wrote:
> I work for a company that is nearing the end-of-life on its existing
> Nortel Meridian switch and is considering Asterisk.  We have
> approximately 200 existing extensions, and probably 150 out of those 200
> are using basic analog phones and would stay that way.  The rest would
> have VOIP phones at the desk.
>
> We're seriously considering switching to Asterisk.  I've done quite
a
> bit of tinkering with Asterisk for my home, but I'm not certain about a
> few aspects of how we might deploy Asterisk in the enterprise.
>
> Here are my questions:
>
> 1. Where could I look for some resources on server sizing?  Is it
>    any problem to support this number of users with a single server?

Not a problem at all, just make sure you have as much redundancy as
possible in the server (RAID, Dual Power Supply, etc.).
>
> 2. What do we need to do for our data network to make VOIP reliable?
>    QoS, basic traffic prioritization on the switch, vlan, ???
>
If you are not running a bandwidth hungy network, then you might be
able to work with just one vlan, if you don't want to take the chance,
then yes you need: QOS, and VLANs.
> 3. What's the best way to integrate these 150 analog extensions?
>    I've seen interface boxes that usually come in 24-port sizes.  Some
>    have an Ethernet/SIP interface to hook up to Asterisk, and others
>    have a T1 interface.  What sounds best and is the most reliable?
Use Channel Banks, they are the best possible. A quad port T1 gives
you 96 channels, all can be used for analog stations. which means you
will need at least 2 quad t1 cards. I personaly like the Adit 600 for
this job.
> 4. What is a good company to contract with for emergency support?
>    Digium?
If you need something like this, then either look on the wiki for
local consultants, or you should consider digiums business edition
package.
>
> 5. What are people doing to make VOIP phones resiliant in the face of
>    power outages?
POE swithces that are powered by UPS.

> Is there anybody here that would be willing to serve as a reference
> check for Asterisk should we pursue that path?
I think the list is around 24-7. :)

> Thanks,
>
> -- John
>
>
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Note:  http://www.citel.com/products/handset_gateways/  sells a SIP handset 
gateway that will let you still use your Digital phones.
We used it for our old NEC phones.

-- 
-- 
Steven

May you have the peace and freedom that come from abandoning all hope of 
having a better past.
---    -      ---  - - -       -    -     -   -   --  - - - --- - ------   - 
 - --- - - -- -  -    - --   -   -    -
"John Goerzen" <jgoerzen@complete.org> wrote in message 
news:slrndnp8u4.sne.jgoerzen@erwin.complete.org...
>I work for a company that is nearing the end-of-life on its existing
> Nortel Meridian switch and is considering Asterisk.  We have
> approximately 200 existing extensions, and probably 150 out of those 200
> are using basic analog phones and would stay that way.  The rest would
> have VOIP phones at the desk.
>
> We're seriously considering switching to Asterisk.  I've done quite
a
> bit of tinkering with Asterisk for my home, but I'm not certain about a
> few aspects of how we might deploy Asterisk in the enterprise.
>
> Here are my questions:
>
> 1. Where could I look for some resources on server sizing?  Is it
>   any problem to support this number of users with a single server?
>
> 2. What do we need to do for our data network to make VOIP reliable?
>   QoS, basic traffic prioritization on the switch, vlan, ???
>
> 3. What's the best way to integrate these 150 analog extensions?
>   I've seen interface boxes that usually come in 24-port sizes.  Some
>   have an Ethernet/SIP interface to hook up to Asterisk, and others
>   have a T1 interface.  What sounds best and is the most reliable?
>
> 4. What is a good company to contract with for emergency support?
>   Digium?
>
> 5. What are people doing to make VOIP phones resiliant in the face of
>   power outages?
>
> Is there anybody here that would be willing to serve as a reference
> check for Asterisk should we pursue that path?
>
> Thanks,
>
> -- John
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --
>
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Goerzen" <jgoerzen@complete.org>
To: <asterisk-users@lists.digium.com>
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 2:37 AM
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Mission-Critical Deployments

> I work for a company that is nearing the end-of-life on its existing
> Nortel Meridian switch and is considering Asterisk.  We have
> approximately 200 existing extensions, and probably 150 out of those 200
> are using basic analog phones and would stay that way.  The rest would
> have VOIP phones at the desk.
>
> We're seriously considering switching to Asterisk.  I've done quite
a
> bit of tinkering with Asterisk for my home, but I'm not certain about a
> few aspects of how we might deploy Asterisk in the enterprise.
>
> Here are my questions:
>
> 1. Where could I look for some resources on server sizing?  Is it
>    any problem to support this number of users with a single server?
A decent dual xeon should be fine for that...or 2 or 3 smaller servers...
(depends on the funtionality you need)
> 2. What do we need to do for our data network to make VOIP reliable?
>    QoS, basic traffic prioritization on the switch, vlan, ???
If it's doable, a serapate data network for VOIP.
A friends install moved to that after running VOIP on their main network,
and it made a huge difference.
YMMV.
> 3. What's the best way to integrate these 150 analog extensions?
>    I've seen interface boxes that usually come in 24-port sizes.  Some
>    have an Ethernet/SIP interface to hook up to Asterisk, and others
>    have a T1 interface.  What sounds best and is the most reliable?
Here I am going to disagree with you. Buy cheap IP phones.
The hardware, setup and lack of functionality of analog extensions makes
them a second choice for me.
> 4. What is a good company to contract with for emergency support?
>    Digium?
Find a local consultant. There are quite a few around...
> 5. What are people doing to make VOIP phones resiliant in the face of
>    power outages?
I have found the device called a UPS to be a useful in this regard, when
hooked up to POE.
> Is there anybody here that would be willing to serve as a reference
> check for Asterisk should we pursue that path?
I could. But I live in melbourne, australia.
Which is not the same as austria.
>
> Thanks,
>
> -- John
All just my 2 cents.

PaulH

I'm just throwing this out here, not dissing anyone. Someone asking
these types of questions may want to seek some professional consultancy
with regards to the network before building a mission critical
deployment. 

-Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Rich
Adamson
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 8:28 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Re: Mission-Critical Deployments
> >> 2. What do we need to do for our data network to make VOIP
reliable?
> >>    QoS, basic traffic prioritization on the switch, vlan, ???
> >>
> >
> > If you are not running a bandwidth hungy network, then you might be
> > able to work with just one vlan, if you don't want to take the
chance,
> > then yes you need: QOS, and VLANs.
Vlan's are certainly not a tool used to improve performance, and in many
cases, will cause more issues then what they solve. Part of the reason
for
that is that there isn't any realistic way to manage switch-to-switch
trunks when multiple vlans traverse it. Eg, If the offered instantanous
traffic is greater then the port speed, packets will be dropped.
Identifying
the root-cause of such issues is no where near as easy as one might
believe.

QoS on a switch will have zero impact _unless_ the offered traffic is
greater then the port speed, or, port speed differences (eg, traffic
from 100 meg ports heading outbound on a 10 meg port). Not likely
to be the case in environments outside larger corporate networks.
> Can you elaborate a bit on that?  I've never used VLANS, nor QoS on
the
> switch level.  Do we really get more reliability by using both, or
would
> QoS alone be enough?
QoS would be enough "if" your existing traffic is congested.
Congestion
can be seen in the form of dropped packets on individual switch ports.
If you're not dropping any packets, then QoS will not do any good at
all on the switch.


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John,

why don't you migrate slowly to asterisk ? If you want to keep
most of your analog phone hardware, leave it on your Meridian 1.
The M1 is doing a good job on features on analog phone sets.
Also, your users are familiar with the call handling of the
M1. Install VoIP phones on Asterisk and connect Asterisk via
PRI to the M1.
Then you can replace step by step your phones.

Regards,

Hans

John Goerzen schrieb:
> I work for a company that is nearing the end-of-life on its existing
> Nortel Meridian switch and is considering Asterisk.  We have
> approximately 200 existing extensions, and probably 150 out of those 200
> are using basic analog phones and would stay that way.  The rest would
> have VOIP phones at the desk.
> 
> We're seriously considering switching to Asterisk.  I've done quite
a
> bit of tinkering with Asterisk for my home, but I'm not certain about a
> few aspects of how we might deploy Asterisk in the enterprise.
> 
> Here are my questions:
> 
> 1. Where could I look for some resources on server sizing?  Is it
>    any problem to support this number of users with a single server?
> 
> 2. What do we need to do for our data network to make VOIP reliable?
>    QoS, basic traffic prioritization on the switch, vlan, ???
> 
> 3. What's the best way to integrate these 150 analog extensions?
>    I've seen interface boxes that usually come in 24-port sizes.  Some
>    have an Ethernet/SIP interface to hook up to Asterisk, and others
>    have a T1 interface.  What sounds best and is the most reliable?
> 
> 4. What is a good company to contract with for emergency support?
>    Digium?
> 
> 5. What are people doing to make VOIP phones resiliant in the face of
>    power outages?
> 
> Is there anybody here that would be willing to serve as a reference
> check for Asterisk should we pursue that path?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -- John
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --
> 
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> 
> 
>