I've been working on this the past few days and thought I would put it out there to see if anyone else has interest in it. It really has nothing to do with the Digium appliance, I've just been looking for some mass produced solid state hardware to run small branch offices off of for awhile now and I think I've finally landed on something I like. Basically I've taken an HP thin client workstation which is all solid state and loaded Debian and Asterisk on it (well, Asterisk-GUI too, but just to prove I could make it "appliance-worthy"). I'd be interested in any feedback on how to improve it, specifically on how to make Debian and Asterisk take up less space so I could buy the model that only has 512 MB of flash rather than 1 GB. Here's the link. http://tinyurl.com/2hf2cu Let me know what you think. Jeremy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20070906/1450bce6/attachment.htm
Jeremy P wrote:> Basically I've taken an HP thin client workstation which is all solid > state and loaded Debian and Asterisk on it (well, Asterisk-GUI too, > but just to prove I could make it "appliance-worthy"). I'd be > interested in any feedback on how to improve it, specifically on how > to make Debian and Asterisk take up less space so I could buy the > model that only has 512 MB of flash rather than 1 GB.I did something similar with a HP T5500, but I pulled out the flash memory and replaced it with a laptop hard drive. The connector was nothing more then a standard IDE connector. HP sells an expansion chassis for the unit that allows for a PCI card to be installed. Doug -- Ben Franklin quote: "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Kristian Kielhofner
2007-Sep-06 20:50 UTC
[asterisk-users] Build your own "appliance" concept
On 9/6/07, Jeremy P <jpasterisk at gmail.com> wrote:> I've been working on this the past few days and thought I would put it out > there to see if anyone else has interest in it. It really has nothing to do > with the Digium appliance, I've just been looking for some mass produced > solid state hardware to run small branch offices off of for awhile now and I > think I've finally landed on something I like. > > Basically I've taken an HP thin client workstation which is all solid state > and loaded Debian and Asterisk on it (well, Asterisk-GUI too, but just to > prove I could make it "appliance-worthy"). I'd be interested in any > feedback on how to improve it, specifically on how to make Debian and > Asterisk take up less space so I could buy the model that only has 512 MB of > flash rather than 1 GB. > > Here's the link. http://tinyurl.com/2hf2cu Let me know what you think. > > Jeremy >Jeremy, AstLinux has no problem fitting in 512mb of flash: http://www.astlinux.org I've got 1.4 with Asterisk GUI in a development branch. Still around 30MB! -- Kristian Kielhofner
On Thu, Sep 06, 2007 at 01:05:28PM -0600, Jeremy P wrote:> I've been working on this the past few days and thought I would put it out > there to see if anyone else has interest in it. It really has nothing to do > with the Digium appliance, I've just been looking for some mass produced > solid state hardware to run small branch offices off of for awhile now and I > think I've finally landed on something I like. > > Basically I've taken an HP thin client workstation which is all solid state > and loaded Debian and Asterisk on it (well, Asterisk-GUI too, but just to > prove I could make it "appliance-worthy"). I'd be interested in any > feedback on how to improve it, specifically on how to make Debian and > Asterisk take up less space so I could buy the model that only has 512 MB of > flash rather than 1 GB. > > Here's the link. http://tinyurl.com/2hf2cu Let me know what you think.If you're going to build an appliance which is limited with disk space, then building Asterisk on it is generally not the best idea. You should have a separate build system. To create a separate Debian system under any other Linux system, use debootstrap. This will give you a build environment for a Debian system. I would generally recommend to use packages for as much as possible of the build process, as this allows a more reproducable build. Astlinux was also mentioned. If you decide to go that route, you'll probably need a separate build system as well, as you'll need to customize their image. -- Tzafrir Cohen icq#16849755 jabber:tzafrir at jabber.org +972-50-7952406 mailto:tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com http://www.xorcom.com iax:guest at local.xorcom.com/tzafrir
> I've been working on this the past few days and thought I would put it out > there to see if anyone else has interest in it. It really has nothing to do > with the Digium appliance, I've just been looking for some mass produced > solid state hardware to run small branch offices off of for awhile now and I > think I've finally landed on something I like. > > Basically I've taken an HP thin client workstation which is all solid state > and loaded Debian and Asterisk on it (well, Asterisk-GUI too, but just to > prove I could make it "appliance-worthy"). I'd be interested in any > feedback on how to improve it, specifically on how to make Debian and > Asterisk take up less space so I could buy the model that only has 512 MB of > flash rather than 1 GB. > > Here's the link. http://tinyurl.com/2hf2cu Let me know what you think. >http://www.voip-info.org/files/Embedded_Asterisk.doc There are a few tips in here ofr trimming down debian and having a re-producible build environment. Good luck. JR -- JR Richardson Engineering for the Masses
Gordon Henderson
2007-Sep-07 04:18 UTC
[asterisk-users] Build your own "appliance" concept
On Thu, 6 Sep 2007, Jeremy P wrote:> I've been working on this the past few days and thought I would put it out > there to see if anyone else has interest in it. It really has nothing to do > with the Digium appliance, I've just been looking for some mass produced > solid state hardware to run small branch offices off of for awhile now and I > think I've finally landed on something I like. > > Basically I've taken an HP thin client workstation which is all solid state > and loaded Debian and Asterisk on it (well, Asterisk-GUI too, but just to > prove I could make it "appliance-worthy"). I'd be interested in any > feedback on how to improve it, specifically on how to make Debian and > Asterisk take up less space so I could buy the model that only has 512 MB of > flash rather than 1 GB.I built my own "appliance" some time back - initially for a router project, but I've since adapted it for Asterisk boxes and NAS boxes.. The basic unit has 64MB of IDE-flash, 256MB (or more) RAM. The flash IDE device has one partition and is bootable, so it has a /boot with a bzImage in it, enough of a /dev/ and /etc to make Lilo work on it and an initrd.gz which is unpacked into a 128MB RAM disk, then the system runs entirely from RAM once booted, so there's no continual write to flash issues (I hope!) I do actually have a 2nd partition on the device which I tar all the configuration files into - the bare minimal of what I need gets stored there whenever something changes. (and a copy of astdb too). I don't think this is perfect, and is prone to issues like a power cycle during write, but ... I put a 2nd IDE flash device for Voicemail storage - that does have a live filesystem on it (currently just ext2, which I force an fsck of at boot time, if it's dirty) I've used 64MB to 256MB devices for this (storing VM in GSM format only), some customers want call recording, so they get the bigger ones, but I'm thinking of moving to a laptop drive for people who want even more (and enable idle spin down, etc.) I build the kernel and initrd.gz file on a separate box - it's Debian, but it could be anything as I don't actually put a "distribution" as such into it, I just copy the files I need, and I'm lazy about it, so I copy all of /bin, /lib, most of /etc and a /dev and selected bits of /usr/bin and /usr/lib. (I use ldd on all the executables to work out which libraries I really need from /usr/lib) The kernel is a custom kernel for the hardware with no modules apart from Zaptel, etc. I copy everything into a 128MB file, zeroed (it compresses better) formatted ext2, mounted as a lookback device. Once the copy is complete, I unmount it, gzip -9 it and that's the initrd.gz file. You need to make sure that the Linix kernel you compile has the ability to load an initrd.gz file and a big enough ramdisk! It's not that efficient, and I could save space by using uClib, busybox, etc. but it's really not worth it, but 2 things I don't have on the target system is perl and vim.. Perl is about 10MB, as is vim. Right now I don't have a need for either (and I use nano when I do need to tweak stuff which is rarely) Perl would be nice so I could run stuff like mrtg locally on the boxes, but isn't essential for now. So if there are some new security implications on the current Debian, or an asterisk upgrade, I just upgrade/update the build box, then create a new initrd.gz file and install it. (however this is in the order of 40MB for an Asterisk system with apache & php) so it a bit tricky to do a field upgrade if the remote system is bandwidth limited, but I can pull it in off a USB drive if necessary. My /etc/asterisk and /var/www/docs are actually stored as part of the tar file, so upgrading those is fairly trivial. This is what a running system looks like: $ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/ram0 124M 107M 18M 87% / tmpfs 125M 0 125M 0% /dev/shm /dev/hdc2 60M 23M 37M 39% /data If I mount the flash device, then: # ls -l /mnt total 39019 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Aug 9 14:54 boot drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 24576 Dec 6 2006 dev drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Nov 15 2006 etc -rw-r--r-- 1 dsx 1000 39758472 Aug 9 14:53 image.gz drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Dec 12 2006 lost+found # ls -l /mnt/boot total 2849 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Dec 12 2006 boot.0300 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Dec 22 2006 boot.0800 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Dec 12 2006 boot.1600 -rw-r--r-- 1 dsx 1000 1390066 Jun 5 15:47 bzImage -rw------- 1 root root 31744 Aug 9 14:54 map -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 98728 Sep 21 2006 memtest86+.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 241 Oct 28 2006 message Because everything is in RAM, it's actually quite fun to "play" with trying to destroy it :) Eg. # cd / ; rm -rf * then just reboot it to recover... The one thing that's not "appliance" about it is the box - it's still a PC at the end of the day, but I guess when I'm churning out 100's of these I can afford a custom case design ;-) Those HP boxes do look nice though, but they're more expensive that I build my own for (in the UK at least!) but I do have the option of wall mount, desktop or rackmount cases I guess... Gordon
Only had 4 licenses for the G729 codec. Never had any trouble with these. Michael --Original Message Text--- From: Olivier Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 08:34:45 +0200 Michael, How many simultaneous calls could you get ? Regards 2007/9/7, Michael Graves <mgraves at mstvp.com>: I run Astlinux on a T5700. Have done for over a year. Works great. Much better than the Net4801 it replaced, especially using G729 codecs. Michael -- Michael Graves mgraves at pixelpower.com Sr. Product Specialist www.pixelpower.com Pixel Power Inc. mgraves at mstvp.com o713-861-4005 c713-201-1262 skype mjgraves fwd 54245 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20070908/615bdeaf/attachment.htm