asterisk users - Jan 2008 - [Fwd: Re: Large issue - having trouble diagnosing.]

thankyou both very much for your swift responses and helpful insight...
While my knowledge of administrating Asterisk is fairly decent, i must say
my knowledgebase and ability in troubleshooting it is fairly lousy...

all these wonderful suggestions you have had about turning this log on here,
etc sounds great, but i don't know where to begin on that! how  do you
recommend i turn these on or obtain them, else is there a site you can point
me to to save your precious time?

as for the network, we have two cisco routers, one is PoE and the other is
standard. we have tried to keep things constant whereby phones are connected
to the PoE and the data devices are connected to the standard switch,
however the cabling was a bit of a rush job and consequently the PoE has
proven unstable on many of the points, with some of them not even supplying
data packets. this has meant i have had to share a single port for some
desks, where the ethernet cable plugs into the phone and the computer's
ethernet connection is routed through the phone also.

The issues that we are having however are not confined to any single desk;
they occur sperratically on all phones and with any number of call volumes
(small business so only max 6 calls at once incl internal-internal) from 1
through to maximum capacity. I've been told that it usually happens around
the 4 minute mark but i wouldn't hold him to that... im happy to setup
whatever you think is going to fix this, however unfortunately with having
to share network points, i dont really know how VLANS and segmentation are
going to go...


Thanks so much everyone for your support!


Sincerely,


Cameron Hissey

On Jan 21, 2008 4:13 PM, Paul Hales <pdhales at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
>  -------- Forwarded Message --------
> *From*: Paul Hales <pdhales at
optusnet.com.au<Paul%20Hales%20%3cpdhales at optusnet.com.au%3e>
> >
> *Reply-To*: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion <
> asterisk-users at
lists.digium.com<Asterisk%20Users%20Mailing%20List%20-%20Non-Commercial%20Discussion%20%3casterisk-users
at lists.digium.com%3e>
> >
> *To*: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion <
> asterisk-users at
lists.digium.com<Asterisk%20Users%20Mailing%20List%20-%20Non-Commercial%20Discussion%20%3casterisk-users
at lists.digium.com%3e>
> >
> *Subject*: Re: [asterisk-users] Large issue - having trouble diagnosing.
> *Date*: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:47:54 +1100
>
> Generally, E1 is pretty rock solid so my guess is more inside the
> network.
>
> We found an issue at a site a while ago which was pretty bad (calls
> cutting off randomly) and we fixed it by disconnecting the voice and
> data networks. We could have troubleshot it properly, but fitting an
> extra network card in the server was cheaper and faster.
>
> Is there anything ugly in the logs? If not, you could look at turning o
> debugging in logger.conf
> .
>
> later,
>
> PaulH
>
>
> On Mon, 2008-01-21 at 15:04 +1100, Cameron Hissey wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I am having a lot of trouble with my deployment of Asterisk. I am
> > running the PBX-In-a-flash turnkey of Asterisk and ever since
> > deployment I have had many different problems. I have managed to get
> > all issues sorted out as I go along, until this one that randomly
> > began last week.
> >
> >
> > We are using Grandstream GXP 2000 Handsets in the office, and at
> > TE110P card to interface to our ISDN OnRamp10 connection (10 Channels
> > of PRI).
> >
> >
> > The problem arising seems to happen roughly 4minutes into a call.
> > Basically all of a sudden the caller just starts to no longer be
> > understood (sounds like morse code, only milliseconds of voice packets
> > getting through in either direction). naturally this could be a number
> > of non-asterisk related things such as a carrier fault, bad network
> > wiring (even more possible as we are using PoE), even badly configured
> > QoS. However things being as they are my boss has taken it upon
> > himself to absolve himself of any possible blame for any system that
> > he manages (everything but the asterisk box) and lumped it all on me
> > in such a way that its basically my job if i cannot get this working.
> > With all of this, i need to do everything i can to rule out the
> > Asterisk box, so i can go back to him with confidence and clear
> > asterisk of any wrongdoing.
> >
> >
> > Has anyone here ever heard of this sort of problem, and if so did you
> > find a solution? If not, what steps would you recommend i take to
> > diagnose the issue and rectify it as quickly as possible?
> >
> >
> > Thankyou very much,
> >
> >
> > Cameron Hissey
> > _______________________________________________
> > -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
> >
> > asterisk-users mailing list
> > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
> >    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
>
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Try to find a pattern.  Looks that you are able to reproduce the 
problem.  You mention after 4 minutes.  Is this also the case for 
internal calls?  If so then I would say that the E1 is ok.  If not then 
I would step more into E1 related issues.  Have you looked at the 
ethernet cards.  Collisions, errors. 

Cameron Hissey schreef:
> thankyou both very much for your swift responses and helpful insight...
>
> While my knowledge of administrating Asterisk is fairly decent, i must 
> say my knowledgebase and ability in troubleshooting it is fairly 
> lousy... 
>
> all these wonderful suggestions you have had about turning this log on 
> here, etc sounds great, but i don't know where to begin on that! how 
>  do you recommend i turn these on or obtain them, else is there a site 
> you can point me to to save your precious time?
>
> as for the network, we have two cisco routers, one is PoE and the 
> other is standard. we have tried to keep things constant whereby 
> phones are connected to the PoE and the data devices are connected to 
> the standard switch, however the cabling was a bit of a rush job and 
> consequently the PoE has proven unstable on many of the points, with 
> some of them not even supplying data packets. this has meant i have 
> had to share a single port for some desks, where the ethernet cable 
> plugs into the phone and the computer's ethernet connection is routed 
> through the phone also. 
>
> The issues that we are having however are not confined to any single 
> desk; they occur sperratically on all phones and with any number of 
> call volumes (small business so only max 6 calls at once incl 
> internal-internal) from 1 through to maximum capacity. I've been told 
> that it usually happens around the 4 minute mark but i wouldn't hold 
> him to that... im happy to setup whatever you think is going to fix 
> this, however unfortunately with having to share network points, i 
> dont really know how VLANS and segmentation are going to go...
>
>
> Thanks so much everyone for your support!
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Cameron Hissey
>
> On Jan 21, 2008 4:13 PM, Paul Hales < pdhales at optusnet.com.au 
> <mailto:pdhales at optusnet.com.au>> wrote:
>
>     -------- Forwarded Message --------
>     *From*: Paul Hales <pdhales at optusnet.com.au
>     <mailto:Paul%20Hales%20%3cpdhales at optusnet.com.au%3e>>
>     *Reply-To*: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial
>     Discussion <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
>    
<mailto:Asterisk%20Users%20Mailing%20List%20-%20Non-Commercial%20Discussion%20%3casterisk-users
at lists.digium.com%3e>>
>     *To*: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
>     <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
>    
<mailto:Asterisk%20Users%20Mailing%20List%20-%20Non-Commercial%20Discussion%20%3casterisk-users
at lists.digium.com%3e>>
>     *Subject*: Re: [asterisk-users] Large issue - having trouble
>     diagnosing.
>     *Date*: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:47:54 +1100
>
>     Generally, E1 is pretty rock solid so my guess is more inside the
>     network. We found an issue at a site a while ago which was pretty
>     bad (calls cutting off randomly) and we fixed it by disconnecting
>     the voice and data networks. We could have troubleshot it
>     properly, but fitting an extra network card in the server was
>     cheaper and faster. Is there anything ugly in the logs? If not,
>     you could look at turning o debugging in logger.conf
>     .
>
>     later,
>
>     PaulH
>
>
>     On Mon, 2008-01-21 at 15:04 +1100, Cameron Hissey wrote:
>     > Hello,
>     > 
>     > 
>     > 
>     > 
>     > I am having a lot of trouble with my deployment of Asterisk. I am
>     > running the PBX-In-a-flash turnkey of Asterisk and ever since
>     > deployment I have had many different problems. I have managed to
get
>     > all issues sorted out as I go along, until this one that randomly
>     > began last week. 
>     > 
>     > 
>     > We are using Grandstream GXP 2000 Handsets in the office, and at
>     > TE110P card to interface to our ISDN OnRamp10 connection (10
Channels
>     > of PRI). 
>     > 
>     > 
>     > The problem arising seems to happen roughly 4minutes into a call.
>     > Basically all of a sudden the caller just starts to no longer be
>     > understood (sounds like morse code, only milliseconds of voice
packets
>     > getting through in either direction). naturally this could be a
number
>     > of non-asterisk related things such as a carrier fault, bad
network
>     > wiring (even more possible as we are using PoE), even badly
configured
>     > QoS. However things being as they are my boss has taken it upon
>     > himself to absolve himself of any possible blame for any system
that
>     > he manages (everything but the asterisk box) and lumped it all on
me
>     > in such a way that its basically my job if i cannot get this
working.
>     > With all of this, i need to do everything i can to rule out the
>     > Asterisk box, so i can go back to him with confidence and clear
>     > asterisk of any wrongdoing. 
>     > 
>     > 
>     > Has anyone here ever heard of this sort of problem, and if so did
you
>     > find a solution? If not, what steps would you recommend i take to
>     > diagnose the issue and rectify it as quickly as possible?
>     > 
>     > 
>     > Thankyou very much,
>     > 
>     > 
>     > Cameron Hissey
>     > _______________________________________________
>     > -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com
--
>     > 
>     > asterisk-users mailing list
>     > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>     >    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>     _______________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and
>     Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
>     asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options
>     visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

"Cameron Hissey" <camhissey at gmail.com> writes:
> switch, however the cabling was a bit of a rush job and consequently the
> PoE has proven unstable on many of the points, with some of them not even
> supplying data packets.
I would recommend running a separate (preferably store-bought) cable
across the floor directly to the closest desk from the switch.

If that desk stops having problems, you have your answer. If it keeps
having problems, at least there are fewer places to look for the error.


/Benny

In general - /var/log/asterisk/messages and /var/log/asterisk/debug are
great places to start.

After that, you can turn up the debugging in /etc/asterisk/logger.conf

later,

PaulH


On Mon, 2008-01-21 at 21:06 +1100, Cameron Hissey wrote:
> thankyou both very much for your swift responses and helpful
> insight...
> 
> 
> While my knowledge of administrating Asterisk is fairly decent, i must
> say my knowledgebase and ability in troubleshooting it is fairly
> lousy... 
> 
> 
> all these wonderful suggestions you have had about turning this log on
> here, etc sounds great, but i don't know where to begin on that! how
>  do you recommend i turn these on or obtain them, else is there a site
> you can point me to to save your precious time?
> 
> 
> as for the network, we have two cisco routers, one is PoE and the
> other is standard. we have tried to keep things constant whereby
> phones are connected to the PoE and the data devices are connected to
> the standard switch, however the cabling was a bit of a rush job and
> consequently the PoE has proven unstable on many of the points, with
> some of them not even supplying data packets. this has meant i have
> had to share a single port for some desks, where the ethernet cable
> plugs into the phone and the computer's ethernet connection is routed
> through the phone also. 
> 
> 
> The issues that we are having however are not confined to any single
> desk; they occur sperratically on all phones and with any number of
> call volumes (small business so only max 6 calls at once incl
> internal-internal) from 1 through to maximum capacity. I've been told
> that it usually happens around the 4 minute mark but i wouldn't hold
> him to that... im happy to setup whatever you think is going to fix
> this, however unfortunately with having to share network points, i
> dont really know how VLANS and segmentation are going to go...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks so much everyone for your support!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cameron Hissey
> 
> On Jan 21, 2008 4:13 PM, Paul Hales < pdhales at optusnet.com.au>
wrote:
>         -------- Forwarded Message --------
>         From: Paul Hales <pdhales at optusnet.com.au>
>         Reply-To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial
>         Discussion <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
>         To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
>         <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
>         Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Large issue - having trouble
>         diagnosing.
>         Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:47:54 +1100
>         
>         
>         Generally, E1 is pretty rock solid so my guess is more inside
>         the network. We found an issue at a site a while ago which was
>         pretty bad (calls cutting off randomly) and we fixed it by
>         disconnecting the voice and data networks. We could have
>         troubleshot it properly, but fitting an extra network card in
>         the server was cheaper and faster. Is there anything ugly in
>         the logs? If not, you could look at turning o debugging in
>         logger.conf
>         .
>         
>         later,
>         
>         PaulH
>         
>         
>         On Mon, 2008-01-21 at 15:04 +1100, Cameron Hissey wrote:
>         > Hello,
>         > 
>         > 
>         > 
>         > 
>         > I am having a lot of trouble with my deployment of Asterisk. I
am
>         > running the PBX-In-a-flash turnkey of Asterisk and ever since
>         > deployment I have had many different problems. I have managed
to get
>         > all issues sorted out as I go along, until this one that
randomly
>         > began last week. 
>         > 
>         > 
>         > We are using Grandstream GXP 2000 Handsets in the office, and
at
>         > TE110P card to interface to our ISDN OnRamp10 connection (10
Channels
>         > of PRI). 
>         > 
>         > 
>         > The problem arising seems to happen roughly 4minutes into a
call.
>         > Basically all of a sudden the caller just starts to no longer
be
>         > understood (sounds like morse code, only milliseconds of voice
packets
>         > getting through in either direction). naturally this could be
a number
>         > of non-asterisk related things such as a carrier fault, bad
network
>         > wiring (even more possible as we are using PoE), even badly
configured
>         > QoS. However things being as they are my boss has taken it
upon
>         > himself to absolve himself of any possible blame for any
system that
>         > he manages (everything but the asterisk box) and lumped it all
on me
>         > in such a way that its basically my job if i cannot get this
working.
>         > With all of this, i need to do everything i can to rule out
the
>         > Asterisk box, so i can go back to him with confidence and
clear
>         > asterisk of any wrongdoing. 
>         > 
>         > 
>         > Has anyone here ever heard of this sort of problem, and if so
did you
>         > find a solution? If not, what steps would you recommend i take
to
>         > diagnose the issue and rectify it as quickly as possible?
>         > 
>         > 
>         > Thankyou very much,
>         > 
>         > 
>         > Cameron Hissey
>         > _______________________________________________
>         > -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by
http://www.api-digital.com --
>         > 
>         > asterisk-users mailing list
>         > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>         >    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>         _______________________________________________ -- Bandwidth
>         and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
>         asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options
>         visit:
>         http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
> 
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

Hi Cameron,

I think this paragraph goes to the heart of the matter...

Cameron Hissey wrote:
>  are connected to the standard switch, however the cabling was a bit 
> of a rush job and consequently the PoE has proven unstable on many of 
> the points, with some of them not even supplying data packets. 
Benny Amorsen  suggested trying a store-bought cable direct to a phone, 
how did that go?

I would have a very close look at the cabling. Were the "R45" plugs
put
straight onto the cable or terminated in a wall jack? There are two 
types of plug. The one that is most commonly available is not intended 
for the solid copper core cable that is most commonly available in bulk 
boxes and WILL cause flakey connections.

Check the cables for correct pinout (see link below), not just 
continuity. The price of a reasonable cable tester will save you a 
fortune here. Nothing fancy but it must be able to check for split 
pairs. Split pairs could cause the symptoms you describe.

http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/ethernetcables.html

regards,

Drew

-- 
Drew Gibson

Systems Administrator
OANDA Corporation
www.oanda.com

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I once attended an office with such bad cabling that we put the switch
on top of the server and ran cables against the walls to prove that the
internal cabling was rotten.

PaulH


On Tue, 2008-01-22 at 12:26 +1100, Cameron Hissey wrote:
> After changing all the networking and removing PoE, the problem is
> still occuring. Have grabbed this log. is there any more information
> you need?
>  
>  
> Thanks,
>  
>  
> Cameron Hissey
>  
>  
>

Unreachables are the the sign you are looking for!

We had a client where that happened all the time and after we
disconnected the phone network from the pc network it all went away.
Never bothered looking into it further.

PaulH


On Wed, 2008-01-23 at 10:49 +1100, Cameron Hissey wrote:
> Well yesterday i thought i'd solved the problem by running storebought
> cables from the Cisco switch on our rack to the office, and then
> plugging a smaller switch in in the office, and running all the phones
> from that.
>  
> everything ran fine using this setup until i left the office for
> lunch, and everything started playing up again. 
> Then when i returned everything was fine. Was very frustrating when
> its so inexplicable that i couldnt test anything...
>  
> when i left again in the afternoon for half an hour things went from
> bad to worse, nobody could call in or out. 
> 
> I noticed that in the logs a lot of the phones were "unreachable"
at
> once, and all reachable again at the same time. To stop this from
> being a possible cause i lengthened the time that the asterisk box
> checks for the handsets.
> I also realised that the cable connecting the asterisk box to the
> switch may be dodgy, as multiple extensions were disappearing and
> reappearing all at once. i swapped that cable out late yesterday
> afternoon and i will wait today and see how it goes.
> 
> Thanks everyone for continuing to help me with this issue!
>  
>  
> Sincerely,
>  
> 
> Cameron Hissey
> 
> On Jan 23, 2008 9:32 AM, Paul Hales <pdhales at optusnet.com.au>
wrote:
>         
>         Hmmmmm...nothing untowards, but it's pretty complicated (due
>         to
>         complicated dialplan, me guesses) 
>         
>         I was hoping to spot a 'maximum retries' or similar error.
>         
>         Paul Hales
>         AsteriskIT
>         
>         
>         
>         On Tue, 2008-01-22 at 12:26 +1100, Cameron Hissey wrote:
>         > After changing all the networking and removing PoE, the
>         problem is
>         > still occuring. Have grabbed this log. is there any more
>         information 
>         > you need?
>         >
>         >
>         > Thanks,
>         >
>         >
>         > Cameron Hissey
>         >
>         >
>         > 
>