Hi,
I have installed AsteriskNOW 1.5 as a paravirt DomU. Xen set-up is 3.3.1 fro
GitCo on CentOS 5.4 with the current kernel for that distribution. Apart from a
minimal glitch with the DAHDI drivers which I fixed post install, all went
smoothly. I noticed there was some issues with the voicemail announcement being
highly choppy. I was mainly trying it with X-Lite on windows (no issues),
SipDroid on my phone (quite a few issues), Twinkle on Ubuntu (excessive issues -
sounds like a Dalek in some instances) and incoming voiptalk.org IAX2 trunk
(variable). SipDroid has handy feature that reports number of lost and late
packeds while in a call. This indicated brief missing and tardy packets to the
tune of up to 5% (mainly late) while the choppiness was happening, otherwise
zero in both cases. This particularly seemed to happen at the start of the
message, or after a period of silence (which sipdroid reports as "no
data")
A bit of googling revealed that this kind of thing has been common in the past
in virtual environments, but I got the feeling shouldn''t be an issue
these days. Seems like work has been done at the kernel/Asterisk(/Xen?) level to
improve things. There seems to be special comments relating to timing issues and
this could be solved in a bare metal environment by adding a piece of Digium
hardware that would provide a timer. I happened to have one so, I added one to
the DomU via pass-through. Card was seen by the DomU and the driver loaded okay.
Start-up message about using DAHDI_Dummy for timing was also gone. However, the
choppiness remains.
I realise all these issues could be exclusively AsteriskNOW and not Xen, and if
I can eliminate Xen, I will approach it from a AsteriskNOW point of view.
Are people successfully running AsteriskNOW on Xen, and if so can anyone suggest
anything that might help?
Am I right in thinking the timing issues of the past should now not be an issue?
Is there any mileage in upgrading Xen to the latest 3.3.x or 3.4.x?
My current approach is to go with the Xen upgrade, try an HVM instance (although
no good for production because I wanted a 4 port FXO on passthrough and finally
try a bare metal install on another machine to compare, in that order.
I realise there has been much talk of Asterisk on Xen on the internet, but it is
hard to work out what is current and what is irrelevant.
Thanks in advance for any help I receive,
Ian.
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On Sun, 2010-01-31 at 04:35 -0800, Ian Murray wrote:> > Are people successfully running AsteriskNOW on Xen, and if so can anyone suggest anything that might help?I am running it in production as HVM (using Trixbox CE) without issue. There are some documented timing issues, however these are normally experienced when you reach 20+ concurrent calls.> > Am I right in thinking the timing issues of the past should now not be an issue?They are still an issue, but shouldn''t be an issue for you yet.> > Is there any mileage in upgrading Xen to the latest 3.3.x or 3.4.x?Before doing that, if using network-bridge, could you try looking / tweaking the forward delay, max age and hello settings of the bridge. I''d at least eliminate it as a cause before re-installing. Its not going to hurt you to go with the last official Xen release (in either series), but I don''t think its the cause of your issue. Cheers, --Tim _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Hi Tim, Thanks for responding.> > I am running it in production as HVM (using Trixbox CE) without issue. > There are some documented timing issues, however these are normally > experienced when you reach 20+ concurrent calls.Will never reach these volumes> > Is there any mileage in upgrading Xen to the latest 3.3.x or 3.4.x? > > Before doing that, if using network-bridge, could you try looking / > tweaking the forward delay, max age and hello settings of the bridge. > I''d at least eliminate it as a cause before re-installing. > > Its not going to hurt you to go with the last official Xen release (in > either series), but I don''t think its the cause of your issue.In fact, I did upgrade Xen to 3.4.2 and also created an HVM. Problems remained while trying both (along with some interesting new ones ;o) ). I went as far as installing Trixbox, PIAF, to see if they faired any better... they didn''t. I even tried a baremetal install... so my issues weren''t exclusively Xen, if at all. I''ve concluded that changing clients and pinning a CPU on the DomU has all but sorted the issues. Thanks, Ian. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Hi, Just curious, are you using this for IP related calls only, no analogue etc? Thanks Ian -----Original Message----- From: xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com [mailto:xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com] On Behalf Of Ian Murray Sent: 04 February 2010 22:45 To: xen-users@lists.xensource.com Subject: Re: [Xen-users] AsteriskNOW on Xen Choppiness Hi Tim, Thanks for responding.> > I am running it in production as HVM (using Trixbox CE) without issue. > There are some documented timing issues, however these are normally > experienced when you reach 20+ concurrent calls.Will never reach these volumes> > Is there any mileage in upgrading Xen to the latest 3.3.x or 3.4.x? > > Before doing that, if using network-bridge, could you try looking / > tweaking the forward delay, max age and hello settings of the bridge. > I'd at least eliminate it as a cause before re-installing. > > Its not going to hurt you to go with the last official Xen release (in > either series), but I don't think its the cause of your issue.In fact, I did upgrade Xen to 3.4.2 and also created an HVM. Problems remained while trying both (along with some interesting new ones ;o) ). I went as far as installing Trixbox, PIAF, to see if they faired any better... they didn't. I even tried a baremetal install... so my issues weren't exclusively Xen, if at all. I've concluded that changing clients and pinning a CPU on the DomU has all but sorted the issues. Thanks, Ian. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Ian Tobin said the following:> Hi, > > Just curious, are you using this for IP related calls only, no analogue etc? > >If you are using Zaptel hardware for an analogue line (ie a TDM400 or similar card) you will not get the interrupt performance required for reasonable call quality. I fought this long and hard a couple years ago. There is a utility, I forget its name off-hand, that will test the interrupt performance for the Zaptel hardware. voip-info.org should have information on it. If you are in a pure voip situation, where all call traffic is handled over the network and not with hardware interfaces, you should be able to use a DomU without much difficulty. The one gotcha is that you will need to use the dummy Zaptel timing device for conference calling and music on hold to work properly. - Ben _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
I''ll Reply to both Ian and Ben....> Ian Tobin said the following: > > Hi, > > > > Just curious, are you using this for IP related calls only, no analogue etc? > >Just IP, but I did use an X100p clone with PCI-passthrough. When the car dis not present, it is saying that it is using the dummy timer. When in and passed through, it recognises it and configures it.> > > If you are using Zaptel hardware for an analogue line (ie a TDM400 or similar > card) you will not get the interrupt performance required for reasonable call > quality. I fought this long and hard a couple years ago. There is a utility, I > forget its name off-hand, that will test the interrupt performance for the > Zaptel hardware. voip-info.org should have information on it.Although the zt hardware was present for timing purposes, no calls went over it though. I will abandon my plans to use a domU with a TDMA clone, using passthrough.> > If you are in a pure voip situation, where all call traffic is handled over the > network and not with hardware interfaces, you should be able to use a DomU > without much difficulty. The one gotcha is that you will need to use the dummy > Zaptel timing device for conference calling and music on hold to work properly.Fine for me, but my brother''s setup needs hardware, so will probably go bare-metal for that. Ho hum Thanks for the previous replies, Ian _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
I use Callweaver in a Xen DomU without any problems. Callweaver is an Asterisk variant without the Digium hardware dependencies. My next project will attempt PCI passthrough for a TDM400. The current box is VoIP only. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
francisco javier funes nieto
2010-Feb-06 22:13 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] AsteriskNOW on Xen Choppiness
Hi, I''ve a ''very stable'' domU (PV) working with Asterisk + FreePBX + 2BRI Digium Clone Card (PCi-E) in a Xen 3.4.2 from sources with Debian Lenny 2.6.26 for dom0/domU and pci-passthrough (uf!) The system works well for two months and seems very stable with medium-full load. It''s based in a very cheap motherboard from ASUS and an AMD x2 processor. J. 2010/2/5 Ian Murray <murrayie@yahoo.co.uk>:> I''ll Reply to both Ian and Ben.... > > > > >> Ian Tobin said the following: >> > Hi, >> > >> > Just curious, are you using this for IP related calls only, no analogue etc? >> > > > Just IP, but I did use an X100p clone with PCI-passthrough. When the car dis not present, it is saying that it is using the dummy timer. When in and passed through, it recognises it and configures it. > > >> > >> If you are using Zaptel hardware for an analogue line (ie a TDM400 or similar >> card) you will not get the interrupt performance required for reasonable call >> quality. I fought this long and hard a couple years ago. There is a utility, I >> forget its name off-hand, that will test the interrupt performance for the >> Zaptel hardware. voip-info.org should have information on it. > > Although the zt hardware was present for timing purposes, no calls went over it though. I will abandon my plans to use a domU with a TDMA clone, using passthrough. > >> >> If you are in a pure voip situation, where all call traffic is handled over the >> network and not with hardware interfaces, you should be able to use a DomU >> without much difficulty. The one gotcha is that you will need to use the dummy >> Zaptel timing device for conference calling and music on hold to work properly. > > Fine for me, but my brother''s setup needs hardware, so will probably go bare-metal for that. Ho hum > > Thanks for the previous replies, > > Ian > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >-- _____________________________________________ Francisco Javier Funes Nieto [esencia@gmail.com] CANONIGOS Servicios Informáticos para PYMES. Cl. Cruz 2, 1º Oficina 7 Tlf: 958.536759 / 661134556 Fax: 958.521354 GRANADA - 18002 _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
(And now to the list, grr...)> Hi, > > I''ve a ''very stable'' domU (PV) working with Asterisk + FreePBX + 2BRI > Digium Clone Card (PCi-E) in a Xen 3.4.2 from sources with Debian > Lenny 2.6.26 for dom0/domU and pci-passthrough (uf!) > > The system works well for two months and seems very stable with > medium-full load. It''s based in a very cheap motherboard from ASUS and > an AMD x2 processor. > > J.Hi, Thanks for the info. I hae concluded that the chop(p?)iness is not related to Xen, as I can recreate the issue with bare-metal. I think pinning a single CPU helped with a few issues that might have been related. Did you do anything fancy to get the pci-passthrough going? I struggled with page boundary problems to get a second NIC going when I thought it might be bridging issues in Xen. Thanks, Ian. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
francisco javier funes nieto
2010-Feb-08 10:31 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] AsteriskNOW on Xen Choppiness
Not important problems to use this card with pci-passthrough, pciback.hide in dom0 and pci definition in domU config file. It''s a pci-e model. domU: asterisk:~# lspci -v 00:00.0 ISDN controller: Cologne Chip Designs GmbH ISDN network Controller [HFC-4S] (rev 01) Subsystem: Cologne Chip Designs GmbH Device b761 Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 18 I/O ports at e800 [size=8] Memory at feaff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2 Kernel driver in use: wcb4xxp Kernel modules: wcb4xxp asterisk:~# uname -a Linux asterisk.canonigos.es 2.6.26-2-xen-amd64 dom0: main2:/etc/xen# dmesg|grep seizing [ 1.060045] pciback 0000:03:04.0: seizing device main2:/etc/xen# xm info|grep xen_caps xen_caps : xen-3.0-x86_64 xen-3.0-x86_32p hvm-3.0-x86_32 hvm-3.0-x86_32p hvm-3.0-x86_64 2010/2/7 Ian Murray <murrayie@yahoo.co.uk>:> (And now to the list, grr...) > > > >> Hi, >> >> I''ve a ''very stable'' domU (PV) working with Asterisk + FreePBX + 2BRI >> Digium Clone Card (PCi-E) in a Xen 3.4.2 from sources with Debian >> Lenny 2.6.26 for dom0/domU and pci-passthrough (uf!) >> >> The system works well for two months and seems very stable with >> medium-full load. It''s based in a very cheap motherboard from ASUS and >> an AMD x2 processor. >> >> J. > > Hi, > > Thanks for the info. I hae concluded that the chop(p?)iness is not related to > Xen, as I can recreate the issue with bare-metal. I think pinning a single CPU > helped with a few issues that might have been related. Did you do anything fancy > to get the pci-passthrough going? I struggled with page boundary problems to get > a second NIC going when I thought it might be bridging issues in Xen. > > Thanks, > > Ian. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >-- _____________________________________________ Francisco Javier Funes Nieto [esencia@gmail.com] CANONIGOS Servicios Informáticos para PYMES. Cl. Cruz 2, 1º Oficina 7 Tlf: 958.536759 / 661134556 Fax: 958.521354 GRANADA - 18002 _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Sat, February 6, 2010 2:01 pm, Oliver Wilcock wrote:> I use Callweaver in a Xen DomU without any problems. Callweaver is an > Asterisk variant without the Digium hardware dependencies. > > My next project will attempt PCI passthrough for a TDM400. The current > box is VoIP only.Interesting. I had similar problems to the OP - again, no hardware involved at all. I switched to FreeSWITCH and so far it seems pretty good. The documentation is hard work but their claims of being lighter and faster than the incumbent Asterisk appear to be true. Cheers, Matt. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users