[asterisk-users] How big is *your* dialplan??

[Douglas Garstang]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: C F [mailto:shmaltz at gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 10:59 AM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] How big is *your* dialplan??
> 
> 
> Douglas, it seems to me that you don't understand how the extensions
> of an asterisk dialplan relate to real life. As an example:
> -= 135 extensions (657 priorities) in 31 contexts. =-
> This from a box (yes one box) that has just 10 phones, and 6 lines.
> Every s extension is considered an extension. Which makes every macro
> a context and at least one extension. If one has:
> exten => s,n,Dial(whatever)
> exten => s,n,Goto(s-${DIALSTATUS},1)
> Then that context (macro) has at least 2 extensions.
> Calling Voicemail in my dialplan has 7 extensions (yes just pressing
> the message button). For real life it's only 1 extension.

I understand how asterisk extensions relate to real life perfectly fine.


> 
> Another example:
> This is for a system with around 75 different offices hosted on the
> same box, using 3 T1s, and each office with at least 2 extensions, the
> biggest one being around 15 extensions.
> -= 1110 extensions (2279 priorities) in 138 contexts. =-

Ok.


> 
> That's for around 90 phones and 150 published active phone numbers
> (some of the phone numbers are just IVRs). Why would the fact that
> it's on one box matter? If the main incoming T1 is down (which
> happens), there is no incoming calls anyhow. What would clustering
> help in this case?

You are looking at this from an Enterprise level, not a carrier level. Have you ever heard of NFAS? We have multiple IP-SIP/PSTN gateways connected to our Lucent 5E switch. It allows a T-1 to go down, and we still have connectivity to our 5E switch. What about calls from phones on the IP side? If the Asterisk box they are pointing to dies, you want another Asterisk box to be able to service its calls and therefore you need some form of redundancy. 


> 
> Why would someone have to build a new box if a system went down? A
> system should never be built with a single point of failure. The only
> thing that should be allowed to bring down a system is a fire. The CPU
> fan should be noticed making noise way before it dies, which gives
> enough time for a planned shutdown, in any case that doesn't require
> (if/when the CPU dies) rebuilding the whole box.
> Any asterisk system that has more than 50-60 users should NEVER be
> built in a way that if it doesn't get physically damaged it needs to
> be rebuilt if/when it goes down.

Are you serious? Would you really just wait until a system looked like it was on shaky ground before deciding to build a new one? What about if some other component failed? What about the myriad of other failures you didn't think of ahead of time? Do you really think that it's ok for a system that hosts less than 50-60 users to be unavailable while a new system is built? We're talking about VOICE service here, not someones email access. People can do without email for a period of time but they are very sensitive to a lack of dialtone. 

What about load? Asterisk can supposedly handle about 120 calls. What happens when you get more than about 1000 provisioned users (assuming a 10/1 ratio)? Asterisk has no ability to stop taking new calls, and will keep taking new ones until the load makes the quality of calls unacceptable. A cluster can spread out load between multiple boxes and alleviate this problem.

Btw, I showed this email to a senior telecom guy here in the office. Initially his eyes widened, and then he laughed and said he'd certainly never get you to build his telecom infrastructure.

Doug.


> On 10/11/06, Douglas Garstang <dgarstang at oneeighty.com> wrote:
> > I see some awefully large dialplans here. Are people 
> putting all this on one box or clustering it amongst a number 
> of boxes? I think any business is going to be pretty annoyed 
> if they suddenly lost access to 16,000+ extensions, and had 
> to wait for a new box to be built and configured.
> >
> >         -----Original Message-----
> >         From: George Pajari [mailto:George.Pajari at netvoice.ca]
> >         Sent: Tue 10/10/2006 10:48 PM
> >         To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> >         Cc:
> >         Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] How big is *your* dialplan??
> >
> >
> >
> >         Single server, dual P3 866Mhz, 1.5Gb, TE407P, two 
> PRIs to telco, one PRI
> >         to fax server, one PRI to T.38 gateway:
> >
> >         1791 extensions (4378 priorities) in 240 contexts
> >
> >         --
> >         George Pajari, netVOICE communications    604 484 
> VOIP (484 8647 x102)
> >         Open Source VoIP/Telephony Specialists  1 877 NET 
> VOIP (638 8647 x102)
> >         Hosted IP PBX Services for SOHO & Small Businesses 
> - www.ip-centrex.ca
> >          VoIP Service, Equipment, Systems, and Consulting - 
www.netvoice.ca
>
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