[asterisk-users] Hardware advice for 100 extensions, routing via ISDN

[Rory Campbell-Lange]

Hi Gordon. Very many thanks for your comments.

On 05/08/07, Gordon Henderson (gordon+asterisk at drogon.net) wrote:
> On Sun, 5 Aug 2007, Rory Campbell-Lange wrote:
> 
> > In the O'Reilly Asterisk book it suggests that it is important to allow
> > BIOS specification of the PCI slot IRQs -- the Tyan won't let us do that
> > I don't think. Is this an issue with the Sangoma card?
> 
> Probably not. Once the system is built, have a a look at /proc/interrupts 
> to see what's on what. Sometimes moving a card into a different PCI slot 
> helps.
> 
> Turn off *ALL* unused hardware in the BIOS. Eg. Serial ports, printer, 
> on-board sound, 2nd Ethernet port (if possible), and so on.

OK, thanks for the advice.

> The killer is transcoding - and my guess is that you're not doing any (or 
> at the very minimal just support for a very small number of home/remite 
> users) - you are basically a "classic" PBX type scenario - so make sure 
> all the phones are using ulaw (if you're in the US, alaw elsewhere) and 
> off you go.

As we are in the UK, looks like we should use alaw.
(Thanks also for the example.)

...

> So basically any modern server type box will be fine, so go with what 
> you're familiar with.
...
> But if you've got a lot of experience with 64-bit debian, then go for 
> it...
...

This is great advice if it has worked for you. We're going to go for it
(and yes, serial console support on a server is a must-have). We having
been using 64 bit Debian for a couple of years now without any problems
on about 24 servers.

> I'd strongly suggest getting the Asterisk sources and compiling them than 
> using the supplied packages which are a bit out of date by now, and I'd 
> also suggest compiling up a custom kernel too and removing all the hotplug 
> nonsense - no modules in the kernel other than the zap, etc. ones. It can 
> make booting quicker and you only have loaded exactly what gets used, but 
> again, this is personal preferance - I've been doing it since the year 
> dot, so I keep on doing it.

I'll give that a go. This is the approach we use for our gateway
machines.

Thanks again,
Rory

-- 
Rory Campbell-Lange
Director
Campbell-Lange Workshop Ltd.
<rory at campbell-lange.net>
<www.campbell-lange.net>