[asterisk-users] Quick DUNDi Poll Questions, For All Asterisk Users, Please Give Feedback

[Dave Fullerton]

JR Richardson wrote:
> Questions:
> 
> 1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
> follow for new users?
> 
> 2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
> or even attempting to configure it?
> 
> 3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
> setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
> investigate and use DUNDi?
> 
> I'm interested in putting together a new-user tutorial about DUNDi
> configuration and setup.  There is a lot of great information, setup
> guides already but the feedback I get is that the current examples are
> a bit complicated to follow for new users.
> 
> Your feedback is appreciated.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> JR

I just happened to spend some time this weekend messing with DUNDi after 
hearing the discussion on the asterisk users conference. I would say 
there is definitely room for improvement in the documentation. I did 
manage to get it working but there were a few things that would have 
helped me get moving more quickly:

* I took me quite a while (and I'm still not sure I get it all) to 
understand what exactly a dundi context is. What are best-practices in 
naming them? Where else does this name get used? Something that showed 
the relationships between dundi context in the mappings section, the 
peers section and how it's used (and I mean more than just "use a 
switch=>" statement) in the dialplan would be helpful.

* Stating more clearly that the [mappings] section of dundi.conf 
determines how OTHER systems map dundi searches in a specific dundi 
context to extentions.conf contexts and how to connect to them on THIS 
system.

* I had to guess a little bit about how to use dynamic peers. dundi.conf 
has a register=yes option but it doesn't specify how you told asterisk 
that it had a dynamic address. Knowing how it's done in IAX and SIP I 
just copied that syntax and it seemed to work. Also, an example with a 
dynamic peer would be helpful. I haven't gotten this far in testing, but 
if a site has a dynamic address how do you set up the IAX channel so the 
static side can contact the dynamic via IAX?


As for your #2 and #3 questions:
Once you have a basic understanding of what the components of DUNDi are 
and how they work I think it's only slightly more complex than setting 
up an IAX trunk between two systems. Which is all you're really doing 
anyway with some added features.

I think simple examples showing you how to setup a DUNDi cloud with two 
systems that explained what each part of the config file accomplished 
would be very helpful to new users. A HOWTO that gives me a cookie 
cutter config file and says "put host A address here, put host B address 
here..." may get me a working setup but I still don't have any idea how 
to expand it without understanding it.

My 2 cents anyway.

-Dave