[asterisk-users] Registrations, how many is too many?

[Alejandro Kauffmann]

> Anyone have any idea if there is some sort of limitation to 
> the number of SIP or IAX end points which can register to an 
> Asterisk system (2.8Ghz dual processor, 2GB ram) while also 
> handling 30-50 simultaneous calls without getting into trouble?
> 
> Of course the 30-50 simultaneous calls end up being 60-100 
> channels of mostly G711 VoIP.
> 
> We have seen issues where our Asterisk just gets all crazy 
> and SIP quits working all together, to the point sometimes 
> where we can't even fix it with a restart.
> 
> At one point we were using all realtime for IAX and SIP 
> clients, then we went to text files (more or less), still we 
> are seeing this issue.
> 
> When this happens we can't even do simple things with SIP 
> like "sip show peers" etc. because Asterisk just says that 
> the application doesn't exist.
> 
> This has been a battle for a few months and we can't put our 
> finger on it. Can't seem to figure out when it's going to 
> happen either which is VERY tough on the nerves to say the least.
> 
> This happens during peak times but also in the middle of the 
> night when call volume is slow to non existent.
> 
> The only thing that's constant during both peak and non peak 
> times is the amount of registrations the system deals with.
> 
> We have approx 1500-1800 end points registering to this 
> particular system at any one time. This is a split between 
> IAX and SIP not sure what the percentage of each is at the moment.
> 
> It's been a long time since a problem has beat me/us and this 
> one has won so far.
> 
> Any help in getting my sanity back would be REALLY 
> appreciated. _______________________________________________

We've seen the same behavior since the 1.0.x version and have been unable to
track it down.  What I can tell you is that we used to peak around 40 calls
(SIP/IAX to zap over E1 PRI all using alaw) and SIP would crash.  I saw a
peak of 97 calls today (216 channels with chanspy accounting for most of the
difference) and this is on a single core 3.2Ghz with 1Gb ram.  What changed?
We got rid of IAX.  I can't tell you if this will work for you or not, but
my nerves are doing better now that I don't get calls at random hours of the
day telling me that "we have no phones".  As a side note, inbound ZAP(PRI)
would still work, but only to IAX endpoints.