[asterisk-users] Load balancing Asterisk.

[Nitzan Kon]

Hello!

We're looking for a solution to reliably load balance our
Asterisk boxes. So far we've been using a hodge-podge of
directing different services to different boxes/IPs, but
eventually I'd like to consolidate things so we can present
a single IP address to the outside world.

My question is - how do we go about doing that? I've read
a lot of things like load-balancing via DUNDi or OpenSER,
but it seems to me like these approaches just add to the
list of possible failures. In other words I'd like to avoid
software solutions.

Is it possible to just put Asterisk behind a load balancer?
I imagine most of them are optimized for web traffic rather
than UDP voice packets. Does that matter?

Would any load balancer do - or only specific models will
work? my guess is any model will work, but some of them may
not be able to handle the load.

Any recommended models?

I know there are some fancy LBs out there that can actually
load balance based on the SIP session rather than something
like IP, but I'm afraid to even look at the price tag. I'm
more than fine with balancing by user IP address instead -
if that works. :)

Would appreciate any comments or ideas.

Thanks!

--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation
www.future-nine.com