[asterisk-users] Mountain ahead of me!

[Gabriel - IP Guys]

Dear All,

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I have been presented with a massive task. I'm not an asterisk expert, but I do know my way around a linux server and infrastructure, and I know when things are not done correctly. A large number of minutes are routed every month, (1m+) and I wish to do this in the most efficient way possible.

I've been presented with three linux servers, all in varying states of upkeep, and I've decided, instead of attempting to clean the systems I'm presented with, it is better for me to build a stable platform for asterisk to be migrated onto. This makes my question two fold.

1	What steps should I take, or consider, if I wish to migrate an existing asterisk installation, without it being offline for too long

2	What steps should I look out for, if I wish to move to a MySQL backed for the configuration files, so that I can remove the systems dependence on local configuration.

My long term plan is to introduce MySQL to be the backend for the configuration and call log data and put this machine behind a load balancer, so that in due course, when I need to add more machines to handle the load, I will have no need to reconfigure asterisk, or build new configurations, and if I keep the base OS install uniform, I should in theory be able to deploy more asterisk boxes very fast behind a load balancer to increase the capacity of my "VoIP Farm" with minimal work.

*VoIP farm is my term, please do not use it in any presentations to the powers that be inside your organisation - If you wish to do so please send £10(ten) via paypal to my email address which is clearly displayed in the email headers!*

Also, in theory, it allows for testing of new configuration, without having to change the configuration on multiple machines at the same time. Which is always a good thing. Any help an advice, or questions are most welcome, as I wish to turn this mountain into a mole hill, a very stable, and expandable mole hill!

Thank you for your time,
Mr Gabriel