[Asterisk-Users] Operating environment for *

[Steven Critchfield]

On Thu, 2003-12-04 at 15:29, Ahmad Faiz wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I've got some questions to post in regard to running asterisk in a
> production-grade environment, specifically targeting high-density IVR
> applications. No VoIP involved, just straight PSTN -> * and perhaps the
> occasional outdials or agent-based predictive dialing.
> 
> 1) Which user would you run * under?

While not the best practice, root is normally used. With proper device
and directory permissions, it should be able to run as anyone you wish. 

> 2) What other security-related issues do you have to resolve?

Unload all VoIP modules if you are not using them. Other than that, do
your normal network hardening. 

> 3) How do you handle crashes (murphy -will- visit you some day)?

There is a script that I picked up from Tilghman that runs out of
/etc/init.d that will continually restart asterisk unless it exited with
a return of 0(one of the stop commands). It also sets it up so it dumps
core in a configured directory and can email you that it has done so.  

> 4) What are the best redundancy techniques to use?

This could be an entire book. It all depends on how you dealing with
your lines and how much redundancy you wish to pay for. 

Someone here recently mentioned T1 devices that could do failover
switching so you could have a hot spare waiting to grab the T1 line in
the case of the asterisk machine going down. But this would require
duplication of hardware for this to work.And this is really the biggest
cost and you still have single point of failures in the actual wire
itself. Of course your telco can provide you backup lines to your
install, but then you incur even more cost and it will be a monthly
cost.

> 5) With respect to Digium's E1 card, what's the max # of boards you've been
> able to install in a single box and still have * work well?

2 cards max regardless of port density right now. 2 quad span cards
should be just fine per machine.

> Thanks in advance. Perhaps someone could start a site where users can
> contribute war stories of their * deployment -- that would make for good
> reading!

www.voip-info.org 

Specifically 
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+hardware+recommendations
-- 
Steven Critchfield  <critch at basesys.com>