[Asterisk-Users] Absolute Minimum Installation Packages

[Grzegorz Nosek]

Hello,

On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 10:24:32 -0600, David Gomillion wrote
> I can understand the size concerns for putting it in an 
> appliance or what-not.  However, my opinion is that, due to 
> the low cost of hard disk space, it is cheaper for the 
> company to go out and buy another hard disk to replace the 
> extra 500 MB they wasted on a sub-optimal installation than 
> to pay me to try to get the installation as small as possible.
you're absolutely right here, for the cost of a 128mb cf card i can 
get a 40gb hdd, where the space is not a concern

> 
> What are the benefits to a really tiny installation, aside 
> from possible appliance applications?  Moreover, won't you 
> still need a sizable hard disk for voice prompts, voicemail 
> messages, sound file to direct people to dial the correct 
> extension, etc?
what i thought about was a closed box with some web interface that 
could serve as a voip gateway (and possibly as, say, web proxy/cache 
held on tmpfs?) not being a full blown server (there's a difference 
between convincing people to put a 30x30 box somewhere and making 
them put a high-tech server with raid, streamers & whatnots. having 
the system run from a read-only medium (like a cf card with a tmpfs 
overlay - see http://translucency.sourceforge.net though haven't 
tried it yet) removes the need for backups & extended reliability 
(nothing changes and if the data is somehow lost, restoring it is 
trivial). furthermore, if the fs is on a solid state device (not a 
hdd or cd), there are no moving parts (except for a cpu/sys fan), 
improving hardware robustness and reducing noise level. as for 
voicemail, etc. you can put another hdd (capacity!) in there just for 
that or keep it in ram (speed+no moving parts+cheaper than cf and 
voicemail tends to have rather short life-time - or doesn't it?). if 
the hdd breaks or you get a blackout, oh well, you lose at most some 
voicemail. if i could fit an * distro in 20mb (seems reasonable if 
started from a floppy-distro), it leaves me 100mb for voice prompts, 
which should be enough.

> 
> Again, I may be WAY off track, but one of the things I 
> really like about * is that I can update it easily.  
> Wouldn't you lose some of the beauty by putting it in an appliance?
you can build asterisk on another machine and update it via, say, scp 
to your heart's desire

> 
> Moreover, I HATE Nortel because they have a user-unfriendly 
> interface, proprietary controls, non-standard connections, 
> and the like.  It seems to me that by appliance-izing we 
> would be inviting the same abuses that the current systems 
> enjoy.  I could see it becoming an issue of open-source 
> software on extremely proprietary hardware, meaning the user 
> can modify their system if they can figure out how to get in 
> it.
what about ssh? the sshd isn't *this* heavy, is it? putting * in a 
closed box is appliance-izing it [nice word :)] in the eyes of the 
end-user (clicks here and there w/o all the *.conf voodoo), but 
leaves full power to the more competent users who can figure their 
way through ssh and asterisk's conf files

> 
> Of course, all of this is in the assumption that the end-
> user wants to own their PBX.  I know I do.  I think that we 
> should be focusing on a useful administrative interface, 
> database-based extension definitions, and other features 
> that will advance the power, flexibility, and usability of * 
> instead of shrinking the distro as much as possible.
i think we should aim both to scale up (like, 10k+ phone systems 
running *) and down (home pbx system with a fritz or x100p and zero 
initial knowledge required). btw, my shrinking of the * distro to a 
few dozen mb doesn't stand in the way of expanding your server farm, 
does it?

> 
> What am I missing?  I see many people much smarter than I am 
> excited about this, so I am sure I simply failed to consider 
> how it will revolutionize everything.
Not that it'll revolutionize anything, it's simply opening another 
(however niche) market for *.

> 
> Awaiting your enlightenment (preferably sans-flame),
> David Gomillion
> 

regards,
 grzegorz nosek