[Asterisk-Users] Reasons why I shouldn't use Asterisk?

[Gavin Hamill]

On Wed, 2003-11-05 at 20:47, Steven Critchfield wrote:

> On a PSTN connection though, you get the problem of physical interfaces.

Yes, I have often wondered about this - if we have a single RJ45
connector from the PRI to the Digium Wildcard, how can we deal with the
failure of the main * box without needing to manually move the cable to
the other machine?

> While it was recently mentioned that there is a device for T1 interfaces
> to fail over in the case of alarm, and this could allow a new machine to
> pick up and deal with calls from the PSTN. 

OK.. so you're talking about a 'PRI switch' that only passes data
through to one of the PBXs on the other side... I wonder how such a
switch is informed of which PBX to use? Heartbeat via serial/LAN? From
both machines I'd imagine?

> Of course as I think back, The Intertel hardware our sister company 
> was installing didn't have any HA features. 

Just curious - since the HA will be a major plus-point for us - the
Inter-Tel Axxess system we currently use has had fairly appalling
results and regular failures.

Of course, neither our PBX reseller will admit their hardware is faulty,
nor will the phone company admit there is any fault on the PRI.. yet we
still experience downtime and lost business. 

At least with * we can see line errors ourselves.

> I wouldn't consider this a CON so much as a classification of what is
> possible to do. I doubt the hardware the person who started this thread
> has has any HA features built into it right now.

Amen to that, and it's the reason why I believe * to be the right choice
for us simply due to the flexibility it leaves us with.. one enormous
server with full Linux HA - or two decent machines, each with their own
PRIs...

Cheers,
Gavin.