[Asterisk-Users] Re: 911 and lawsuits and redundancy

[Steven Critchfield]

On Tue, 2004-01-06 at 21:08, Jonathan Moore wrote:
> These are good issues, but I am even thinking of something simpler and more
> common than crises. Such as this scenerio.
> 
> I need to update my Asterisk server that runs all my phones inorder to install a
>  kernel update that fixes a security bug. This is something I would consider
> happening on a regular basis with a voip enable system, whereas the traditional
> system might sit in a closet for 10 years never being touched. Let's say I don't
> want to stay at work until 2 am to reload the system when noone is there. How
> would you configure and * system(s so that you could take a system offline
> during working hours without taking out all or parts of the system? 

Since the current kernel bug release is for a local exploit, you only
have to worry about it if you have local users on that machine. If
security was that high on your priority list and you have users logging
into your PBX machine, you might need to revisit your security
procedures. 

Of course it is interesting how you are comparing old style PBX with
asterisk with VoIP. It is possible for you to take asterisk back to
analog telephony and be able to disconnect the ethernet cable and treat
it just like that old style PBX. Or you could think of it more like the
Nortel BOM which runs Windows and gets patched regularly(I hope). 

Of course if you have tested your upgrades well and used the package
tools for the distro you are on, you should be able to keep downtime to
a minimum and just schedule it. Maybe it means weekend work, but so is
the problems when you choose to be a software supporter.  

-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>