[Asterisk-Users] Fail over solutions

[trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com]

On Wed, 2005-04-27 at 00:52 -0700, trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com
wrote:
> One thing that could be done is to have a disk array for voicemail and
> all with dual controllers.  Then plug that into each of two servers.
> Bind the IP components to a IP that is transportable between machines.
> When one fails ifconfig the failover machine to use that IP (could be a
> virtual interface).
> 
> Veritas HA works similiarly that way.  Via a serial cable there are
> 'global atomic broadcasts' basically a ping.  If the ping fails to occur
> the machine marked backup assumes the IP for all services of the
> primary.  Because it has access to the same disks it can mount them and
> carry on like nothing happened.  
> 
> Veritas seperates services from the machine.  If you have say a web
> server, mail, and SIP you would have each one on a seperate IP so that
> if any one single service fails that one and only that one can be moved
> to the backup server.  With asterisk this may be overkill.
> 
> MAC addresses are the only other problem.  Veritas accomplishes this by
> MAC spoofing.  Cisco PIX do as well.  You might, depending on specific
> ethernet driver, be able to  ifconfig eth0 headdr 00:00:de:ca:fb:ad.
> 
> Just a thought.


I forgot to add that if you have T1/E1/J1s you would want a hunt group
defined so that calls from one goto the other if the card is
nonresponsive.  Analogue lines can forward to a seperate machine on a
'no answer' basis.  Of course if you are doing failover odds are you
arent doing analogue lines.

All in all this shouldnt be a terribly difficult solution to implement,
and could even be done on 1U boxes or whatever.  Basically a 'brain
dead' add on package that requires little configuration, and then
distributed by whatever means someone chooses (if they choose unwisely
someone else will just write something similar that is distributed
differently :)

Due to the cost of asterisk this could be a feature that normal PBX
systems do not have, or do not have for anything 'reasonably' priced.
Giving yet another advantage to asterisk.

The disk array would be the only expensive add on, more than a normal
asterisk system.  It all depends on how important voicemail is in your
application, although there are cheaper alternatives (NFS for example,
but then your NFS server becomes a single point of failure, depending on
the disk array that same issue could be true there as well).

-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com
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