[Asterisk-Users] Production Upgrades

[Steven]

OK,  I did some testing with asterisk 1.0.7.
I went into production with asterisk 1.0.9.

I am using a 2 PCI slot 1U Dell 1750 server.
I am using 2 TE110P cards. 1 PRI to Telco. 1 E&M to Panasonic DBS PBX with 
150 people on it. (all Panasonic people reach Telco via asterisk)
I technically put the asterisk server into full production a little earlier 
than I wanted. I used to have Telco into Panasonic and E&M to asterisk from 
there, but my PRI card in the Panasonic died and since we were intending to 
replace it, I didn't want to spend the money on the card, so I swapped the 
cables and put the asterisk first.

Needs:
I need to add a 4port FXO/FXS card. (911 failover and fax)
I need to upgrade to a newer server.
I would like to go to the 1.2 branch of Asterisk.

Questions:
How are other upgrading asterisk on production systems?
Are you buying duplicate Digium cards to test configs and reduce downtime? 
(do you have spares on the shelf anyways?)
If I do buy duplicate cards, would I be better served to get a 2 or 4 port 
T1 card instead of 2 1port cards? (actually considering hardware echo can 
anyway)

I intend to recompile on the new server, copy over configs, VMs and retweak 
my faxtoemail, etc.
But I would still need to test my configs to make sure that all previous 
options are still supported with the 1.2 branch, right?

I know that I could have some redundancy in SIP if I use a SER server or 
two, but this is the server with my T1/PRI links.

Please post how you folks are upgrading your production systems.



-- 
-- 
Steven

May you have the peace and freedom that come from abandoning all hope of 
having a better past.
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