[Asterisk-Users] What hardware fits my needs?

[Michael Sampson]

This sounds like a really easy system to set up with multiple servers. 
 From what you are planning I would spread the load over 4 cheaper 
servers rather than going for one expensive one. The main reason is to 
ease up on the usage of your hard drives. Get 4 midrange systems, maybe 
something like a P4 3.0 ghz. Setup a mirrored raid in each one with two 
of the biggest hard drives you can find. And get a dual port T-1 card 
for each server. You can have two T-1s coming into each server and be 
able to handle 184 calls at once. Or you could have one T-1 going into 
each system and use the other ports to bounce calls between servers if 
needed. Then just have 5,000 DIDs going to each server.

Michael Sampson
Information Systems Manager
Customer Contact Services
msampson at yourccsteam.com
952-936-4000



asterisk-users at ecessor.com wrote:

>Jami,
>
>Providing a specific response to your question is rather difficult without a
>more meaningful list of parameters. 
>
>1. You say you have 20,000 distinct DIDs already. Are these provisioned
>through an existing telephony switch using multiple PRI lines (E1/T1)?
>Ideally you would need 4 PRI lines to support the average load of 100 users
>(4xE1=120 channels or 4xT1=96 channels).
>
>However in reality there will be usage peaks - thus you may need to consider
>designing a system that can cope with double or treble that many
>simultaneous users in order to handle peak loads.
>
>2. Providing that many mailboxes and offering the functionality you describe
>is feasible using Asterisk. However you will undoubtedly need multiple
>servers - though again the number of servers and their specification is
>dependent on many additional factors.
>
>3. What is the nature of the service. i.e. Is it mission critical and do you
>need to ensure high-availability? This will impact the architecture/hardware
>configuration you choose. Also do you plan to locate all of the
>lines/servers at a single site or do you want to have redundancy spread
>across multiple sites in the event of an outage within your Central Office?
>
>4. How many messages of what maximum length do you anticipate each user
>being allowed to store? Again this will impact storage requirements.
>
>5. The www.digium.com site lists the cards they offer for interfacing to
>E1/T1 PRI lines. As for server hardware - you will ideally want to use fast
>multi-processor servers for your service. Again - the exacting specification
>is difficult to suggest without knowing more about what you are seeking to
>achieve.
>
>6. Asterisk is robust and powerful. However there is a learning curve
>spanning anything from many weeks to a few months depending on your
>available skills/resources. Setting up a "production grade" service on this
>scale will certainly require a deep understanding of both Linux/UNIX and
>Asterisk.
>
>Neil
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
>[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of S.Ammad Jami
>Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2005 8:18 PM
>To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
>Subject: [Asterisk-Users] What hardware fits my needs?
>
>Hello:
>
>I want setup an asterisk based VoiceMail Server(IVR).
>I have around 20K distinct users(DIDs) dialing to my system through
>telephones/mobiles. The users can dial to their mailboxes and listen/delete
>voicemails sent to them by others. The users can also record&send voicemails
>to other users. I expect to have 100 simultaneous users to my system.
>Please suggest me the hardware configuration I need to
>have: the cards, peripherals, no. of extensions, hardware server etc.
>
>Thanks
>
>Jami
>
>
>	
>		
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