[Asterisk-Users] Linux Distribution for Asterisk server use

Sun Jul 3 06:16:16 MST 2005

Wow,

I just want you to know I am and have been a Networks Engineer for many years. I started back when Novell was king for networks.  Window and many others have come by and I have setup shop with them.  I still manager and maintain several of my Clients Windows networks.  Almost 3 years ago our boss/owner decided to give asterisk a try.  We got a Consultant and they set the system up for us.  I at the time did not know Linux distro's and was under the impression they were all the same.  We I quickly learn there not.  (Yes Linux kernel is the main part.) But the distro's are very different.  We were setup on Mandrake. I learn as much as I could about asterisk and for the 1st 6 months never did anything with the OS.  

Well soon I needed to do some changes and add something's like reporting and other options that required me to start learning the OS and what It could do.  I looked at about 10 major distro's, Red Hat 9 was current back then, Mandrake, Debian, Gentoo, & Slackware.  There all good I spent about 3 months going through them to fine the one that would fit me best. I decided due to all the books out to learn and setup Red Hat 9.  Which by the way asterisk works great on.  I setup all our 3 different servers on RH 9.  Very soon RH changed there Linux distro's to the Enterprise editions and create in there Open Source Fedora. I tried Fedora Core1 and Core 2 until about 1 year ago.  And at that time I found CentOS.  It's Red Hat Enterprise without there labels.  And Now I am using for all my setups CentOS. For Production systems I am using there CentOS 3.4/3.5. Works great and is easy to setup.  For my testing and other servers that run on Linux I use CentOS 4.1.

I have started to move some of my customers off Windows. It's a great stable OS which is mission critical product.

Hope this helps if you need more info please feel free to email me off list.

Ariel
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: TWV 
  To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com 
  Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005 2:45 AM
  Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Linux Distribution for Asterisk server use

  Hello,

  My question is about which Linux distribution to choose for Asterisk. (/me holds breath)  OK, hopefully you're still reading, because whatever you were thinking now, you're thinking wrong! ;)

  First of all, I want to make clear that I have read EVERY message and reply that I could possibly find about this topic, so that includes the dozens of messages here on the Asterisk mailinglists, on the Digum forum, and even Google search results!

  Still, my question was not answered!  Mainly because the same answer always came back: "Use the one you are most comfortable with".  Well, I already knew that (linux is linux), but it doesn't apply to my situation at all!

  Let's make things clear and concrete now:

  In my professional life, I work as a windows system & network administrator and as a developer on the .NET platform, and have a long and extensive experience with telecom and VoIP.  Working for a telecom company, I now have accepted the challenge to extend our offering with Asterisk.  During the past 6 months, I have learned as much as I possibly could about the Asterisk PBX, successfully set up a complete test environment, developed IVR systems, and now we feel the time is right to put these services into production.  BUT, before we can go live, one important problem remains: as I said, I am a Windows guy, I have a VERY profound knowledge of Windows and manage almost 20 Windows 2003 Servers that run mission-critical applications on a 365/24/7 basis, and support a large number of Windows applications and Web services (some of the applications I have developed are used by more than 25000 users every day!)  Why am I telling this?  Well, because I want to make it clear that I am perfectly happy with my platform/OS (windows), and have no intent whatsoever to ever change servers or application platforms to linux (let alone my workstation).  What's more, I have NEVER come in to contact with linux/unix before, so I have never worked with ANY distribution.

  Having explained all this, it should sound logical that I chose the AsteriskWin32 version for learning Asterisk.  Of course, I realize that we can't put any production system on AsteriskWin32.  So before we can go live with Asterisk servers and services, this last issue remains to be resolved: what Linux distribution should I choose (and learn)?

  As I explained, I see Linux merely as a "necessary evil" (because of my lack of knowledge) for running Asterisk.  So I'm asking about the best linux distribution only to put up asterisk servers.  I'm NOT asking for the easiest one or so (I always enjoy challenges and learning new things), I'm asking for the best choice to build a carrier grade telecom system, having to support thousands of users each and every day.  So it must be reliable and easy to maintain and upgrade.  We are going to use Asterisk in our own datacenters (supporting nation-wide services), as well as in servers that we sell to corporations and callcenters for use as an advanced PBX/CTI system).

  So it should be clear that I'm not talking about a hobby or home deployment here.  Our central asterisk systems for example will have to manage DS3 or (lots of) E1 trunks.

  If you need more information, I am happy to supply it.  I appreciate your time and am hoping for some good suggestions and arguments which will lead me to the correct choice for now and for the years to come.

  Thanks!

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