[Asterisk-Users] Problem with call drops

[gw at adcomcorp.com]

What kind of switches?  I would suggest go gigabit between your servers,
their switch, and the call center floor.  And, use managed switches if
you are over 20 total stations.  Could be someone's got a p2p and it is
killing you.  Maybe unlikely, but quite possible.  Use some good 3com
switches too, and totally avoid hub and daisy chaining.  Or get a
managed switch with expansion switches if you are running a large number
of ports.  Either way, a single cable drop is a very bad idea.  You get
a snagged cable or something and you can be out of business because of a
stupid cable.

Regards,
Greg 

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Waldo
Rubinstein
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 1:01 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Problem with call drops

Hello guys,

I've been having a a recurring problem with people complaining about
calls being dropped.

I have 3 asterisk servers:

Gateway: running Asterisk 1.2rc2 with TE410P connected to 4 T1s of the
PSTN Server 1: running Asterisk 1.2rc2 with ztdummy using Gateway to
access the PSTN (in/out) Server 2: running Asterisk 1.0.9 with ztdummy
using Gateway to access the PSTN (in/out)

I have agents connected to both Server 1 and Server 2.

The problem is that every once in a while, agents complain that their
calls dropped. Sometimes it's some agents that complaint, some other
times, ALL agents complaint at the same time.

When these complaints occur, the only thing I so is:

1) Issue a show channels on all three servers to see if there are any
ongoing calls. I assume that if there are active calls, that not all
calls dropped
2) Issue dmesg in Gateway to see if any of the T1s presented an alarm
that could have dropped the calls

In either case, I don't see any errors in dmesg indicating there were
problems with the T1s and I always see active calls in all the servers.

What can I do to further troubleshoot this? If I look at the CDR, how
can I tell that a call was "abnormally" terminated? Are there any tools
out there that would allow me to check the health status of the working
system and not just the "availability" of the machines? I was looking at
nagios but I don't know if it will do what I need to do.

The other thing I could think of is that there may be a network problem
in the building. The way everything is connected is all agents are
connected to a series of unmanaged switches in the "call center floor",
which are daisy chained together and then one is connected to the main
switch with a single cable drop. The main switch is where the Asterisk
servers are connected. I figured that if one of the switches in the call
center area fails, it could drop all calls or if there is a problem with
the cable drop from the main switch, that could also affect all agents.

Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Waldo
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