[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk on windows

[Dan Austin]

Cisco Call Manager does indeed run on Windows 2000.
There are positive and negative facets with this arrangement.

Postive:
 	- Easier for your average IT engineer to install
	- Easier for the same person to maintain
	- Using MS SQL Server allows for replication and
		a workable clustering strategty out of the box
	- Only supported on certified hardware

Negative:
	- The OS cannot be patched with MS fixes
		* The issue is support from Cisco, so only
		MS patches that Cisco certifies and publishes
		can be applied.
	- MS SQL Server 2000 is a memory pig 
	- Massive and cryptic log files, debugging odd behavior
		can be amazing difficult
	- Only supported on certified hardware

Now with these 'facts' in mind, the latest release is
extremely stable if you have enough memory to keep SQL
Server happy.  The management interface is fairly well 
designed, and allows for granular access, so a companies
help desk staff can be trained on performing adds/moves/changes
without putting the core dialplan or infrastructure in their
hands

Cisco's SCCP protocol uses RTP, and allows media re-invites,
but stays in the signalling path.  So the system does not
deal directly with codecs or transcoding, so scalability
is releatively good.  And should the server crash in the
middle of calls, the calls are not interrupted.  New calls
cannot start, but disconnects do not happen.

I listed the certified hardware requirement as both a postive
and negative.  It does limit choices, but with Cisco's process
of validating both the OS and hardware, the is a very limited
exposure that a bad driver can be introduced to reduce stability.

Even though it is a workable system, Cisco has indicated that
a future release MAY be appliance like running on a
'Unix-like' OS.

So it is possible to run a telephony system on Windows, and
get reasonable performance.  It can be a challenge, but no
more or less so than on a Unix-like system.  It is even likely
that if Cisco moved the base OS to 2003 Server, stability
would improve.

Now after all of that, I would want people to think I am
suggesting porting * to Windows would be as successful.  It
works for Cisco largely because they can afford to certify and
validate the platform, something a volunteer community find
increasingly difficult.


Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Wayne
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2005 2:22 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk on windows

Hiyall,
been following this for a while, just thought I would add a bit to the 
debate, but doesn't the Cisco system (Call Manager?) run on an Windows 
2000 based server - if it was that bad why would Cisco choose to run it?

Also 3Com use NT/2000 to run the H323 gateway. Admittedly the call 
processor runs on VXWorks but to cross the boundary of proprietary 3com 
and rest of world - they jump onto windows.

Curiously
Wayne.
ps I don't know a great deal about the cisco system - its more hearsay 
so please jump in on :)

Patrick wrote:

>Reminds me of an Internet Call Diversion pilot WorldCom did back in
2000
>where Alcatel & some M$ drones brought in 2 very big Alpha servers
>running NT. These boxes needed to be rebooted multiple times. They were
>surprised WCOM felt having to reboot these boxes all the time was
>unacceptable in an environment requiring 5nines availability. Never
>laughed so hard when I saw the incredulous faces of the M$ drones. We
>brought in a Stratus based solution and won the project.
>
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