[asterisk-users] Is Asterisk ready for Prime-Time?

[Drew Gibson]

Bill Andersen wrote:
> This is not a troll.  I've used my real email because I want this
> taken seriously.  I'm not trying to make anyone mad, I just want
> some real discussion on this issue.  Please bare with me...
>
> I'm a USER of Asterisk.  We purchased 3 commercially available
> "Asterisk Based" PBXs a little over a year ago. (I won't mention
> which one at this point - I don't want to bad mouth them - yet!)
> Two of the systems are very small (5 SIP lines/6 Polycom phones).
> The third is on a PRI with 30 Polycom phones.
>
> My smaller sites work pretty good.  I've only had to restart
> Asterisk every month or so.  However, my 30 station system
> is a continuous headache.  I average a restart at least once a
> week.  Sometimes a couple of times in the week.  I'm always being
> called to "fix" something that just stopped working.
>
> I DON'T WANT TO GET INTO A "Well, don't just complain, tell us
> your setup and we can help you get it working".  This list HAS
> helped me figure out some of the issues.  THANK YOU!  But the
> purpose of this post is more of a fact finding mission.
>
> 1) Was choosing Asterisk for our company the wrong decision...
>
>    a) IF... I expect a phone system to just work.  Once it is
>       configured, a phone system should just work with
>       very little attention.  My previous system was a
>       Comdial with external voice mail on a DOS based PC.
>       I LITERALLY WENT OVER 4 YEARS WITHOUT HAVING TO REMOVE
>       POWER TO THE COMDIAL CONTROL OR RE-BOOT THE VOICE MAIL PC.
>  
>    b) IF... I really only need a phone system that allows an operator
>       to answer each call and transfer them to the appropriate
>       person.  I need voice mail, but very little auto attendant
>       features (mostly after hours).  All the bells and whistles
>       that Asterisk offers are cool, but don't bring that much to
>       the table for our purpose.
>
>    c) IF... Stability is more of an issue than high end features?
>
> 2) Are there any users out there that really DO have an Asterisk
>    system that just works like clockwork?  I'm saying, once setup,
>    run for a year (or more) without any issues?
>
> 3) If SO, Should I simply consider a different vendor?
>
> 4) If NOT, and if my expectations are that a system SHOULD just
>    run and run without any problems.  Is Asterisk simply not my
>    solution.  Is Asterisk not REALLY ready for production.  Because
>    in my mind (as a user of phone services), "dealing" with the
>    phone system, even on a MONTHLY basis, means that the system
>    is NOT really production ready...  Before we installed an
>    Asterisk based PBX, I spent maybe 4 hours per YEAR with phone
>    issues (setting up a new station?).  Since we moved to an
>    Asterisk based PBX, I spend 4 hours (or more) every WEEK!
>
>    Am I expecting too much?
>
> Bill
>
>   

I don't think you are expecting too much.

We have:-

130 physical extensions including 24x7 inbound call centre

Debian on Dell server

root at asterisk:~# uptime
 13:15:31 up 192 days, 23:49,  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00

(Power was removed to switch to new UPS)

asterisk*CLI> show version
Asterisk 1.2.24 built by root @ asterisk on a i686 running Linux on 
2007-09-08 17:17:07 UTC
asterisk*CLI> show uptime
System uptime: 63 days, 4 hours, 26 minutes, 40 seconds

(Asterisk was restarted after queue config changes)


We had a single power supply and single drive fail in one incident in 
Feb 2007 (one drive of RAID 1). System stayed up but was taken down for 
15 minutes to swap the drive. PS was hot-swapped when it arrived later.


regards,

Drew






-- 
Drew Gibson

Systems Administrator
OANDA Corporation
www.oanda.com