[asterisk-users] Asterisk Appliance

[Lincoln King-Cliby]

________________________________________
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Bob Pierce [pierceb at westmancom.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 5:36 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: [asterisk-users] Asterisk Appliance
> 
> I'm looking for some info on the Asterisk Appliance.
> 
> I understand it has a gui, but can I still do all the dialplan config
> that I'm used of doing by hand outside of the gui? If I really wanted
> to, could I even ignore that the device has a gui and do all my config
> in the files? I guess I'm just wondering if it will be as flexible as a
> 'vanilla' asterisk install from source on a linux system.
> 
> Also, from those who are using these devices, what has your experience
> been? Are they stable? Do they seem to have enough horsepower and
> storage space for an SMB with up to 50 phones? Some older specs stated
> they would be appropriate for businesses with 2-50 users, while the
> current spec on the Digium site states they are appropriate for 2-20
> users.

Sorry for the delay in responding -- I'm just now having time to catch up on a month of the list, but it doesn't appear anyone else has responded. 

We have an Asterisk Appliance in a remote office (and I have one at home) and it's a mistake we would not make again. Concept wise it's a nice idea, but using Asterisk built from source is so much easier, more flexible, and less stressful. I guess our biggest issue with the appliance isn't hardware but administrative: While I found no reference to it before we purchased the Appliances (maybe I didn't look hard enough, maybe it's not documented anywere that's readily findable) Digium doesn't support any confiuguration not generated using the GUI "wizard"... Digium doesn't support FTPing files onto or off of the appliance, Digium doesn't support... 

Stability wise I don't have any complaints, it's never crashed on us except when I tried FTPing config files off so I could edit them. We only have two full-time users at the remote office, and I have only me at home (6 total extentions at the office for visiting staff, 7 extensions at home). There is a wierd FXO caller ID issue that we're fighting on one of the POTS lines, but Digium essentially refused to support it because we aren't running anything close to what the GUI could build for us "automagically" (unified dialplan across three sites, either site can call out on the other site's POTS lines, call queuing that crosses sites, feature codes to force calls to extensions direct-to-voicemail (no ring ever) and ring-for-eternity (no voicemail ever, etc.) [in fairness it looks like its a CO issue because the problem follows the line, the other POTS lines don't exhibit the issue, though all lines work with a "standard" caller ID box]. 

I'm weary of making changes to that box because while you can edit config files through the GUI, if you aren't very careful it seems like parts of a context will rearange itself (e.g. part of extension "s" will end up in the middle of something completely different).

We tried to upgrade the firmware once and it screwed things up to the point where for a day the site had no telephone service (oh, suprise! If you have any custom stuff in extension.conf and upgrade the firmware it will spin off into an infinite loop orbit until you factory default the thing... and once we got control of the infinite loop issue we couldn't get the config that had been working just beautifully to work at all, so we punted and rolled back to the previous FW version) 

Basically, my experience with the appliance it it's a beautiful little box and if they'd just ditch the GUI and give a moderately user friendly commandline text editor I'd be on it in a second, but with the appliance in it's current state it took me less time to 

* Unbox a Dell PowerEdge 1950
* Install AEX804E card
* Rack a Dell PowerEdge 1950
* Install "server version" of Linux from Distro CD 
* Download Aserisk and Zaptel sources, compile, configure, and install
* Build Dialplan by hand from scratch
(and I think, not including labor costs this was also close to the same cost, if not cheaper than the appliance) 

Then the amount of time I've spent trying to get the Appliance to do what we want -- and what we want for the thing really isn't that complicated (really just "Take POTS lines in, handle local switching for a handful of extensions so that that traffic doesn't wind up on our WAN/VPN connecions, and act as a SSU"-- we aren't even doing queues on it!). 

Plus making changes to the Dell version of things is also quicker and less nerve wracking..

As you can probably tell I don't care much for the Appliance based on our understanding of what it was. On the other hand, though, if all you have is one site and just need a basic SOHO PBX it's a decent contender... the support more than anything is what's left a bad taste in my mouth.

These of course are just my opinions