[asterisk-users] A few (simple?) questions

Wed Dec 14 10:22:14 CST 2011

Hi Carlos and thanks for the advice. I agree with you wholeheartedly but I'm not sure if I have much choice in the matter. The system was originally designed to offer PBX services to private clinics and currently handles between 10 and 20, with 70 phone numbers. The guys I work for want to expand into other market segments here in Denmark and my job is to re-install the system on some new servers and start making changes.

The code is not very well written, the original developers have totally misunderstood the RVM model in Rails and the Asterix config files are full of unused code and example code. There is also some very sloppy version control in the Rails/Adhearsion files and absolutely no regression testing. But, hey, it seems to work!

I would like to start from fresh and re-develop the system, I am not at all confident of being able to just lift the code from the current servers and copy/paste it all onto some new ones and expect it to work. Your solid advice might help me make the case for a fresh start, but whichever way it goes, at least I'll be kept busy ...

Fra: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] På vegne af Carlos Alvarez
Sendt: 14. december 2011 16:58
Til: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Emne: Re: [asterisk-users] A few (simple?) questions

Getting involved in an existing, and possibly broken system is the wrong way to start with Asterisk.  I know, because that's how my career in VoIP started.  I had to unlearn a lot of poor practices I learned from that system.

But anyway without prior documentation or the ability to get the original design intention, I think your next step is to go right back to the beginning, and gather the user requirements and create a design.  Then see if it was solved properly, or you need to start over, or what.  Without the basics I don't think you can answer the questions you had.  Once you know what was needed and why it was custom-written, you'll probably have all those answers.  Just know that in its basic form, to process calls for a normal company, nothing is needed other than one Asterisk server.  Everything else is extra, which may or may not be warranted.  I've seen a number of deployments that seemed geared more towards making a very profitable complex custom system than just giving the customer the best value.

Asterisk is a particularly noob-unfriendly product with a lot of pitfalls and relatively poor documentation.  Don't go into it lightly, and always be aware that doing it wrong results in anything from system failures to thousands of dollars in toll fraud costs.

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 8:38 AM, Brynjolfur Thorvardsson <binni at itanet.nu<mailto:binni at itanet.nu>> wrote:
Hi Carlos and thanks for your answer. To begin with: I am a noob in all telephony/asterisk/ror fields, coming from a Classic ASP/MS background! I've been nosing around in RoR and Asterisk for the last month or so and have managed to create several RoR sites and to get an Asterisk server up and running so me and my boss can phone each other using softphone on a smartphone.

So, yes it's going to be fun! And again, thanks for your answer.

Fra: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com<mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com<mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com>] På vegne af Carlos Alvarez
Sendt: 14. december 2011 16:13

Til: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Emne: Re: [asterisk-users] A few (simple?) questions

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 2:18 AM, Brynjolfur Thorvardsson <binni at itanet.nu<mailto:binni at itanet.nu>> wrote:

I've been saddled with recreating a running Asterisk PBX setup (with Ruby on Rails). Due to some wrangling between my client and the original developers I am not able to talk to the developers themselves but have been given full SSH access to their servers!

Jumping in without documentation or help when there is a questionable relationship between the client and developer...this should be a lot of fun.

The system offers PBX services to  ~10 small firms and connects via a SIP trunk to a Telecoms company.

Sounds way over-built, but since we don't know the intent of the architecture nor all the features expected, hard to say.

-          STUN server - is it necessary (given that there are many free STUN servers on the Internet), and why two?

I don't believe so.

-          Why have a separate Asterisk server for the trunk?
Can't think of any reason.

-          Is the Apache Message Queue server necessary?
"Necessary" is not something that can be answered.  In their environment as programmed, probably.  In general, can an Asterisk server run without it?  Yes.  A low-end single x86 server can easily support hundreds of endpoints and dozens of concurrent calls, with all Asterisk services running on a single server.
Do you have Asterisk expertise already?  RoR, SQL, other telephony...?

--
Carlos Alvarez
TelEvolve
602-889-3003<tel:602-889-3003>

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