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

Wed Dec 14 14:15:01 CST 2011

You are 110% correct Carlos, but I’m sure B.T. likes to eat.  We all have to
do things we don’t like.

From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Carlos Alvarez
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:29 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] A few (simple?) questions

Please feel free to pass this along:

DON'T DO IT!

Taking questionable code, from what appears to be a questionable
relationship, and then trying to extend its life is probably the craziest
way to go about this.

You, personally, are in for a steep learning curve on this.  Having worked
with Asterisk for six years now, I can look back and see that jumping into
complex projects with it at the beginning would have led to many problems.

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 9:22 AM, Brynjolfur Thorvardsson <binni at itanet.nu>
wrote:

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>
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] 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>
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

--
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Carlos Alvarez

TelEvolve

602-889-3003

--
_____________________________________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
              http://www.asterisk.org/hello

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
  http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

-- 

Carlos Alvarez

TelEvolve

602-889-3003

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