[asterisk-users] State of Asterisk+Virtualization+Timing

[Nic Colledge]

Have you thought about using LXC rather than OpenVZ.

There are a few references to allowing guest access to timing hardware online.

I've only been playing with it recently and haven't used it in production yet but plan to soon.

As for general thoughts about virtualising asterisk, I tried it in the past (about a year ago) on KVM and VMWare and it didn't work too well for me. Regardless of whether you are using LXC / OpenVZ / KVM / Whatever, you should be careful not to have too much other stuff running on the box. If asterisk has to wait to get CPU time you will really notice it, this isn't a problem with other applications like say a webserver. 

Nic.

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Tim Nelson
Sent: 01 November 2011 17:08
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: [asterisk-users] State of Asterisk+Virtualization+Timing

Greetings-

I'm about to dive into the process of virtualizing some of my Asterisk (primarily 1.4.x) infrastructure. In the past, when looking at virt solutions, the primary issue preventing me from moving was the lack of proper timing. We do not need it for MeetMe but rather for IAX2 trunking. I'd like to use either OpenVZ or KVM, but each seem to have independent "issues" that need to be addressed:

OpenVZ - Better resource usage, lower overhead. Primary issue is how to grant access to host node timing source (physical device, or dahdi_dummy in /dev/dahdi/) to the containerized Asterisk process.

KVM - Higher overhead, easier installation, 'true virtualization'. Primary issue is not timing per se, but KVM scheduling. Timing source, while present from dahdi_dummy natively may still not get proper scheduling by KVM process. This could also affect general call quality (even non IAX2 trunked voice), DTMF, etc.

I have to believe there are others running virtualized Asterisk installations with some degree of success on OpenVZ or KVM. Care to share your thoughts?

--Tim

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