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Posted by chrisloomis on Tue, 05/18/2010
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Thirdlane platform General Questions

wondering what pitfalls i am in for if i run MTE on a virtual machine ot is it better by it's self

if it is given enough cores and memory will it run like it should

thanks
chris

Submitted by eeman on Tue, 05/18/2010 Permalink

nope, the problems build gradually and get worse as time goes along. Theres an ITSP in Indianapolis that stuck their MTE in the amazon cloud. They've tried to sell me SIP service 10 different times, and all 10 conference calls their audio is choppy and as bad as a poor cell phone call.

virtual machines do not have realtime clocks which affects the playback of audio files, conference rooms etc.

I would stick with convential hardware without adding extra complexity for now.

Submitted by chrisloomis on Tue, 05/18/2010 Permalink

dont want to get into that issue
so dedicated machine is it then

one other question about voice mail messages
is it possible or even necessary to store voice mail messages off the main server?
i ask because i have been told that if i put them on a virtual server it is easier to back them up

and i have the same question about call recording

plus i dont want to run out of space ( i noticed that the files are quite large )

thoughts/advice

Submitted by eeman on Tue, 05/18/2010 Permalink

a few things on that..

  1. only use format wav49 (stored as .WAV vs .wav). this is a gsm encoded file that is 1/10th the size. This is secified in voicemail.conf. To make recorded files use this format go into the global variable section and change RECORDING_FORMAT to WAV from wav.
  2. the thirdlane FTP backup utility is capable of including the voicemail recordings and other recordings in the tar file and is easy to back up
  3. Dont let tenants of MTE select 'record all calls'. Currently theres no way of keeping a tenant admin from changing this but the end-user can be denied the ability to set this. This type of recording is just too 'selfish' of an option on a box design to host hundreds if not a thousand companies. A simple nightly script can discover if anyone were to turn this on. Most easily dealt with using $$. Charge an extra $50/mo per extension that enables that feature.
  4. a cron job can be run daily that deletes files older than a certain age. This can be used on stored recordings. A little tricker on VM but still doable. example:
    @daily /usr/bin/find /var/spool/asterisk/monitor/ -mtime +60 -exec rm {} \;
    @daily /usr/bin/find /var/spool/asterisk/meetme/ -mtime +60 -exec rm {} \;
Submitted by chrisloomis on Tue, 05/18/2010 Permalink

i do like the idea of an extra charge for it since it does take up resources
and i think some companies would get it. i have had plenty ask if we can do it on their phone system and only about 20% actually do it after they hear the price

i will try the wav49 format