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 <bi...@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-boun...@lists.digium.com [mailto: > asterisk-users-boun...@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 <bi...@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-boun...@lists.digium.com [mailto: > asterisk-users-boun...@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 <bi...@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**** > > **** > > **** > > **** > > > -- > _____________________________________________________________________ > -- 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**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > **** > > -- > _____________________________________________________________________ > -- 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
-- _____________________________________________________________________ -- 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