Am 16.03.2016 um 18:06 schrieb David Kerr <da...@kerr.net>: > To me the value of AstLinux is that it combines a > gateway/router/firewall/voice PBX all in one compact package. I can place it > on a low-cost box an connect it directly to the internet and my local LAN. > > Running AstLinux inside a VM might make sense for the Voice PBX part, and > then as others have pointed out only if you have control of the underlying > h/w to manage overcommit. But if doing that you might as well just run a > standard Linux distro with standard Asterisk. Or consider Asterisk inside a > Docker Container on a standard distro. And there are other complications... > I really don't want Asterisk behind a NAT, I want it facing the internet > directly. Most SOHO and SMB are not going to be able to do that from a VM > environment (my cable provider for example is not going to issue me two > public IP addresses, only one). Placing Asterisk on the gateway/router gives > the best of both worlds... directly connect to internet and directly connect > to the internal network. If all you need your Voice PBX for is internal > phone devices then maybe the NAT issue isn't an issue. > > Another case for AstLinux in a VM is testing / prototyping and for that it is > useful.
I see the upper part the same way as David. I have a few customers running AstLinux as a VMWare vSphere VM for many years, but they are all using ISDN via an external berofix box, so NAT was no issue there. It can be interesting to run AstLinux on the new Beronet appliance as guest, we have to test that out in the near future. I also had some customers in the past asking for a multi-tenant (or multi-customer) Cloud-solution based on AstLinux. > Let me turn this discussion on its head. As Lonnie knows I've been playing > with making AstLinux itself work as a KVM host. The bits to do this are all > in the SVN but you need a custom build. It works really well. I can run > Ubuntu server in a VM on top of AstLinux on a PcEngines APU1 and it is very > usable. Why would I want to do that? Well my current use case is to run the > UniFi Controller s/w for their WiFi AP's -- something that I think is quite > relevant in an AstLinux environment. > > I have even proven that we can run AstLiunx in a VM on top of AstLinux as a > KVM host (complete with multiple network interfaces) Interesting, and that (Ubuntu) does work fine with 2 GB RAM only? I could also imagine a small KVM guest with a MySQL server to make it possible to use some enhanced functions of FOP2 (FOP2 Manager, Addressbook, Recording interface, etc). Since FOP2 is not able (yet) to use our SQLite database. > I personally think that AstLinux should stick to its roots as a bare metal / > appliance environment. But as such devices get more capable should look > beyond Voice PBX as "applications" that run on it / along side it... but > rather than pick specific applications, provide an environment that would > support "anything" so, for example Docker Containers host or KVM host. That > would make for a powerful and expandable environment. > > [sidebar... I don't know if Docker is viable on a busybox but if it is... we > could start by moving Asterisk into a container] > > David > > > > On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 6:59 AM, Michael Knill > <michael.kn...@ipcsolutions.com.au> wrote: > My 2 cents worth: > 1) > Bare Metal Pros: > - A known and reliable quantity. > - Simple architecture > - A router or firewall replacement > > Bare Metal Cons: > - More expensive if a VM Host exists > - Redundancy is harder > > > VM Pros: > - Simple redundancy > - Simple deployment (can build a template) > - Ability to run some other apps e.g. Ubiquity Controller alongside Astlinux > > VM Cons: > - I think that most customers would not like their VM Host Internet facing > even though Virtual Switches should be secure. My only VM I have deployed has > a Public IP Address but sits behind a firewall > - The constant concerns of a virtualised appliance passing Real Time traffic. > Resource management is important and features like Snapshots and VMotion can > cause unacceptable delays. > > 2) Im sorry but I really don’t see the point of using a small host to run a > VM. Most advantages of virtualisation is reaped through economies of scale. > Realistically I am seeing less and less onsite servers for businesses. This > is the beauty of Astlinux. One box onsite to provide all your communications > needs and you can have a NAS if you have slow Internet. Why bother with > anything else? > > 3) Yep as above for VM Cons. > > Don’t get me wrong here, I really see a huge future for Astlinux in VM but I > only plan on using it in a controlled environment with guaranteed resources. > Give me a dedicated APU2 anytime with plenty of resources to spare! > > Regards > Michael Knill > > > On 16/03/2016, 3:15 PM, "Lonnie Abelbeck" <li...@lonnie.abelbeck.com> wrote: > > Brainstorming... > > Time to time it is good to take a forest view of the landscape, so I would > like everyone reading this to offer their insights, brainstorming rules, no > bad ideas. > > Background: > ========= > It seems x86 platforms to run AstLinux has never been better, for example the > PC Engines new APU2 appears to be a great match, as well as Virtual Machine > solutions. > > One recently released appliance is based on a Xen hypervisor - beroNet > Telephony Appliance 2.0 > http://www.beronet.com/products/telephony-appliance/ > > Our new AstLinux 'genx86_64-vm' board type should work well with that beroNet > appliance, or alternatively an enterprising integrator could put Proxmox VE > or XenServer on Jetway's new Celeron J1900 based 4x NIC network appliance and > offer a similar solution. CPU support for Intel VT-x / AMD-v virtualization > is quite common anymore. > > Questions: > ======== > 1) When should AstLinux be bare-metal and when should it run as a guest VM ? > > 2) For SOHO and SMB deployments using VM's, what kind of guest VM's would run > along side AstLinux ? Would these be typically Windows Server situations > that would need more than a 2 GHz J1900 or are there other Linux based > services that could efficiently offer an office full of solutions ? > > 3) Would you trust your edge network router/firewall to be running as a guest > VM ? Possibly dependent on the deployment size ? > > Please discuss... > > Lonnie Michael http://www.mksolutions.info ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transform Data into Opportunity. Accelerate data analysis in your applications with Intel Data Analytics Acceleration Library. 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