FYI ChicagoVPS: OpenVZ VPS $7/mo.

[w1ve]

Going to see if they will put the PIAF OpenVZ template up.
If not, will try from the manual script install.

2048MB memory
50GB storage
2000GB/month data transfer
OpenVZ/SolusVM
$7/month with coupon code 2048

This is not a 1-month price. It is recurring! Direct link:
http://billing.chicagovps.net/cart.php?a=add&pid=14&promocode=2048

 

[KLH]

Wow, that seems like a really good deal. Anyone use them ?

 

[myitguy]

Wow, that seems like a really good deal. Anyone use them ?

Over on Web Hosting Talk there are a few threads regarding this provider.
Recent one was regarding packet loss that took 3 days to fix.
Based on some other threads, seems to be that they provide poor support.

Additionally if you happen to look through some of their other divisions you will find some poorly maintained websites with incomplete information, broken links or just inaccurate information (I.E. Compare the name of the chief networking officer to the picture that's supposed to represent him/her?)

Overall it comes down to you get what you pay for.

 

[w1ve]

$5.35/month PIAF Purple -- So Far, so good.

Well, you can read what you want, but that's not my experience.

I ordered a VPS, then asked them if they would support the PIAF OpenVZ template.

Here's the response I got from support, almost immediately:

Gerry,

I know about PIAF, i used the actual ISO to deploy hundreds of VoIP Servers to several thousand clients at my last job. Its not my first time in the boxing ring with PIAF, so hopefully the template does well which so far it has. I will go ahead and release it out here and you should see it shortly as one that you can reinstall to.

Thanks!
---------
Jeremiah Shinkle

As promised, within a few hours he had tested the template, and now PIAF Purple is available as an option on the OS installs.

I've been running it for 3 days now, doing a LOT of testing.
One of my providers is VOIP.ms, and they must be in the next rack, as I'm getting 2-4mS ping times to their Chicago POP. No jitter issues. Call quality has been great, even back to my endpoints in NH.

ChicagoVPS is hosted in a facility owned by Dupont Fabros Technology, one of THE best facilities in thw world.

I think the deal is still available:
2GB RAM/50GB Disk/2TB Transfer $7.00: http://billing.chicagovps.net/cart.php?a=add&pid=14&promocode=2048

1GB/30GB/1.5TB for $5.35/month:
http://billing.chicagovps.net/cart.php?a=add&pid=13&promocode=1024

Speaking of VPS, I also operate PIAF on RentPBX.com. ChicagoVPS has a single-POP, and not VOIP-centric like RentPBX is. So, I'd guess I'd choose based on your level of support comfort and POP availability. RentPBX has been awesome and is a good supporter of the PIAF project.

For those who are comfortable, this is an awesome PIAF deal.

YMMV

Gerry

 

[w1ve]

Digging Deeper...

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeremiah-shinkle/31/3b9/392

Jeremiah seems to be running ChicagoVPS as a side biz to working for ColoCrossing. Does not seem to be hiding anything, and ChicagoVPS has been around at least a year.

Gerry

 

[tbrummell]

So, for 7 bucks I thought I'd give this a go. Fired up the VPS, used the PBX in a Flash template, logged in, all is well.

Decided to update-source to bring it up to 1.8.5.0 since I use that elsewhere and it works. The update dies with:

An unknown error #4 has occured! Now exiting

Idea's anyone?

 

[w1ve]

hmmm... I have two running there, updated both to latest, and both work fine.

 

[tbrummell]

Strange. What order did you do updates?

I've tried update-source right after bringing the server up, as well as update-programs, update-fixes then update source. Same result.

Also, I heard back from their support, he doesn't think there is anything in the template that would stop it from working, and I guess you prove that is true as well.

 

[w1ve]

Check that. I had done update-fixes, not update-source. I'm getting the same error on my vps.

 

[tbrummell]

Ahhh, the plot thickens.

 

[darmock]

update 4 is an error that occurs when update-source cannot detect which version of asterisk you are running. Generally this means that someone has modified some files in the /etc/pbx folder and managed to break a few things.

What version of the openvz template was loaded. I would guess it might have been one of the earlier ones based on PBX in a Flash prior to 1755.

If so this is why it is not working. If not you need to look at the files in /etc/pbx called .astversion and .color and report their contents


good luck

Tom

 

[tbrummell]

.astversion:

14

.color:

PURPLE

 

[tbrummell]

Ohhh, and I forwarded your response to them for the Template information.

 

[tbrummell]

Well, that was easy. Compared to another box I have running, it was obviously 18/PURPLE. Changed this one to match and it appears to be updating.

 

[tbrummell]

Spoke a wee bit too soon. Errors while downloading. Obviously more depends on this template thing.

 

[darmock]

Sorry you are having problems. That being said we never tested update-source running under the openvz template so we can't predict what may happen. Works fine under a KVM version.

So you will have to keep track of what the errors are and perhaps they can be solved or not.

We build PIAF to run on real hardware and that is what we test it on. We also use Proxmox (with kvm only) and vmware workstation (No esxi server) for testing.

The main PIAF dev team had nothing to do with the programming of the vz template I am afraid.

Tom

 

[w1ve]

So who wrote the OpenVZ template?

Tom,

Thanks for the feedback. Who wrote the template? How can we entice him/her/them to help?

Do you think this will be difficult to fix?

 

[darmock]

I am sorry I dont know who wrote the last one. I suspect Ward can help. Beyond that I have no idea how difficult it might be to fix because:

1. What is the exact problem?
2. It is reproducible on more than one machine? In other words does this effect one or two "systems" or generally it does not work on any system running the vz template.

Tom

 

[tbrummell]

So, I think my next issue while upgrading is that the script can not determine what network interface is in use. The machine doesn't have an ETH0 or 1, which is what "status" attempts to show you, it uses the following:

root@sip2:~ $ ifconfig
lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:13128 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:13128 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:1102399 (1.0 MiB)  TX bytes:1102399 (1.0 MiB)

venet0    Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  P-t-P:127.0.0.1  Bcast:0.0.0.0  Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP BROADCAST POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:823 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:804 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:152818 (149.2 KiB)  TX bytes:63085 (61.6 KiB)

venet0:0  Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          inet addr:96.8.XXX.XXX  P-t-P:96.8.XXX.XXX  Bcast:96.8.XXX.XXX  Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP BROADCAST POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP  MTU:1500  Metric:1

It works all well and good, but when the upgrade script fails it says it's because of no Internet access, yet I'm connected via the I'net, so guess what....I'll try the upgrade again, maybe we can work through this.

                                           ┌────────────────────────System Information───────────────────────────┐
                                           │  Asterisk   = ONLINE  | Zap/Dahdi = UNKNOWN | MySQL     = ONLINE    │
                                           │  SSH        = ONLINE  | Apache    = ONLINE  | Iptables  = OFFLINE   │
                                           │  Fail2ban   = ONLINE  | Internet  = ONLINE  | Ip6Tables = OFFLINE   │
                                           │  BlueTooth  = OFFLINE | Hidd      = OFFLINE | NTPD      = OFFLINE   │
                                           │  SendMail   = ONLINE  | Samba     = OFFLINE | Webmin    = ONLINE    │
                                           │  Ethernet0  = N/A    | Ethernet1 = N/A     | Wlan0     = N/A        │
                                           │                                                                     │
                                           │  PBX in a Flash Version   = 1.7.5.5                                 │
                                           │  FreePBX Version          = 2.8.0.4                                 │
                                           │  Running Asterisk Version = Asterisk 1.8.2                          │
                                           │  Asterisk Source Version  = 1.8.2                                   │
                                           │  Zap/Dahdi Source Version = N/A                                     │
                                           │  Libpri Source Version    = 1.4.11.4                                │
                                           │  IP Address               =  on eth0                                │
                                           │  Operating System         = CentOS release 5.5 (Final)              │
                                           │  Kernel Version           = 2.6.18-238.19.1.el5.028stab092.2 - 64   │
                                           │ Bit                                                                 │
                                           └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

 

[tbrummell]

Here is the screen I was talking about:

update-source - 2.0.1 released on 082011
PBX in a Flash Network Diagnostics
********************************************************************
* IP Connect* ONLINE  * SSH       * ONLINE                         *
* Ethernet0 *   N/A   * Ethernet1 *   N/A   * Wlan0      *   N/A   *
********************************************************************
sip2.mydomain.com on  - eth0
CentOS release 5.5 (Final) :64 Bit Kernel: 2.6.18-238.19.1.el5.028stab092.2

Remember you are seeing this page as there were problems downloading
the payload file. This generally means that you DO NOT HAVE PROPER
INTERNET CONNECTIVITY!
You were attempting to download mp3-191.tar.gz