FOOD FOR THOUGHT New PBX Hosted Options

[markd89]

Hi,

We've been using PIAF Purple for many years. It's hosted at RentPBX.com and I have learned a bit over the years. It works nicely.

Someone asked me to set them up with a PBX of similar capabilities. Of course, I want to get them on something more current so it is supportable longer.

It looks like the current PIAF is 16-15.1 but RentPBX.com doesn't seem to have an image for that.

Ward's been posting about Wazo which I see is a fork of Asterisk. I'm familiar with the Admin UI from PIAF and all things equal would prefer to work on something similar.

I'm looking for general direction.

Thanks!
Mark

 

[wardmundy]

@markd89 The issue with RentPBX is they don't support 64-bit operating system platforms which most of the current offerings (CentOS 7, Ubuntu 18, Debian 10) are.

Alternatives depend upon the type of platform required (OpenVZ or KVM) and the amount of risk you're willing to absorb. If you don't plan to expose your server to the open Internet and plan to keep it protected by a firewall with whitelist access only (Travelin' Man 3 is bundled with Incredible PBX), then you can save considerable money with an OpenVZ implementation. KVM offers additional firewall protection with ipset which lets you block entire countries as well as the VoIP Blacklist.

In the OpenVZ category, see our current list of providers for about $1-$1.50/month. Keep in mind that backups are essential if you go this route and a secondary server is strongly recommended. Three of our previously recommended "budget-basement" providers have gone under this year.

There are numerous cloud providers that offer a KVM platform. Choosing one that’s a perfect fit depends upon your budget obviously. For rock-solid dependability and little risk of provider implosion, we recommend Digital Ocean ($5/mo.), Vultr ($5/mo.) , and OVH ($3.35/mo.). If you’re just experimenting and can recover if your provider happens to suddenly go out of business, then the LowEndBox KVM offerings ($2-$2.50/mo.) will save you some money and at least one offers free snapshot backups of your data ($25/year). It obviously wouldn't help if they go out of business abruptly. We don’t recommend CloudAtCost. There are discount coupons at the top of Nerd Vittles for Vultr and Digital Ocean which typically cost $5/month plus another $1/month for automatic backups.

In terms of PBX choices, Incredible PBX 13-13 on CentOS 6 or 7 is rock-solid, and Incredible PBX 16-15 on CentOS 7 is performing admirably with the guarantee that it'll be around for at least four more years. Personally, I'd stay away from Ubuntu and Debian because less folks use those platforms for VoIP. Good luck!

 

[markd89]

Hi Ward,

Thanks much. This is helpful.

It's curious that RentPBX wouldn't support 64 bit VMs. It seems like they're giving up future business by doing that. Oh well.

It's worth it to me to pay an extra $2 and not have to worry about the provider going out of business so am looking at the KVM providers. Is there a difference on peering quality? i.e. RentPBX seems to have very low latency to the trunk providers. This new server will take a few calls from Japan, so want good connectivity there as well as to the US.

Thanks again,
Mark

 

[wardmundy]

@markd89: This is where Skyetel really shines because they get out of the communications path between your PBX and the destination. So latency of the VoIP provider really doesn't come into play.

 

[markd89]

Thanks Ward. Skyetel does look interesting, esp. how the call path works. It doesn't look like they offer international DIDs and I'd still like to consider a "standard" provider anyway.

If you (or anyone else) has thoughts on latency for the KVM hosts, I'd be interested.

 

[tbrummell]

FInd a KVM provider that hosts in the same Datacenter as your voip provider. For me with a PBX in Vultr Toronto, and Voip.ms in toronto6, I get decent ping time:

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.234/0.266/0.319/0.035 ms

They are obviously in the same building, if not on the same switch!

 

[markd89]

Thanks. I will ask vultr and the others. I also would prefer to use voip.ms but would like a location closer to Los Angeles.

edit: I found that vultr has a ping tool on their website. losangeles2.voip.ms is 0.5 ms on average. That's plenty good for me. Thanks!

 

[markd89]

Thanks for all the help.

I'm going to be setting up 16-15 on Vultr unless there's a good reason to use the earlier build.

Other plans: TLS/SRTP + port knocking to ensure security/privacy of calls. Probably OpenVPN for admin rather than port knocking. This will be a low volume system supporting < 5 people. I'll be using voip.ms for trunks. Have I missed anything>

Do I need 1GB of RAM or 2 GB?

Thanks much!
Mark

 

[hawk#1]

Thanks for all the help.

I'm going to be setting up 16-15 on Vultr unless there's a good reason to use the earlier build.

Other plans: TLS/SRTP + port knocking to ensure security/privacy of calls. Probably OpenVPN for admin rather than port knocking. This will be a low volume system supporting < 5 people. I'll be using voip.ms for trunks. Have I missed anything>

Do I need 1GB of RAM or 2 GB?

Thanks much!
Mark

That is a choice you need to make, you need 1 gb, but for the little amount it costs, I won't install on a system with less than 2 gb. My personal preference is to use 3gb or more. Just like the question about using a 100 mb or 1 gb nic. For the dollar or two price difference, I will install the gb nic especially since the router is already 1 GB. It does not make sense to to get the minimal specs today so you have to buy new hardware as soon as the software changes the minimal specs that it runs on. Don't get me wrong, that does not mean to get the most advanced hardware available, but use some common sense which is what I have done since I got started in computers several years ago, and although I retired 10 years ago, I still have loyal customers calling me for my advice. Sure it may work fine with a dial up modem, but it sure makes sense to use dsl or better high speed. The choice is yours, good luck.

 

[jerrm]

Do I need 1GB of RAM or 2 GB?

For vultr and a 5 user pbx, anything more than the $5 1GB instance is a waste of money as far as everyday use is concerned. Add the $1 option for auto backups.

The only issue is the 25GB storage if you want to keep call recordings for extended periods (like over 1 year). Easy enough to shuttle recordings to some more appropriate cloud or local (to you) solution. Since this is replacing an existing RentPBX instance, I assume you have a pretty good idea of the recording storage needs.

 

[markd89]

OK, so I have 16-15 installed on Vultr using these steps http://nerdvittles.com/?p=30642

I setup an extension and configured Linphone on my Debian workstation to use it. I have g729, PCMU and PCMA enabled in Linphone. I don't have g729 installed on the new PBX yet. Linphone works fine with my live PBX so I don't think there is a problem there.

Linphone is connecting to the public IP, no VPN, no encryption as this is just testing for now.

So far so good, but if I dial *98, I do connect to the PBX but I don't hear anything. That's where I need some help.

@wardmundy says in the article "Only if you experience one-way or no audio on some calls, add your external IP address and LAN subnet in the GUI by navigating to Settings -> Asterisk SIP Settings. In the NAT Settings section, click Detect Network Settings. Click Submit and Apply Settings to save your changes." so I did that but it made no difference.

I see with asterisk -rvvvvvvvv

Executing [*98@from-internal:5] Answer("SIP/30-00000003", "") in new stack
-- Executing [*98@from-internal:5] Answer("SIP/30-00000003", "") in new stack
> 0x7fa2dc017aa0 -- Strict RTP qualifying stream type: audio
> 0x7fa2dc017aa0 -- Strict RTP qualifying stream type: audio
> 0x7fa2dc017aa0 -- Strict RTP switching source address to XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:7556
> 0x7fa2dc017aa0 -- Strict RTP switching source address to XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:7556
-- Executing [*98@from-internal:6] Wait("SIP/30-00000003", "1") in new stack
-- Executing [*98@from-internal:6] Wait("SIP/30-00000003", "1") in new stack
-- Executing [*98@from-internal:7] NoOp("SIP/30-00000003", "app-dialvm: Asking for mailbox") in new stack
-- Executing [*98@from-internal:7] NoOp("SIP/30-00000003", "app-dialvm: Asking for mailbox") in new stack
-- Executing [*98@from-internal:8] Read("SIP/30-00000003", "MAILBOX,vm-login,,,3,2") in new stack
-- Executing [*98@from-internal:8] Read("SIP/30-00000003", "MAILBOX,vm-login,,,3,2") in new stack
-- <SIP/30-00000003> Playing 'vm-login.ulaw' (language 'en')
-- <SIP/30-00000003> Playing 'vm-login.ulaw' (language 'en')
-- User disconnected

(XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is the public IP where I am located)

Any ideas/suggestions much appreciated!!

 

[atsak]

FInd a KVM provider that hosts in the same Datacenter as your voip provider. For me with a PBX in Vultr Toronto, and Voip.ms in toronto6, I get decent ping time:

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.234/0.266/0.319/0.035 ms

They are obviously in the same building, if not on the same switch!

They're in 151 Front (or 1 Young St which is a couple KM away and connected by obscene amounts of fiber) which is basically where the internet runs from in Canada

 

[tbrummell]

Yeah, I had looked up earlier where it was. Read about it's transformation and the interconnect to 1 Young.

 

[markd89]

So far so good, but if I dial *98, I do connect to the PBX but I don't hear anything. That's where I need some help.
Any ideas/suggestions much appreciated!!

I woke up with the answer in my head. I feel like a dummy. What else is new@!&

I'm still getting used to the new UI. I didn't see all the other tabs for the extension setup, so didn't think to enable NAT for the extension.