FOOD FOR THOUGHT Suggested OS for new install, after HiF died have to rebuild

[mainenotarynet]

OK, I don't want to make a BIG deal out of this but here is what's happening:

After HiF fot a Low F (as in died ) I had moved my server to alpha racks (which I really think should be beta racks as I have not had a good experience there, So I have to move AGAIN.

Now I know where I'm goinhg but they only offer CentOS 7 (which I was under the impression here that it still has work to be done to be stable enough for PiaF/Incredible and all the TTS/SST offerings (btw, my weather says the report is not available right now and hangs up -- another problem for another day)

They also offer Debian 8 and 9 and also Ubuntu 14, 16 and 8 (I think)

So my question is: Which platform would be best if CentOS 6 is not available (also I need to find out the virtualization (KVM or OpenVZ) - should I use Debian or Ubuntu and which versions.

I have also been looking at Kamailio which looks interesting, but I cannot find screenshots on te website or why I would need this, but the New NV on Publicly accessible is what I need as I have mostly all remote extensions, use FOP2 and UCP which both need 80 and 443 (yes I do use SSL) but for remote smartphones with ever changing IPs as you move, the Public acessible may help there to.

All suggestions and help are very much appreciated and Thanks.

 

[wardmundy]

@mainenotarynet: Take another look at the Nerd Vittles article. The providers have changed. We've had excellent results with Hosting73 AND HostedSimply. Both offer CentOS 6. The other Asterisk flavors including CentOS 7 all have various issues because there's still lots of new, untested code that hasn't been shaken out sufficiently for Asterisk VoIP apps IMHO. If this is for production, I'd stick with the Travelin' Man 3 whitelist and CentOS 6. In this case, OpenVZ platforms are perfectly secure because everything is locked down.

TODAY'S OPEN PLATFORM IS FOR EXPERIMENTATION ONLY AT THE MOMENT. We're still making changes/improvements, and the jury is still out on whether OpenVZ can stand up to a really ugly attack. KVM platforms should be more secure because IPtables can block more stuff, but we haven't fully tested that at this juncture either.

So give it a few weeks, and we'll keep everyone posted.

 

[mainenotarynet]

But that doen't really answer the question, since where I want to go only has CentOS 7 - is Debian or Ubuntu the better option. Mine is for production, so these really cheap is "you get what you pay for" so I'd rather pay more for stable, no no reason shutdowns, no we are closing now, just it works.

 

[krzykat]

But that doen't really answer the question, since where I want to go only has CentOS 7 - is Debian or Ubuntu the better option. Mine is for production, so these really cheap is "you get what you pay for" so I'd rather pay more for stable, no no reason shutdowns, no we are closing now, just it works.

Then go with Vultr - I have MANY production servers there.

 

[wardmundy]

Agreed. Vultr and Digital Ocean are rock solid.

The problem with Debian and Ubuntu are the new releases that literally threw the baby out with the bath water. There is no native support for ODBC which is a key component in Asterisk and FreePBX-based systems. You REALLY are on your own if you go that route.

 

[Kimberly]

Well, what about this thread? https://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/incrediblepbx-on-centos-7.22898/
Maybe go with CentOS 7 and give it a shot; nothing to really lose. Or, install a Virtual Machine on the CentOS 7 and install CentOS 6 in the VM.

 

[mainenotarynet]

OK, I had vultr and again had issues which is why I went to Alpha Racks -- I should have said what I have had in the past.

I originally started YEARS ago (Like how long I've been here) on RentPBX, but at the time for a 1GB memory I was paying $25/month and back then I couldn't keep that up.

Then I got my own VPS (which I still have for other purposes) then upgraded to a Dedicated - Again I still have running my other sites that (kind of) mesh with why my setup is so complicated at 147 extensions when done, and why I am in the cloud and need ports 80, 443, and SIP/IAX open to all, especially when most will have an app on a smart phone) -- was looking at Kamailio (Kah-Mah-Ille-Oh -- I was thinking Ka-Mail_ee-oh) so I could open up and still be safe.

Well My VPS has been stripped down to a File storage site, (I'd like to learn how to do backups and move them here automatically, but never figured out FPBX Backups built in or the Incredible Backups features) which also has Multiple IPs from when I hosted ALL my sites here (I use them for an amateur radio thing called EchoLink which I have 7 proxies running [echolink needs separate IPs for each person to use so if you have 3 hams in the house you can have one on the home but the other two need proxies) -- There is also another thing I wanted AllStar that runs off asterisk using an obsolete cannot find anymore module called app_rptr.so but that's another problem for another day -Like I'd like to add it to my current asterisk but can't.

OK, so my Dedicated box runs SolusVM which has the OpenVZ type containers (Now I do have a few Free IPs and COULD go back to using my DediBox, but I want it separate so if my sites go down, my phones don't.

So I went with WootHosting -- What a BIG mistake that was. Then to DIgital Ocean, that lasted about a month or two - more issues there. So on to Vultr, can't remember why that didn't work out, maybe I was still looking around and found I got more for the same money at HiFormance. Well you know all about that. So now with AlphaRacks but in the month or two that Iv'e been here the server shuts down by itself for no apparent reason, where this is live, and it's happened 5 times that I can remember, I am moving to Namecheap which is around the same price as RentPBX but I get 6GB ram, 120 GB SDD so for what my system will be, I should be more than adequate.

So what I hear is stay with CentOS, but last I knew 7 doesn't play nice -- so which versions do play nice in either Debian or Ubuntu -- they have more options of those, but just ONE on CentOS, I don't want to have to keep rebuilding every few months as these 'cheaper' companies cannot be trusted on productions.

Or I guess I could put it back on my DediBox, but would rather not and keep it separate, so what are my options?

Kimberly, skimmed through the posts but I can't tell if CentOS7 is ready for 'prime-time' yet or not

Also is there anty tutorials anywhere on coming from using chan_sip for so long to making all extensions and trunks res_pjsip -- I can't seem to decypher anything I've found.

Thanks again.

 

[wardmundy]

We think the kinks are out of the CentOS 7 implementation with Incredible PBX, but... it hasn't been subjected to the type of use that CentOS 6 has so YMMV. As I said, for a production system, CentOS 6 is the way to go. The beauty of Vultr and Digital Ocean is you get backups for just $1 a month. Pretty cheap insurance without having to run multiple servers.

FYI: There are some of us that have been using Vultr for more than a year with zero problems. Can't tell from your post whether you actually had a problem or just moved on to save money.

 

[mainenotarynet]

I moved from DO to Vultr and then to Alpha Racks.

DO is now showing on my dashboard that Auto Backups are $8/month not $1 so how long you've had yours may be why you still see $1.00/mo.

I also thought you had ready made images on DO. Can't find them in the list either.

I guess I could go back to either one of those but as alot of the posts say - they are great for experimental. I need Production stability.

I'll go back through the "new" recommendations list and see what happens. I mean with 147 extensions 15 trunnks and mostly all re4mote connections , I want as much resources as possible, but I am by no means rich so about $20/month is about max.

But to comparrison shop at same cost point Vultr almost doubled what DO had but that was a while ago. No company is coing to offer the exact same specs as someone else, so the hunting is harder.

These $15/year yeah right, look at HIF as to why that is a bad idea for production.

I'd love to have 2 or three PBXes as either redundant HA (on FreePBX- not even seeing that anywhere, I think you did it with WAZO, but that was too complicated for me to figure out Adding Extensions, trunks and such - same with Issabel) -- No w I could do 3 PBXes and run all through Kamailio on the 1st VPS I have still running as the controller, but 1 is easier to maintain than 3.

want to learn PJSip too for at least SLA/SCA but I need PJSip for that I think.

Well the hunt continues. Thanks Ward.

 

[wardmundy]

Backups are 20% of your monthly bill at D.O. and Vultr. Sorry. I was quoting the price with the $5/mo. plan. Didn't know you were a Big Spender.

If you're in that ball park, you might want to consider OVH. 3CX runs a lot of their infrastructure there. We've had excellent results with them as well.

 

[mainenotarynet]

I don't wish to be a "Big spender" but I do by necessity. My concern is that if I go cheap - I get cheap, and not enough resources to handle what may be. I would rather spend a bit for overkill, than to have insufficient resources down the road.

Now with Kamailio, on a box that right now is "under utilized and possibly splitting the PBX I have now into 4 boxes (Maine Notary Net, Renew for Jesus Ministries and 2 ham radio groups and inter connecting them via IAX2 trunks (I believe either Lorne [or someone else] long ago posted how to do that, or run the 4 boxes identical with 1 GB a piece but load balancing or some such, I may go with cheap to split, but if one box, I want overkill for future useage.

OVH has a $18/mo plan with 4GB/2core/50GB SSD which may work. Any cheap suggestions or would it be better to split and go cheap by the year? What I am afaraid of is the HiF happening again one one of these cheap ones.

 

[wardmundy]

I think it's safe to assume that the HiFormance scenario will probably repeat itself down the road.

 

[mainenotarynet]

Its why I hesitate to buy a year at a time - which is why I spend too much.

All my sites on a dedi box costs me way too much too, but I don't want to have to rebuild everything all over again -- and I can't ever copnfigure mail correctly unless inside webmin/virtualmin -- even now that is busted since I SSL'ed everything, hasn't worked right in months. So I leave my main sites alone. I would like to diversify, but at what cost to do so?

 

[Kimberly]

If a company has been around for awhile; and of course any company can fold, and has built a good reputation, they shouldn't do as HiFromance and just shut down servers without warning. They will give notice to customers so they can prepare. However, anything in the cloud can disappear. My suggestion is if you want security is to do it in house. I ran a PBX off an old Gateway for a long time and I think it was running at 400 Mhz; 32 bit running one of the older Incredible PBX. Of course the newer releases need more power. Old hardware is cheap; poke around on fleabay. You don't need an eight core; find a good 64 bit CPU, motherboard etc; or an old 64 bit system and go to it. Pick up a Raspberry Pi if you want to try something different. Of course these $15 a year plans are a good way; no paying the electric bill. In my case at the moment it is running in a VM on my main box; that box stays on 24/7/52 so the VM makes good sense and I use an ATA to connect a cordless phone; the ATA; made in China, was $10 on fleabay. I may get one of the cheap VPS and move it to the cloud; maybe not. However, having the PBX in house where you can log in etc; a physical box you control, then that is the best security over some company managing it for you in the cloud.

 

[PBX Novice]

After the HiFormance fiasco, I switched to Amazon AWS and Google Cloud servers both free tiers (as I'm running a small operation)
It took a good bit of fiddling but they are both up and running. Google surprisingly has given me the bigger issue, although it was easier to configure, they overutilized the resources on the particular region and the server was down for a day but you can diversify to different regions and I suspect this isn't a frequent issue. I'm with these big box brands because I've got no interest in having to deal with a fly by night again. Also the free tiers are just that..free

Any way to make this easier for others with like an image for Google Cloud?! @wardmundy

 

[dicko]

Agreed. Vultr and Digital Ocean are rock solid.

The problem with Debian and Ubuntu are the new releases that literally threw the baby out with the bath water. There is no native support for ODBC which is a key component in Asterisk and FreePBX-based systems. You REALLY are on your own if you go that route.

but

https://www.informaticapressapochis...etch-9-4-the-fabulous-asterisk-14-freepbx-14/

has all the fixes.

 

[chris_c_]

Its why I hesitate to buy a year at a time - which is why I spend too much.

All my sites on a dedi box costs me way too much too, but I don't want to have to rebuild everything all over again -- and I can't ever copnfigure mail correctly unless inside webmin/virtualmin -- even now that is busted since I SSL'ed everything, hasn't worked right in months. So I leave my main sites alone. I would like to diversify, but at what cost to do so?

I'm looking at the similar situation.
The best choices are:
1. Rent many VPS for a year at a time, for relatively low price each one.
2. Or rent a dedicated server with 8 cores, 16GB ram, 2-4 1TB disks, and a gigabit connection, more expensive than option 1, you pay more and you get more. Dedicated server option is economical when you have grown to 10+ VPS.

 

[mainenotarynet]

But see, that's just it, I'm running multiple websites (My business (Main site [CMS Made Simple], forum [Simple Machines forum], CRM [SugarCRM Free version] ,OpenFire/Spark Chat client-Server [although this tanked when I added SSL as its not on Port 80 or 443 but like 9090 or similar], A store site for minor sales [CubeCart]) ) -- then there's the micro churc's website , 2 Amateur Radio Clubs I manage and the PBX, which may be split in 3 plus Kamailio but who know -- so the Dedi is for all these.

In my early days Cpanel made things like Subdomains (Mainsite.org // store.mainsite.org //forum.mainsite.org) all work but I have them as .org/.bix/.net -- you get the idea and I have yet figured out how to merge these so if someone types mainsite.net - they get sent to forum.mainesite.org but the addressbat would show mainsite/net/whatever/.

Since my Dedi has SolusVM to make domains their own VPSes I have the ones that do not require emails that way, the ones that need emails I have to shove into Virtualmin/Webmin as I can not configure sendmail or postfix to work outside of it (although this is now tanked too, I get mail but cannot send out due to SSL.

For what I run I could split into 13 small VPSes but that means 13 separate and possibly not consecutive IPs, 13 different Root logins, 13 everything. It hay be cheaper that what I pay now (especially If I buy year at a time, but is it worth trying to move rebuild and reconfigure 13 sites?

What I'd also Like to know is how to DNS sip1.mypbx.us to 12.23.34.45 // sip2.mypbx.us to 23.34.45.56 // sip3.mypbx.us to 34.45.56.67 and kamailio as controller.mypbx.us as 54.43.32.21 or better yet each group as sip.groupwebsite.tld but is that going to wack pout things even worse and how to SSL all this ?

I thought I was fluent in computers...I am finding I am SORELY lacking.

Well good night all, off to slumberland.

 

[wardmundy]

but

https://www.informaticapressapochis...etch-9-4-the-fabulous-asterisk-14-freepbx-14/

has all the fixes.

Understand, but you have to ask yourself if you want to be dependent upon a one-man band for the glue that holds your OS together. We've done it for RasPi platform, but I'm reluctant on the 'real' OS platforms.

 

[dicko]

Understand, but you have to ask yourself if you want to be dependent upon a one-man band for the glue that holds your OS together. We've done it for RasPi platform, but I'm reluctant on the 'real' OS platforms.

Well the only difference in his method over the FreePBX ones are the odbc installation.

If you are using 9 then probably you have mariadb , their odbc connectors are at

https://downloads.mariadb.org/connector-odbc/+releases/