 Virtualization
MMmmmm, depends.
I would ask yourself:
1) How many Asterisk users will I have?
I have a HP ML370 3.2Gig machine, and I am supporting 80 phones right now off a gig backplane.
It is only running asterisk.
Load ave right now is 2.30-5.60 depending on the time of day according to NAGIOS. I wouldn't want to put more users on this machine.
Take that with a grain of salt.
ML370 HP's are very nice machines by the way.
2) What sort of network am I connecting the Zimbra server too compared to your asterisk user requirements?
I cannot emphasize, how important #2 is. Any delay at the ethernet interface will result in bad voice quality.
Minimally, in a virtualization environment as a person suggested here, I would use tc/iptables to ensure the virtual process running asterisk ALWAYS has the bandwidth to manage calls.
If you isolate the box, you don't have to worry about the server end of the VoiceIP question.
3) I do not like what you are trying to do personally, as I think you are inferring that Zimbra will act as a internet server.....(i.e. packets will be port forwarded to it, or it will be directly connected to the internet.)
I believe Linux is up to the task to do this, securely, but the configuration requirements are not for the faint of heart and the quality of your administration procedures will have to be rock solid to protect the box from human error should your administrator do something dumb like mine did the other day.
:-)
Bad. Very bad implications. See #4 below...
4) Do not forget too, there is a compromise. It is easier to admin one box from a infrastructure stand point, but you put a LOT of eggs in one basket beuilding servers that are overly scaled vertically. (i.e. lots of cores in a single box, with lots of services running on them.)
I am a horizontal man myself. I find that the pain of lots of servers in admin headaches easily makes up for the fact I won't have my Email AND my PHONE AND whatever else you put on that machine down ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
Then there is upgrades.....sorta painful to have the box down for any length of time to do maint or upgrades. Lots of services down just to install more memory for example.
When the heck are they going to design memory like a USB drive, so I can just plug it in and go?
Woops....I will have to forward that one to HP. :-)
Just my thoughts....
-gc  |