Connect to Asterisk cli

[tomw]

I just finished a scratch install of vicidial 2.4rc1. It is a centos6 server with a digium 410tdm card. It is to be used in a pure voip env. No extra addons from scratch install. Have read man. Now on to the question. I know asterisk is running, I can see it with ps ax. I can see lots of screens with screen -x. I have tried to conect to all of the screens and when I type asterisk -r I get the asterisk.ctl doesn't exist. I know asterisk is up and running becuase calls will process through. I have the following results from screen -x. 2311.ASTVDadapt (Detached)
2233.astshell20121113084923 (Detached)
2315.ASTfastlog (Detached)
2301.ASTsend (Detached)
2299.ASTupdate (Detached)
2309.ASTVDremote (Detached)
2305.ASTlisten (Detached)
2307.ASTVDauto (Detached)

I searched google and the forums but have had no success on how to access the asterisk cli. I would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks
Tom

[williamconley]

1) Welcome to the Party, Tom!

2) when you post, please post your entire configuration including (but not limited to) your installation method and vicidial version with build.

this IS a requirement for posting along with reading the stickies (at the top of each forum) and the manager's manual (available on EFLO.net, both free and paid versions)

You should also post: Asterisk version, telephony hardware (model number is helpful here), cluster information if you have one, and whether any other software is installed in the box. If your installation method is "from scratch" you must post your operating system and should also post the .iso version from which you installed your original operating system. If your installation is "Hosted" list the site name of the host.

If this is a "Cloud" or "Virtual" server, please note the technology involved along with the version of that techology (ie: VMware Server Version 2.0.2). If it is not, merely stating the Motherboard model # and CPU would be helpful.

Similar to This:

Vicibox X.X from .iso | Vicidial X.X.X-XXX Build XXXXXX-XXXX | Asterisk X.X.X | Single Server | No Digium/Sangoma Hardware | No Extra Software After Installation | Intel DG35EC | Core2Quad Q6600

3) Asterisk is likely being started by an os-based process. This will not work. Asterisk must be started by the Vicidial startup routine which will create the asterisk screen and start asterisk from within said screen. If asterisk is already running when this screen begins, the screen will attempt to start asterisk and fail. Thus, no asterisk screen but asterisk is running ... outside of Vicidial control. This means Vicidial will fail.

4) Why are you not installing from Vicibox.com or GoAutoDial.com? Saves a WHOLE LOT of hair pulling. Seriously.

[tomw]

I did a scratch install for a couple of reasons. It is on a stand alone server that has to also have samba and some iptable routes for other software. i wasn't sure if I did the iso if I would have control over samba and iptables. If I don't lose the ability to have control over those programs i can go back and reinstall. You where correct about the asterisk starting from another process. I have a script that checks for asterisk and several other programs and if they are not running it starts them. I wasn't aware that it would start before vicidial. I have modified the script to only check non-vicidial programs now. Thanks for all your help so far.

[williamconley]

Samba and iptables are both easily installed and managed in Vicibox. Google the "yast" interface in OpenSuSE and you will see that it has some very good controls. But even that is merely "on top" of the OpenSuSE operating system which offers full, unadulterated, control of packages such as samba.

I will say, however, that your Vicidial server should be "segregated" from the rest of your operation. Vicidial servers in full production are hard drive killers and require enough CPU/memory that they may not share well with other applications. It is also useful (in a production environment) to keep the Vicidial system separate from your other servers because (as you are likely about to find out ...) reinstalling Vicidial takes considerably less time than configuring and installing other packages.

If you maintain a Good Off-server Backup set (even if only the MySQL and sounds folder, easily backed up with the included backup script ... and pushed to an ftp server automatically!), you can reinstall Vicidial, upgrade to the latest code, and have your server back online in a couple hours easily. If you get good at it (free to install, no licensing, no calls to Microsoft or Symantec, so practice as often as you like ... even on a virtual machine which is very helpful for demo and development) ... you can have it done in under an hour. Much of that time would be spent waiting for the mysql database to repopulate on the fresh install. LOL But then you will be presented with re-installing all the "other" software that was on the box and this can severely hamper your restoration process.

If you keep Vicidial "away" from everything else, upgrading the hardware or recovering from a dead hard drive or ... well, anything that may cause a complete server "redo" is actually a "non-event". That's saying something these days.