Vicidial_Cluster_Setup_Deployment

[Jacob Miller]

Hello,

I'm truly confused about my Vicidial setup deployment..

Someone recommended me a setup for 150 agents using Proxmox in HA Mode.. 2 dedicated servers; which I assume he meant creating 3 VMs in each server ( DB, AST, and Web_Archive ).

However, some people don't recommend using Vicidial on a VM because of Multi Layer of " Processor Preemption " & Perl Scripts High-Resolution Time needs... And some say they have been working on VMs without any issues !!!!

I was thinking of 2 Dedicated Servers setup on Proxmox with another small server for "Quorum" to work in HA Mode smoothly I guess. Each dedicated server has 3 VMs ( one DB, Web_Archive and AST ).. with Raid1 for each server... and with Shared Storage for backups from "TrueNAS".

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1 - Please give me your recommendation if this is the best initial setup for scaling up to 150 agents !

2 - What's the best practice for clustering.. like 3 ones; DB, Web/Archive, AST. OR it's better to make only two; ( one for DB_Web and one for AST_Archive) ?

3 - Do I have to initially use a load balancer, or I can simply manage phone registrations distribution manually?.. and what's a lightweight balancer to be used in future?

4 - Do I have to use a small server for "Quorum" ?

5 - What's the specs recommendations please for each server, noting that I want to keep calls for about 3 months, 150 agents?

6 - Should I give all of my cluster server public IP or only Web one ?

7 - Any tips to take care of while installing !!

[williamconley]

1) 2 Dedicated Servers setup on Proxmox

This is a contradiction. Dedicated servers are not in Virtual machines. Those are opposites.

2) The reason for the existence of VMs is simple: If you have 5 servers each using about 5-10% of their "overall power" and sometimes even idle, you can easily put all those servers in one Virtual Host (ProxMox or vSphere) and they can share that processor time and stop wasting resources.

But what that doesn't do is give you MORE compute power, it's still less as you do lose some power to the vHost system. Plus each server's capabilities are slightly reduced. None of that matters in a machine still only using 50% of available resources and not heavily loaded on any individual server.

3) Those who use VM Vicidial often get stingy with details. Generally that could be because they have two-three user servers and not Full Call Centers with a hundred agents.

4) Saying you have "three servers" when those three servers are in a single Host means you actually have ONE server with the max power of that host. Factor in the loss of virtualization and you have more like 80% of one server. So together with your two Hosts you have 1.6 servers.

5) If this is a single call center with 150 agents, you'll need more hardware. As asserted above, you can't make six servers from two hosts and actually GET the power of six servers. Merely the presence. When your system loads up, it will fail.

6) If you have two physical servers and want to get the MOST out of them, install Vicidial directly on each of the two servers. Instead of 1.6 servers, you now have 2.0 servers and the best scenario for a Full Load.

7) The Vicidial Manager's Manual has "here's how many servers you need of each type" in it, right up front if I recall. But basically (for enterprise) you need ONE each of DB, replication/reports and Archive. You may have as many Web and Dialer as needed based on the size of the cluster and how it's used. Note that agent count is only one factor. Start with two of each (web/dialer) and continue adding until you stop overloading servers.

But seriously: If you have 150 agents, the only "role" of server you can run virtual reliably is Web and Archive. But even those will be reduced in power because of loss to the virtualization technology, which is counterproductive. If you put three "Agent Web Vicidial servers" in one Host with virtualization your overall capacity for those three servers will not be as much as if you had merely installed Vicidial directly on the server.

Virtualization is VERY useful for recovering wasted resources among multiple servers.

Vicidial has no waste in an enterprise level system.

[williamconley]

3 - Do I have to initially use a load balancer, or I can simply manage phone registrations distribution manually?.. and what's a lightweight balancer to be used in future?

Dialer balancing is part of Vicidial's core. Read the manual for Phone Aliasing.

Web balancers are all over for apache. We like our version which checks load during login of agent and sends the agent to the Live web server with the least load. Most merely rotate, which is acceptable for most vici rooms, honestly.

4 - Do I have to use a small server for "Quorum" ?

I have no idea what you are referencing here. Maybe I read your post too fast.

5 - What's the specs recommendations please for each server, noting that I want to keep calls for about 3 months, 150 agents?

4 cores minimum. 8 cores recommended. 40 cores if you can afford it for the DB. Dialers/Web memory 4 or 8G. DB memory 16-256G whatever you can afford. RAID 10 on the DB server. UPS on the DB and Replication servers.

6 - Should I give all of my cluster server public IP or only Web one ?

Each Dialer should have public IP to reach the carriers. Whitelist all servers that have public IPs. We generally public IP all servers (and install dialer/web in all just in case we need them one day, but leave those processes idle when not in use). Once you whitelist them, the public IPs are no longer a danger.

7 - Any tips to take care of while installing !!

If you have never done it before:

Install a few dozen times in vms. Clustering, etc. Practice. It's FREE. Screw it up. Wipe it clean. Do it over.

Record your installation steps in text files or a wiki or whatever for EACH machine. Copy the whole of the console output. Copy the result from the cli command "history" into a file for each machine when installation is completed. These are great references for later when you have a problem with one machine but not another. Go back and look in those files and compare. See if there's an error message in the misbehaving server you missed during installation.

Learn how to upgrade Vicidial. Practice on those VMs so you know how to do it on the live servers when needed.

DON'T upgrade Vicidial servers unless you must. If mgmt Requires a new feature in the new version, fine. Otherwise: Leave it alone.

Backups are part of the setup. Practice restoring is part of learning backups. Do a backup. Change a few things. Do a restore. See if those changes have been Undone. Otherwise, you'll be looking forward to one of those hair-pullers and/or spending some money for someone to help you out.

Sales warning: We have a "weekly consultation" option that allows you to call and ask questions. Another option for "ask questions AND show us your screen" and a third option for "ask questions, show us your screen, and we walk you through the fix during the call". Sometimes helpful to have a babysitter during launch. Sorry: I don't usually do sales calls here on the free forum, but I've been there with a lot of rooms when they launch, and a lot who had no help. Hair pulling is not an exaggeration (as I'm sure you're aware, lol). Vicidial is a special monolith of software. Very cool, but huge and breaks a lot of rules.