vicidial.org

I know this board is for ViciBox only but I had to post this somewhere

My goals are :
1. set up ViciDial cloud server with DigitalOcean or Vultr to support 10 users
2. Add basic VTiger integration
3. Look at adding basic PBX capability to this server by directly configuring Asterisk to use certain DID's to replace existing standalone FreePBX server ; IVR, call groups, voicemail, conference, & forwarding

I know nothing about OpenSuse so I thought I would just install source on Ubuntu but the Ubuntu install doc in latest ViciDial source was written in 2009 and only mentions really old Asterisk versions.

Is ViciBox the way to go for my goals or will ViciDial source be better for me?
If ViciDial - which version of Asterisk should I install ?
Do I need to really learn OpenSuse to become proficient in managing ViciBox or are Zypper and Yast enough to get by?

Bill

1) Vicidial is the software suite. Vicibox is the Installer for the software suite. Goautodial is an alternative installer useful if you must install a "stock" OS first and attempt to install the Vicidial suite after. Goautodial can be installed to a stock CentOS linux distro by following the instructions in the Wiki on their site. Vicibox has a PDF on the site for installation. Of course you can use the Ubuntu instructions, but those are specific to the version of Ubuntu that was on the street at the time and will require significant changes to get a recent Ubuntu to work (not a beginner task).

2) In all cases, after installation is complete you switch to the Vicidial Manager's Manual (Available in Free and Paid versions on EFLO.net's Store). Start at page one. Don't skip anything. Trust me.

3) Vicidial DOES NOT run Virtual for more than one (or two?) agents. Thus DigitalOcean and other Cloud services would require leasing an entire server instead of a VPS. However: The ability to run a test/sandbox/proof-of-concept server is quite useful. Just remember that your cool virtual server will fail horribly at some point after two users even though it will perform admirably (perfectly even) up to that point. Be prepared for the upgrade to physical hardware.

4) You do not need to learn OpenSuSE much at all. The installation PDF has all the necessary instructions. If something isn't clear ... just post the question (with details such as the page of the installation PDF, what it said should happen, and what really happened, lol).

5) Also works very nicely on a random "decommissioned" desktop computer. If the old desktop has at least 2 cores and is over 2.3ghz, it can actually (likely) hold several agents. Rule of thumb is 25 agents on 4 cores with 2.3Ghz and 2G RAM IF you are dialing lightly and not recording all calls. You'll also need good bandwidth. 5M up and 5M down usually suffices (2mX2m has been known to work in a pinch for smaller rooms). Call quality will suffer if your bandwidth is too low (thus signalling the need for more bandwidth).

6) For testing and proof of concept: vSphere in a local server with minimum 4 cores is very handy (not just for Vicidial). That will allow full installation for a single agent without paying anyone any money. Also VMWare will install in your workstation for the same effect, but obviously will reduce that workstation's capacity (when you reboot your workstation, for instance, you'll need to down the Virtual Vici first ...).

It's a bit of a learning curve, but with the installation PDF and Vicidial Manager's Manual, most can handle it as long as they are not "too smart to follow f*cking directions", lol.

Thanks for the help.

I will probably go for ViciBox on VPS for development and transfer to bare metal for deployment

Bill

extra documentation in: /usr/src/astguiclient/trunk/docs

perl scripts in /usr/share/astguiclient can be executed with "--help" for usage options. most also have notes at the top of the file for usage and some technical specs.

there are also extra files in /srv/www/htdocs/vicidial and htdocs/agc which have notes in the top for special use cases

Welcome Aboard