Choice of processors

[marcoe]

Hi,

We know that Matt preffers simple and cheap servers for vicidial, because of meetme room's limitation, but it seems to me that Intel will change their line of processors from Core 2 to Core i3,5 and 7. And keep the Xeon line for servers.

The question is, have anyone tried these new "Core i" processors with Vicidial/Vicibox ? How is the installation process ? How is the overall performance ? Will it be better to use Xeon instead of Core i ?

I'm not the Expert on this subject, but going through a list of my Hardware Vendor, it seems that we are running out of Core 2 Motherboards and Processors options, and Core i hardware has a lot more options.

Anyways, it seems to be a good subject for discussion here.

[DhwaniTechnologies]

Asterisk and Vicidial can work on any x86 hardware. Although it is recommended to use server grade hardware for better performance and timing, you should be able to run the software on as low as a P3 system with 1 GB RAM. It needs high RAM due to Mysql which is a real memory hog.

Also, all software used in Vicidial are standard Linux software. So as long as you know your way around Linux, you should be able to run your center smoothly with any standard hardware.

So I am sure Core i7 processors will work absolutely fine.

[williamconley]

Processors are never the issue. The drivers for the chipset on the motherboard and the NIC and hard drives (especially RAID) are generally the only concern.

Anyone actually using Corei3/5/7 would be very nice to post their motherboard and the Vicibox/GoAutoDial version they installed with successfully. Many people have purchased systems "too new" and had a hard time installing. But the community can help out there.

Oh: And Vicidial will run on a PII, a PIII, and a P4, Celeron, AMD, Turion, Opteron, Core, Core2, Core2Duo, Core2Quad, Xeon ... It's not about the processor. We have built all of them. Just be sure you have the patience for it, those old ones can take a while to install.

[DhwaniTechnologies]

Not to divert this topic, but I am a big AMD fan and I am not sure why all Asterisk related configurations usually recommend Intel processors. I have had successful installations of Vicidial as well as other Asterisk related software on AMD systems, and would always suggest that you consider both options (Intel and AMD) if you wish to purchase new hardware.

[Kumba]

Our standard hardware recommendation for new ViciBox Telephony/Web installations is as follows:

Quad-Core CPU 2.0Ghz+
4-GB+ Ram
100+ GB Hard-Drive (RAID-1 preferred)

So, there's plenty of room for whatever you choose to run. There's also ton's of discussions on hardware dimensioning. The above is easily accessible to most people and getting pretty inexpensive too.

[williamconley]

We use almost all Intel, but we do have a few AMD. Mostly because our clients react much better to "Intel CPU, Intel Motherboard" and are more comfortable with it. However, when a client is a little more "cost-conscious", they will often pick up and AMD instead. So far there has not been any issues with AMD vs Intel at all. Just client choice.

[mflorell]

We have had issues with AMD processor machines running the Sangoma CPA proxy service since it was written for Intel processor machines.

[DhwaniTechnologies]

Well, not many people use it. So for a regular call center, AMD processors should work perfectly well with an exception of that particular application/device.

[williamconley]

I'm not gonna say "should". I'm gonna say "have so far". If there is one device that's not compatible, building lots of servers and then finding a second device could be a really bad day.

I can say that the Intels have always worked. I can say that on older distros, both have had issues with driver availability, but mostly the AMDs. I can say that (thanks Kumba!) now that we have regular releases, the driver issues have reduced greatly for both processors. But I'm not going to state that AMD "should" work until we've had a few more successes.

BUT: If YOU post your motherboard specs for a few installs on AMD, so others can KNOW that their systems will be compatible ... that may go a long way towards "should" (especially for THOSE systems! of course!)

[DhwaniTechnologies]

I agree when you say customers like Intel, I have seen it too. Most of my clients use Intel, I have probably installed Vicidial on an AMD processor a couple of times.

Currently, one of my clients is running 10-15 agents on Goautodial on the following hardware:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+
4 GB DDR2 RAM
500 GB hard disk

Screenshot:
http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/7484 ... trator.png

[williamconley]

Great info, but without the model number of the motherboard ... not entirely helpful to duplicate the install successfully.

When installing an OS, the chipset on the motherboard is the most important thing to match. If Vicibox installs successfully on a motherboard that has onboard NIC and drive controllers ... the odds are excellent that the next guy using that same motherboard will be successful.

With all this other information, it may be possible to "likely" get a good install (with some research), but the Motherboard Model Number is the best way to be sure (and no research necessary).

[spacejanitor]

Just to add to the discussion, I've had no problem thus far on my GoAutoDial deployment with the following hardware:

AMD 5050e Dual-core processor underclocked/undervolted to 2.1 ghz
Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H
160 GB WD Sata HDD 5400 RPM
No active cooling

Yes... this is a test install... and yes, that hard drive is from a laptop But it installed fine and is actually supporting 15 agents on 1.5 ratio outbound right now with ALLFORCE recording and GSM conversion.

[williamconley]

excellent postback. model # and everything

[DhwaniTechnologies]

Snippet from the dmidecode command

Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name: GA-MA78GM-US2H

Processor Information
Socket Designation: Socket M2
Type: Central Processor
Family: Athlon
Manufacturer: AMD
Version: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+
External Clock: 200 MHz
Max Speed: 3000 GHz
Current Speed: 2300 GHz

[williamconley]

Interesting. It would seem:

Code: Select all

dmidecode | grep Product

pops out the motherboard model quite nicely.

[DhwaniTechnologies]

[root@go ~]# dmidecode | grep Product
Product Name: GA-MA78GM-US2H
Product Name: GA-MA78GM-US2H

[williamconley]

Cool. Now: Along with that, posting the Vicibox or other installer version that "worked" on that motherboard would be very nice.