Having multiple servers for big capacity

[bghayad]

Hi All;

For big call centers (200 or 300 agents) and need to have multiple Asterisk servers, but single point of configuration. How I can have this with Goautodial?

Actually in Asterisk 1.8, I can have a database server to be used for the configuration (all other asterisk servers will connect to it), so this is a single point of configuraiton. How this can be acheive with Goautodial?

Appreciate the help.
Regards
Bilal

[williamconley]

Install Vicibox.com's .iso and read the pdf installation manual. It is designed for multiple server (cluster) installation "out of the box". However: if you intend to have a 200-300 seat facility, you would be WISE to contact the Vicidial group and pay them a consultation fee to help you design your system AND have a Cisco Certified engineer with SIP VOIP experience involved in your design as well. Otherwise you are very likely to have a "bad experience" at some point when you exceed 150 agents.

[bghayad]

I agree with you totally and consultation is required.

But, I am cisco certified and IPCC and CVP. Also previously I was AVAYA engineer. From the other side, I have been about 5 years working on Asterisk and did a lot of installations. One more thing, I have a team that are certified in CISCO voice and network.

Yes, consultation is required but at least I need a general points that enable me to move on and reach to the moment that I really need the consultation (when I get a project of 200 - 300 agents).

I readed the Installation Manual and the Cluster Manual, but still did not find a document or a link to explain the size calculations (required number of servers and their specifications) to run 25 agents, 50 agents, 100, 200 and 300.

I understood from your reply that until 150 agents, we can do it. But once we are more than 150 agents, then it is required to get consultantion, correct?

OK, just if I can get help for the following points, I will be fully thanks:

1) If I was having 2 Asterisk Servers and one of them went down, then other IP Phones will be able automically to register on the second Asterisk Server without need to add the Phones sip configurations?
2) Can I have 2 Web Servers clustered? They will be Active Active or Active Passive?
3) Asterisk configuration will be taken from the conf files or from the Database Server?

If you can guide me for a link or reference that can give me a vision about this and by reading it I can get the reqiured information, I will be fully thanks.

Again, I am fully thanks for guiding me and for your help and reply.

Regards
Bilal

[gardo]

Being a CISCO certified engineer is great. Having Avaya experience too. However, those have little to do with Vicidial and Asterisk operating as a call center platform. You might have noticed by now that a Vicidial based system is a lot different from your other Asterisk based ones (Trixbox, Elastix, PBIF and etc). Vicidial systems are predictive dialers in nature. They use more system resources and are more complicated than your average Asterisk PBX systems.

That being said, if you don't mind downtime (when your 200 to 300 seater) call center goes live, then Williamconley's recommendation to "consult" is the wisest option. It's the most cost-effective option in building 200 to 300 seats call center.

There are ways on how to achieve redundancy and HA (high-availability) on a Vicidial based system (GoAutoDial). This can minimize your downtime (should something untowards happen to your system).

1. Master and slave database servers
2. Multiple dialer servers
3. Load balancing web servers

There are lots of resources on the internet on how to achieve numbers 1 and 3. You can check the Vicidial documentation on how to implement multiple dialers in a Vicidial system.