hardware specs

[TJB]

I appreciate that this is not a clear cut thing, I can gather that by browsing the web for answers, but....

I am setting up a server for a call centre (bringing the service in house and using vicidial to do it), there are currently 50 agents performing inbound and outbound calls., all calls are to be recorded and we will be running about 3 simultaneous campaigns, I was looking at setting up two HP blade servers (25 agents on each) for performing this task. can anyone suggest a minimum spec? ie number of processors, number of cores, processor speed, memory and anything else I haven't thought of??

any help or sugestions would be very very much appreciated.

[williamconley]

Generally 4 or 8 cores is recommended, but beware that you do not "jump" at 8 cores and find that while the 8 core system was priced right it may turn out to have a "slow bus", or slow memory or other restrictions. In essence, you want the "best bang for your buck". Our machines (stock) are almost all Core2Quad systems and virtually identical (can you say "spare parts!"). That being said, you may do well to get three boxes. Make one the "DB/Web/Archive" and two "dialers". Then (later!) you can always remove the Web and/or Archive services to other machines in the future as Load requires (or just get a bigger DB server and move the DB into that) an you can add dialers identical to the first two any time a dialer overloads.

But the hardware basic spec:

2G RAM @ 800Mhz / Small but fast HDs / Sep drive for the Archive folder (which will contain your BACKUPS and RECORDINGS) / Core2Quad 2.3+ Ghz CPUs / as fast as you can get for Front Side Bus (1000 is adequate).

There are some who love RAID (level 10 at least), but I prefer solid backups as RAID has (to date) never been helpful, but has been a hindrance (ie: RAID itself becomes the problem instead of the cure). RAID is NOT necessary for Dialers.

Battery backup (UPS) is required for the server with the DB.

Gigabit Networking between servers is highly recommended. And avoid any "bottlenecks" at 10/100 to get data into/out of the servers (ie: 10/100 switch? then the connection to each server is limited to 100M, even though 50 agents may be required to communicate over that single wire ...). There are several switch types out there that have one or more Gigabit ports to provide a fast connection to a Server on the network.

[TJB]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, your info is a massive help, I had been planning to totally over spec the servers, obviously small but quick servers is the way to go. or could i set up a few virtual dialler servers on a bigger/powerful physical device? I had previously been recommend to buy a couple of HP HP BL465c G8 with 192gb of ram.
The DB server is currently cloud based and I was planning to leave it out there for now and look at bringing that in house at a later phase, once the dialler system and PBX were up and running.

[TJB]

Let me put this another way... having read post that say virtual is not the wise way to go...

please bear in mind I am a total newbie looking to spend somebody elses money on the hardware to set up a vicidial system for 50 plus users
I have read that 25 users per dialer server is the limit, do i need to buy a couple of small servers and split my users over them or can i just get a powerful server to run the vicidial software and put all my users (50) on that (then get a another couple of servers for the crm database and archive) ?
sorry if I seem to be laboring this but I'm having trouble getting my head around the idea that vicidial will run on such small servers so if you give it a huge powerful piece of kit to run on can you get it to handle more users.
ie does vicidial have to run on a cluster of small servers or will it run on one big one??

[rrb555]

Do u have available hardware on you?

you could try with to servers, one with database and webserver installed then the other is telephony.
from there we could check if it will hold your 50 users. it will depend on the dial method you will be using if the two server can handle it. if not, we could add another telephony server and adding server is easy

As for my experienced 30 users can handle a single quadcore server with SSD installed as storage device. dial method: ratio 4:1, recorded all calls

i hope this help

[williamconley]

Your best bet for a 50 user solution that is Stable (and safe so you can keep your job!) would be a 3-5 server system (budget based). Make the DB/Web (1 or 2 servers depending on your budget) server(s) a nice powerful one, 8 cores decent speed (over 2Ghz, but don't go nuts and spend $3k on it!). Make the Two or Three dialers each a 4 core machine 2.3Ghz+. If you plan for 25 agents per server ... you'll already be at capacity when you launch and could have a problem right out of the box. So plan for three dialers covering 50 users and you'll be safer.

Remember that Vicidial is an intensive package and requires absolute uninterrupted communication with Agent Computers and Phones. NO dropped packets. If possible there should be NO router or firewall between the agents and the Vicidial server, but if there must be one (ie: the server is at another site!) be sure the path is clear and not bottlenecked in any way. QoS/Cisco rules, whatever, you can't have interference or wasted bandwidth between your agents and your dialer.

It pays to have someone who knows Vicidial in the process, especially for the Test a few days before launch.

Oh: And if you intend to test within 24 hours of launch, or (and this IS funny, when you think about it) on Launch Day with 50 agents sitting behind you ... please be sure your Resume is up to date. Just sayin.

If you've never had a Vicidial system in operation, it's an even cooler idea to have a Vicidial professional "babysit" you on launch day for a couple hours. Tweaking = $$ (and job security).

[TJB]

Thanks William, I have spent the day in discussion with a multinational IT company and should recieve a quote for the hardware soon, I'll keep you posted

[williamconley]

Oh: And BEWARE "bleeding" (or even "cutting") edge equipment! Drivers must be not only available, but included in the distro you'll be installing from (which would likely be Vicibox 3.1.15, or the latest release).