Virtualizing Asterisk

Despairing Myths and Legends

Nir Simionovich, Asterisk Guru
Greenfield Technologies Ltd.
 A bit about myself
• Founder of Greenfield Technologies Ltd
• Founder of the Israeli Asterisk Users
group
• Started using Asterisk in 2002
• Author of the AsteriskNOW book from
Packt Publishing (Mar 08)
• Author of the Asterisk Developer’s Guide
book from Packt Publishing (Jan 09)
 Asterisk – A SysAdmin’s POV
• When most SysAdmins look at Asterisk,
this is what they see:
 Myth I: * is a resource hog
• Asterisk requires a fair amount of
resources in order to run properly.
• The things that turn Asterisk into a
resource hog are the applications
associated with it (AGI, AMI and others).
• Call center applications usually consume
much resources.
 Myth II: * is a slow dialer
• Traditional Asterisk based dialers utilize
the AMI interface for generating outbound
calls, in its most simplistic form.
• While AMI had progressed over the
years, traditional implementations are in
capable is surpassing the 10 calls per
second limitation.
• Companies build large infrastructures to
sustain their needs
 Myth III: * Can’t run in a VM
• Myth III is a result of Myth I and Myth II
together.
• After all, if Asterisk is a hog, and,
• Asterisk is a slow dialer, thus,
• Running Asterisk in a VM based
environments is either complicated or
impossible.
Introducing PokeTalk.Com
Why is PokeTalk interesting?
• PokeTalk.Com is an ad driven, web
callback system based upon Asterisk.
• While it utilizes an Asterisk based dialer,
its platform is completely virtualized –
utilizing VMWARE Server.
• It currently operates 4 different Virtual
Asterisk servers, capable of sustaining
up to 100 dials per second and up to 800
concurrent channels.
How does it work?
 The Architecture
Web Server Web Server

Web Server Web Server

Asterisk Dialer Asterisk Dialer

Asterisk Dialer Asterisk Dialer

MySQL
Database VMWARE VMWARE
Cluster Server Server

Firewall

ISP Web
LBS
 Hardware Specification
• Each VMWARE server is based upon the
following hardware:
– Intel Dual Quad Core XEON Processors
– 2 x RAID-1 SATA Drives (500GB)
– 2 x Gigabit Ethernet
– 16GB RAM
• In a VM environment, the more RAM you
have the better – even if you don’t use all
of it.
 Guest Operating System Setup
• CentOS 5.2 64bit Release
• All services turned off
• Active services include SSH and xinetd
• VMWARE Server 1.0.4
• Each Virtual server is setup as:
– Dual Core CPU
– 2GB RAM
– 40GB Hard Drive (static allocation)
 Dialer Operating System
• CentOS 5.2 32Bit Release
• Asterisk 1.4.22
• MySQL 5
• PHP 5.2
• lighttpd web server
• FreePBX Management Interface
• Dialer is implemented in PHP and C++!
The Dialer Application Setup
SIP Termination Partners

Frontend Web

XML-RPC
XML-RPC Status
Reports
Quaue Manager

DialerHandler
 A few service facts (Jan 09)
• Number of registered users > 90,000
• Max number of concurrent calls across
the cluster: 360 calls
• Max number of concurrent requests
served: 110 concurrent requests
• Total number of minutes served monthly
> 2M minutes per month.
 Why virtualize Asterisk?
• Enable better utilization of your hardware
money
• Consolidate your services into single
hardware infrastucture
• Utilizing Open/Free virtualization
technologies will lower your overall TCO
• Virtualizing Asterisk installations can
negate the need for multi-tennent
systems and IP centrex
 Asterisk Clouding
• Currently, there are working installations
of Asterisk utilizing Amazon EC2
• As a test, we’ve installed the dialer
application on EC2 based instances
• The added value of running virtual dialers
using EC2 is to get the dialer power you
need – when you need it and not more
• Performance during the test was identical
to that of VMWARE dedicated servers
Where to from here?
Development from the past
• Today’s over excessive use of VM type run-
time environments do not fit well with
virtualization
• Working with virtual servers require a return to
basics for most developers, returning to
paradigms of high-speed optimizations and low
memory foot prints
• The more optimal your runtime is, the more
performance you’ll get from your virtual servers
environment
Optimize for -

Execute like -
 Pooled Provisioning
• Handling multiple VM images (or EC2 AMIs)
can be a hassle
• Utilizing pooled provisioning and programmatic
API’s, your provisioning process can be
centralized and simple
• Maintain a single VM image instance (or EC2
AMI), and deploy your software from a central
location
 Yes We Can!

Barak H. Obama Image taken from http://www.obamarama.org

Rules of thumb for Asterisk Virtualization
• Ensure proper coding techniques to
lower platform overheads
• Utilize central pooling provisioning for
ease of management
• Make use of programmatic API’s in a
layered platform approach
• Ensure proper caching in your
application
 Questions?
• Contact Information:
– Nir Simionovich
– (e) nirs@greenfieldtech.net
– (p) +972-73-2557799
– (w) http://www.simionovich.com
– (w) http://www.greenfieldtech.net
– (w) http://www.asterisk.org.il
– (MSN) nirs@greenfieldtech.net