I’m a network administrator and I’d like to move from our legacy PBX to something a lot more flexible…
We have the following config:
PRI --> Samsung IDCS 500 PBX(Paging, IVR, voicemail, etc) --> proprietary phones
We would like to implement this as the final solution:
PRI --> Digium G100 --> Asterisk --> Yeahlink SIP phones
We don’t have great internet so we’d like to stick with the PRI lines for now… my question is in the best way to gracefully switch over to asterisk with very little disruption.
The new system can exist side by side with the Samsung system (up to the point of not using the PRI) but I want to do prior testing with the PRI on the G100 & Asterisk system before even thinking about switching over… we’re going to make changes on how the dialplan will flow in the new system (compared with the existing) but I’m more concerned with making sure that we will be getting/sending calls, callerid’s working, etc, etc…
What would be the most intelligent way of approaching the situation?
I felt I should clarify my question… when initially switching from a older PBX to a newer system… is there a way of having the Digium G100 (or similar gateway) become a middle man of sorts so that a new IP PBX can be built along side the existing system and tested on the PRI channels without affecting the current running system?
When our phone system was originally switched (from a bunch of analog lines) to the PRI - we experienced almost 3 days of unexpected down time (due to the teleco and the company doing the switch)… being a network admin I found this to be unacceptable. Perhaps I looking at this too much thru the eyes of a network tech.
Since that painful experience I’ve been learning all I can regarding phone system from that point and want to install the next system we have personally… one bitten twice shy
I’m sure there is a lot of pro’s looking at these forums… can a single PRI be tested (even just 1 or 2 channels) on a new IP PBX while the other channels are in use in an existing system?
How does a pro implement a phone system switchover/testing without affecting the current system? I basically want to guarantee that there will be much more seamless transition this time around…
Do you have a free PRI port on your Samsung PBX? If yes, then you can simulate a public PRI on your Samsung PBX. That way you can interconnect the new Asterisk IP PBX and the old Samsung box for the time when the new system will be under testing.
My recomendation for the switch between telephone systems would be:
Set up the new Asterisk IP PBX for internal phones (set up internal phones on users desks allong side the current phones)
Interconnect the Samsung IP PBX to the Asterisk IP PBX via PRI (you plan to use Digium G100 for PRI-to-VoIP conversion)
Test all the features you need on the new phone system
Connect the Asterisk box (or Digium G100 for that matter) directly to the public PRI link if the initial tests are OK
