Asterisk 1.2.4, zaptel-bsd unstable on FreeBSD 6.x

Hi,

I used to run Asterisk 1.0.9 on FreeBSD 5.4 with zaptel 0.10 and for the most part it was relatively stable. Since I upgraded to FreeBSD 6.0, asterisk 1.2.3 and then 1.2.4 and zaptel 0.11 and then the latest subversion repository zaptel-bsd, the system has crashed regularly everyday. The logs do not indicate any significant information as to why, the system is crashing. At this point, I have decided to move to a gentoo linux installation for my asterisk system, since from everything I’ve read, asterisk and the zaptel drivers are most stable in a linux environment.

System Stats:

Dual Xeon 3.2 ghz
FreeBSD 6.0 release
Asterisk 1.2.4, libpri 1.2.1, zaptel-bsd-trunk (latest)
1 gb RAM

Also, I am aware that the zaptel-bsd drivers may not be entirely stable in a multiprocessor environment, and this may be where all my troubles are coming from.

It might also be worth noting that I did read other Asterisk BSD experiences where they claimed it was very stable on FreeBSD 6.x and the latest zaptel-bsd drivers. I even read a favorable stable experience on a xeon dual processor system.

From my experience asterisk and zaptel-bsd still have a ways to go before they are production worthy in a FreeBSD environment.

Just thought I would relay my experiences for anyone who is interested.

Eric

In browsing through the PR reports for zaptel on FreeBSD I came across the following:

freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=93299

This could possibly explain the instability I’ve been experiencing. Perhaps when the PR is resolved I’ll start production testing on FreeBSD again. Until then, I’ll remain with Gentoo Linux.

Eric