I’m looking to fool around with linux as well as Asterisk so I’m trying to find the best linux distribution (or Asterisk NOW, Trixbox, etc) for doing this.
I’d like to run this linux distribution inside of VMware (on a Windows Server 2003 machine [dual-core, 2GB RAM]) and have Asterisk and a small web server on it.
What is my best option?
I like the idea of Trixbox but it seems to too bloated. I’m a software developer so I enjoy tinking and learning about systems from the ground up. However, I don’t want to learn linux (at least not completely) from the ground up. I’d like to just install a nice (eg. fast and stable) linux distribution and then spend my time fooling around with Asterisk and apache, etc.
Do a search on the linux distro this has been discussed about a thousand times. Short version is anything will work but Digium uses (or at east used to) RedHat based products so any RH will be one of the better tested platforms - RHEL, FC or CemtOS. Asterisk Business Edition (paid version of Asterisk) is only supported on their own distro (rPath), FC and RHEL.
On the VMWare - DONT DO IT. Yes it “works” if you run in a full voip environment (it will not work if you need a digital or analog card) but the call quality will be just okay at best and crappy most of the time. A $10,000 server running VMWare with Asterisk will probably perform worse than a $1000 desktop PC. Asterisk is a realtime aplication it needs processor time with no lag at all - VMWare cannot deliver that 100% of the time (especially VMWare Server\Workstation - ESX does a much better job with this). VMWare is a great product it just doesnt hanlde realtime applications well (nor was it designed to).
Regarding the VMware issue, I don’t think I really have any other options.
I’m trying to learn some Microsoft technologies (to get some certifications) but I’d also like to setup a simple VOIP solution in my house.
Shouldn’t my single computer be powerful enough? It’s a 2.2 GHz dual-core, so effectively each operating system (Windows 2k3 and Linux) can have their own processor. Heck, each operating system can even have their own 1 GB of RAM as well.
However, I do understand what you’re saying in that Windows 2k3 can choose to take 100% of the CPU for itself and give nothing to VMware (and thus nothing to Linux and Asterisk).
I’ve investigated ESX Server (which would work fine I suppose?), but IDE storage won’t work at all. I have an NSLU2 NAS unit that would probably work with ESX, but I would be afraid it would just be too slow for real-time use…
I also did use vmware gsx server to test asterisk, and the voice quality was terrible. The pc i used to host the gsx had 4 gb ram and a dual core intel cpu.
It just didn’t work, but as soon as i installed my test system on a regular pc the voice was perfect.
ESX might do a better job (its on my list of things to test) but the cheapest version is $1000. Again you would be much better off running it on a cheap desktop.
[quote=“sofakng”]
I’d like to run this linux distribution inside of VMware (on a Windows Server 2003 machine [dual-core, 2GB RAM]) and have Asterisk and a small web server on it.
What is my best option? [/quote] Yikes… no way around installing Linux natively; Asterisk is executing codecs and you cannot expect that to work in an virtualized environment.
[quote] I’m a software developer so I enjoy tinking and learning about systems from the ground up. However, I don’t want to learn linux (at least not completely) from the ground up. [/quote] Well… i can think of a lot of facetious comments here. If you really enjoy tinkering and learning than Linux is your platform period. I don’t see a way around you sitting on your butt and getting up to speed with Linux. Time well spent. I run Asterisk on Debian just fine but for starters I suppose RH would be the way to go.