[HELP/ADVISE] feature needed - idea for writing app

Asterisk Asterisk Support
1

We are running two * boxes that communicate over IAX between two physical locations. All voice mail is stored on one ‘master’ * box but end points at each site register to their local * box. Therefore, the end points in the non-master * site do not get their voicemail waiting indication.

Would something like this work, or are their other ideas that would be easier? :

We could write an app that looks at the voice mail INBOX folders on the ‘master’ * box to find the presence of the text files that accompany the voice mail messages. If there are text file(s), then create a dummy text file in the corresponding INBOX on the remote * box. Test every few minutes and add or delete dummy text files as needed.

2

what about mounting the /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail directory of the first box in the same directory of the second box??? that shouldn’t be hard, and would do the exact same thing, i would think.

3

Sounds like a simple solution. I’ll try that. I’m going to make the share read only so the local asterisk can’t mess with the vm files on the other box. Do you see any problem with doing that?

4

if it’s just for accessing them from the second box, i don’t see a problem…

although…doesn’t asterisk move the files to the Old directory once they’ve been listened to??? and if a user tried deleting the files, it would error out…

i was thinking a straight sym link, so that whatever you did from either box would affect the master directory…that’s my thoughts, anyway.

5

Thanks for the help. I’ve shared the folder and everything is working great. Had a minor problem with file permissions.

Here’s what I did:

Box A (Main voicemail Asterisk)

  • added a new linux user and a new Samba user
  • added new Samba share of /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail for read only.
  • set Linux permissions on /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default folder (recursively) so that the remote user can see all folders and files. Apparently the default is for user only rights with no group or guest privileges.

Box B (Remote Asterisk with locally registered end points)

  • mounted the remote share like this: mount -t smbfs -o workgroup=Workgroup,username=remote_user,password=secret //main.asterisk.box.domain/remote_share_name /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail
  • set local sip config to proper voicemail boxes for indications
  • remember, the voicemail for these users is actually stored and accessed on Box A