1U Rackmount Hardware/Appliance?

[Brian DArcy]

Hi All,

I'm looking for a low cost rackmount style appliance for running on-premise installs. I quoted a client one of the Call4Tell appliances for a small 12 phone installation, but got burned not doing my due diligence. $150 shipping (ate my margin), and it ships from China. I found a few similar products floating around on amazon, but thought I would check here for feedback first.

Most of my installs are cloud based, or VM based for on-prem PRI's, but this client doesn't have a server infrastructure, and just has a small telecom rack, so I'm looking for a nice go-to solution for on-prem installs such as this.

Thanks!

 

[Evolute IT]

This one is much bigger and supports more endpoints:

https://www.3cx.com/blog/news/pbx-appliance-nx96/

If it's still not enough, I'd go cloud. You can even host it with 3CX.

 

[N_G]

12 phones, raspberry PI 4. You can have them assembled into a rack mount box easily and cheaply

 

[Brian DArcy]

This one is much bigger and supports more endpoints:

https://www.3cx.com/blog/news/pbx-appliance-nx96/

If it's still not enough, I'd go cloud. You can even host it with 3CX.

Yeah that NX96 is the call4tell appliance I just burned myself on. Crazy shipping cost and comes from China. Unfortunately this is an AT&T bvoip install (customer is in a contract), so it's gotta be on-premise for the next 2 years.

 

[Brian DArcy]

12 phones, raspberry PI 4. You can have them assembled into a rack mount box easily and cheaply

Interesting! I was thinking about the Pi3, but was worried it wasn't beefy enough. What's the rough estimate on max number of endpoints and SC's for the Pi4?

 

[cobaltit]

https://www.3cx.com/docs/recommended-hardware-specifications-for-3cx/

 

[N_G]

No forget the Pi3. The Pi4 is a game changer. With 8 gig ram it can easily handle 25 extensions probably more. Not call recording though, this is processor and space intensive. If you need that go for a Vm.

The Pi4 is a powerful quad core arm chip. They are even using them for mini servers in Amazon now. The design is well suited for 3CX.

Make sure you buy a case that is cooling well though. We are going to provide special pre assembled units via leading Raspberry Pi stores. Watch this space.....

BTW these are 1U PI rackmounts These dont have a case they just rely on cooling in the Rack, which may or may not be enough i dont know. Anyway its full of these on amazons.

 

[Brian DArcy]

No forget the Pi3. The Pi4 is a game changer. With 8 gig ram it can easily handle 25 extensions probably more. Not call recording though, this is processor and space intensive. If you need that go for a Vm.

The Pi4 is a powerful quad core arm chip. They are even using them for mini servers in Amazon now. The design is well suited for 3CX.

Make sure you buy a case that is cooling well though. We are going to provide special pre assembled units via leading Raspberry Pi stores. Watch this space.....

BTW these are 1U PI rackmounts These dont have a case they just rely on cooling in the Rack, which may or may not be enough i dont know. Anyway its full of these on amazons.

Very cool! I'll definitely keep an eye out for this. Most of my clients need/want the call recording, unfortunately. I received my 1U appliance from Amazon this week. Intel J1900, 8B RAM, 128GB SSD in a decently attractive network appliance style enclosure, $350, so far so good.