Certified PBX mini computers.

[mosier]

I was Baroozing through the certified hardware and noticed that it does not include computers or routers.

Is there a list of what people are using or do we go by the list asterisk keeps?

Anyone have a good minibox they use with there installs. I was looking at all the pre loaded boxes on ebay and found that a few use some good hardware like the HP mini series 7. That got me thinking that I need to make sure that I find a box that has been used a million times and is going to work like a champ for installs.

Also routers? I think the list of certified hardware should include some of those. Some companies prolly just don't want to bother getting there stuff certified so they may never make the list.

I know Digium has a list somewhere but it's been a while since I looked for it.

Michael

 

[jgutierrez]

About PBX certification list, you may take a look at:
http://store.palosanto.com/index.php/appliances.html

 

[djuhnke]

As for the routers, it depends on how many users you will be running through the system and what they will be doing. If its a small SMB (5-15 users) you can use the dlink, linksys, etc as long as it has QoS (or some voice controls). VOIP will leave a bad taste in people's mouths when....their...call...sounds...choppy if you use a cheap router.

For 15+ users or call centers, I would recommend Cisco or HP or juniper. These are enterprise class boxes that can take the traffic and manage it well. If you don't know how to configure a Cisco router and tune it, I recommend getting a smartnet contract (maintenance) on it and they will take care of configuring it for you.

Dan

 

[mosier]

Hey all

I was not asking about appliances I need a good mini box to install my own pbx. I think 1k is way to expensive for an appliance they should cut that a few hundred and maybe more will buy it.

michael

 

[danardf]

Hi.

I agree with you about the price. However, if you take consideration the manufacturing cost, and there isn't necessarily a large quantity, then the price makes sense. And 1 hour of Elastix support too.

If you have a company, and which you want to make a small server like this. what the cost could sell you?
- The mother board (you know its price)
- The personalized box (paint, silkscreen, manufacture).
- Adding 30% to 50% of this cost to paid some guy and make some profit.

 

[djuhnke]

Its a choice between reliability vs. small size/cost. They have mini computers (for example the ASUS EB1007-B0410 on amazon for $241) but will they work 7x24 for years at a time? I've worked on these types of computers for a while as a field tech replacing them in malls (when you see the videos, movie clips and shopping commercials on the screens at the mall, they use these types of computers inside). Invariably the BIOS gets hosed, windows locks up or it just dies. If they make a industrial version of these boxes, I haven't seen it. Granted they are running windows, but the hardware isn't the best quality.
Take a dell or HP higher end desktop (or better server) with redundant power, and you are looking at a box that can run for years. You have to look at how much do I spend if the box falls over (the cost of failure) vs. how much did I save buying cheap? If you buy 2 of them and keep one as a spare, might be ok.

If cost is the big issue, get a refurbished server (very cheap on ebay or even direct from manufacturer) and if you really want to get fancy, get maintenance on it (may have to buy it refurb from manufacturer to do that). The real servers (i.e. HP, Dell or IBM) are better hardware quality wise than any appliance that is out there. It will just run and run. I used to work for the phone company and they have big central office server that run for decades without being rebooted. Once in a while they replace a card or power supply. It just runs and makes them lots of money.

 

[mosier]

Fantastic answer. I used to put servers in place but the cost was not very effective. The point to putting Elastix on a box vs like Cisco is the cost so if you start putting a 1.25k server in place with redundant power etc then your cost goes up. You would be surprised at what another company can sell a Cisco system for when your competing. They sell it at cost then rape the customer in maintenance fees so every penny counts even when selling an open source PBX.

We decided the best way was to keep an extra box to replace it. I have over 50 systems in the market and I rarely get a call saying the box died and a lot of those system are going on 4 years old.

mosier

 

[akldjian]

Attributing cost savings as the reason for deploying Elastix vs Cisco is really a devaluing Elastix. The two systems shouldn't even be compared. The value behind Elastix is that it's a true Unified Communication platform. Sure, Cisco may claim unified communications, but it alone isn't one. Besides, the bulk of the cost is the handsets. Elastix does give you the flexibility of sizing and selection per your needs, and so does Cisco by the way.

Sorry for going on a rant, but I'm not big on the "Linux is free therefor it's better" argument. =0)

Anyway, the bulk of what I said above may not have any relevant value to the thread. Now to add some value...

Being that Elastix is built on a CentOS platform, I would suggest checking up on the CentOS hardware compatiblity list. It is user driven and not maintained by the CentOS guys, but it's a start. This certinaly doesn't make it Elastix certified, but it might help you sleep better at night, lol. =0)

As far as routers go, I don't believe Elastix has been applied as an embedded platform device. I've not yet heard or seen Elastix running on a linksys, dlink, or other similar devices. I would suggest that this isn't the focus audience for Elastix.

Hope this helps,
Andrey

 

[mosier]

It's not that I am comparing the two. I just know what I go against when selling asterisk basted systems. You will always be competing against 3 to 4 other bids. If the cost comes close to Cisco, Panasonic, NEC, anything that the client has heard of the client will go with the other product.

I believe asterisk and Cent OS has a list of certified hardware that can be utilized. As far as routers. When the people in this group go out and sell this produce they better know which router they are going to use. An example is Sonic Wall routers suck with Voip they will constantly be dealing with natting issues. Cisco routers on the other hand work perfect but are very costly adding to the final cost of the product.

M

 

[djuhnke]

I sell Cisco as well as Elastix. As far as hardware, Cisco is actually run on the same servers I mentioned above (i.e. IBM or Dell..no longer HP...they hate each other). Redundant PS and RAID 5+ on their servers. The issue is on Cisco (like Microsoft as well) you need a server for presence, voicemail, call processing and if you run call center, another server. Hardware and electrical costs add up (as does the maintenance). Understand that Cisco makes 70% margin on the maintenance for EACH unit they sell (checkout their annual financials). And after 3 years, it goes to end of sale (they stop selling) and 5 yrs end of life (no support).

Cisco now runs on Linux (it used to be windows but they were paying licensing to MS for each and every server..Cisco decided they wanted the licensing revenue..its a free country..more power to them). You also pay for licenses to use a phone on the Cisco system (i.e. a 7965 uses more licenses than a 7945) depending on the model of phone.

Elastix and Asterisk is a better and in some ways more user friendly than Cisco to administer. Both work well, if I have any complaints is I wish Digium would scale asterisk for the Enterprise level (1000+ users) to give avaya and cisco a run for their money.

 

[djuhnke]

It's not that I am comparing the two. I just know what I go against when selling asterisk basted systems. You will always be competing against 3 to 4 other bids. If the cost comes close to Cisco, Panasonic, NEC, anything that the client has heard of the client will go with the other product.

I believe asterisk and Cent OS has a list of certified hardware that can be utilized. As far as routers. When the people in this group go out and sell this produce they better know which router they are going to use. An example is Sonic Wall routers suck with Voip they will constantly be dealing with natting issues. Cisco routers on the other hand work perfect but are very costly adding to the final cost of the product.

M

SonicWall is a pain in the neck to deal with. I had a customer had to cover 8 hours of time while I was troubleshooting his network..and it all came down to because he added a new Sonicwall firewall. He copied over the configs exactly and it still tanked his voice network. He was not happy.

Cisco can be cost effect if you know what you need. I typically buy refurbished (about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost) from Cisco and then get maintenance on it. If you have Smartnet on it, they will help you configure the router correctly and you will have no problems. Just my .02 worth.

 

[mosier]

That's nice that you sell both. Friendly to administer is not the point when your selling to most clients. Most of my clients dont use more that 10% of what asterisk can do all they do is want it to ring and get voicemail, be able to forward, have an IVR and a couple of ring groups.

If your competing for the bid any system will do what they need so it comes to what the client knows and they are like I have heard of Cisco lets go with them.

That's what I need to do it sell both this and Cisco. Your doing it right.

As far as the 1000+ users for asterisk there is a group out there doing that on asterisk boxes. I forgot the name. A couple of the asterisk coders started this other one that's built on asterisk but made for the large client.

M

 

[djuhnke]

That's nice that you sell both. Friendly to administer is not the point when your selling to most clients. Most of my clients dont use more that 10% of what asterisk can do all they do is want it to ring and get voicemail, be able to forward, have an IVR and a couple of ring groups.

If your competing for the bid any system will do what they need so it comes to what the client knows and they are like I have heard of Cisco lets go with them.

That's what I need to do it sell both this and Cisco. Your doing it right.

As far as the 1000+ users for asterisk there is a group out there doing that on asterisk boxes. I forgot the name. A couple of the asterisk coders started this other one that's built on asterisk but made for the large client.

M

one thing I've seen is where they sell Cisco phones and use Asterisk in the core and call it a "Cisco phone system" since you have Cisco phones. Evil salesmen

 

[mosier]

I don't have the advantage of buying from Cisco like you do. You know the more you talk about this the more I thing becoming a Cisco partner would be the right thing then I can get the cost and Smartnet like your doing. At the moment I have to go through a company like yours that resells Cisco.

 

[mosier]

Yeah I did contract work for a group here in Houston that did that. They sold asterisk boxes with the Cisco SPA phones and called it a Cisco phone system when selling it to there clients.

M

 

[djuhnke]

Yeah I did contract work for a group here in Houston that did that. They sold asterisk boxes with the Cisco SPA phones and called it a Cisco phone system when selling it to there clients.

M

That's abit outside my honesty meter but I've seen it when I had to fix it.

 

[djuhnke]

I don't have the advantage of buying from Cisco like you do. You know the more you talk about this the more I thing becoming a Cisco partner would be the right thing then I can get the cost and Smartnet like your doing. At the moment I have to go through a company like yours that resells Cisco.

Its lot of hoops and certification tests you have to do to become a partner with any discounts.