SBC Specs

[jskinner97]

Hi,

We are deploying 8 SBCs (different sites) for 1 PBX, one of those SBCs will have 150 extensions to handle. I was looking at the system requirements, and it is saying I need an Intel Core i7 and 300GB SSD - this seems overkill for 150 extensions? I currently have a Raspberry Pi 3 working fine with 50 extensions...

Would an Intel Core i5 be suitable, or can someone explain why I would need an i7?

Thanks

 

[Alphabetic]

Have you considered redunancy?

If your SBC fails you'll have 150 extensions down.

Why not consider 3 x SBC Pis for the sake of cost and redundancy?

 

[Saqqara]

As above, I would go with extra SBC PI's

Have a look at https://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/sbc-performance/

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi,

It's actually 300GB for the PBX, not for the SBC.
https://www.3cx.com/docs/recommended-hardware-specifications-for-3cx/#h.za60f8obhoix


For the SBC it's 30GB to cover for the OS, swap, upgrades, captures and logging if needed.
The CPU is also calculated for BLFs too which consume more power (1000 BLF total will generate a bit of traffic)

 

[jskinner97]

Thanks.

I will go down the 3x Pi3 route and set a different SIP port for each one. Then have a fourth one for further redundancy.

 

[SweetAction]

Debian SBCs can do HA now (BETA), might want to go down that route instead:
https://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/new-sbc-beta/

 

[jskinner97]

Debian SBCs can do HA now (BETA), might want to go down that route instead:
https://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/new-sbc-beta/

Thanks. That does look very good, worried it’s a beta and we are deploying it to a lot of sites haha.

i have looked at the known issues, and they don’t seem serious.
Would you recommend 50 phones per Pi, as we have 47 on one Pi at the moment and it’s only reached 8% CPU - making me think the Pi is more than capable of doing 80 phones? I’m not sure how it works tbh...

 

[cobaltit]

Again, the load isn't the phones so much as the BLFs. But you are on the right track as far as looking a the CPU usage. And I'm not sure why you would put the SBCs on different SIP ports? For one, there's no need as they are separate devices with their own IP address and two, I'm pretty sure you'd lose PnP ability with them not listening on the default port.

 

[jskinner97]

Again, the load isn't the phones so much as the BLFs. But you are on the right track as far as looking a the CPU usage. And I'm not sure why you would put the SBCs on different SIP ports? For one, there's no need as they are separate devices with their own IP address and two, I'm pretty sure you'd lose PnP ability with them not listening on the default port.

I was told that you cannot port-forward the same port to multiple IPs... so was gonna port forward 1.100 to 5060, 1.101 to 5061, etc

Ah I see, so leave all of them on the default 5060?

Yeah none of those phones have BLFs - however this site (150 phones) will have around 5 BLFs per phone

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Internally you do not perform NAT so port forwarding does not apply (nor does changing SIP ports).

Externally, the SBC does not require port forwarding at all (just don't have strict rules that block outgoing traffic)

 

[kent3]

Hi,

We are deploying 8 SBCs (different sites) for 1 PBX, one of those SBCs will have 150 extensions to handle. I was looking at the system requirements, and it is saying I need an Intel Core i7 and 300GB SSD - this seems overkill for 150 extensions? I currently have a Raspberry Pi 3 working fine with 50 extensions...

Would an Intel Core i5 be suitable, or can someone explain why I would need an i7?

Thanks

Hi Mate

Ive always gone by the actual 3CX PBX for SBC spec if your going in to the 100's. I was advised a while backby 3CX support to use a SBC per 100 extensions. I currently have a site running on 1 with 125 users, no known issues.

 

[jskinner97]

Hi Mate

Ive always gone by the actual 3CX PBX for SBC spec if your going in to the 100's. I was advised a while backby 3CX support to use a SBC per 100 extensions. I currently have a site running on 1 with 125 users, no known issues.

Alright cheers, will try to get away with 65 on one of the sites (instead of the 50 then)