What are you guys using as a dedicated SBC these days?

[Lee Cramman]

I've been doing SBC upgrades and a few of those machines really need to be retired before they fail.

I'm not a fan of Raspberry Pi or router phones - but I need to find something suitable, and I'm just seeing a lot of generic rubbish when I look around to see what's available.

So as above - what do you guys use for a dedicated SBC these days? Bonus points if it's small enough to hang out in a rack or be rack mountable.

Our largest site is <50 end points and there's very little use of BLFs so our needs are fairly modest.

Thanks

edit: Debian SBC obvs.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

This option is also available now: https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/fanvil-a710/

It works like a router phone, it just doesn't have the "phone" part and can handle traffic similar to a Pi.

It's PoE and small enough like a DECT base roughly.

 

[SteveITS]

That’s an interesting device.

I was going to say we’ve taken to preferring a VM if not using router phones.

 

[Alphabetic]

Router phones are great, especially if all the phones are router phones, otherwise it's a VM like Steve said. Depends too, cos 9/10 for our set ups they have a server so if all else fails, it goes on the server.

 

[Lee Cramman]

Unfortunately, currently not all phones are router phones.

I suppose VM would be OK (at least where there is an appropriate server to host one in place), but I need HA for one site in particular (call centre) and there is only one virtual server on site - it feels kind of self-defeating putting 2 HA nodes on the same hardware...

Equally, the Fanvil device looks interesting (and having some in stock as cold spares in case an SBC fails feels like a good idea to me), but presumably wouldn't help with HA either.

Is a bog standard mini-PC (either x 2 or in conjunction with a VM) from someone like Dell / HP / Lenovo the best way to go for that specific site? Or is there something better suited out there?

 

[SteveITS]

There are a bunch of mini-PC vendors. As long as it meets the specs and one can install the OS I expect it would be fine.

Having two router phones (which it sounds like this is, just much more capable) doesn't facilitate true HA but one can move a user's phone to a different SBC and reprovision.

Or, can you get the call center to use a headset and a software client?

 

[Lee Cramman]

There are a bunch of mini-PC vendors. As long as it meets the specs and one can install the OS I expect it would be fine.

Having two router phones (which it sounds like this is, just much more capable) doesn't facilitate true HA but one can move a user's phone to a different SBC and reprovision.

Or, can you get the call center to use a headset and a software client?

Sadly not - due to complicated (governmental) reasons we have no control over the LAN / WAN that PCs sit on, just the VOIP side which sits on its own physically separate network - the main LAN firewall is very locked down - you can't even initiate an SSH sessions or create a VPN tunnel from it never mind persuade someone to open it up for 3CX (I have tried...).

Silly, but that's government work for you!

I think I like the simplicity of the Fanvil devices where a single SBC will do, and I'll just go for a couple of mini PCs for the call centre - I had hoped for something a little smaller / more suited but I suspect I'm chasing a unicorn.

Thank you.

 

[AWS2P]

I'm used to set second hand , HP, Lenovo, Dell mini pc with 3CX iso linux as SBC and never got a failure.

 

[Colorado VoIP]

if the router phones won't suffice and the customer is big enough, intel NUC. Router Phone is by far the 1st choice though for new customers or older ones upgrading hardware. set them all up as a router phones and never have to worry about someone unplugging their phone taking down others. it's simple, works great, but haven't had a chance to try that fanvil box yet.

 

[Alphabetic]

Just food for thought.. you said they only have 1 server? So i imagine this is where their LOB apps live? If this goes down, they cant work anyway and the phones wont be as important, no? just whack it on the server and then teach them how to use the Windows/Mobile app in case of emergency.

 

[fxbastler]

Snom SP800
for more performance: Minis Forum N40 or a similar fanless x86 SBC / Mini PC

 

[Kevin Attard Compagno]

My preference would be for a NUC-style headless machine, running the Debian 12 3CX SBC ISO.

Ref: https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/installing-debian-linux-pbx/

 

[fortech]

For what it is worth, as a data point on the query, "what do you guys use for SBC?" I've got a blend of ~3 things in service at client sites for SBC

1) Lenovo Tiny Refurb misc-spare - these things generally run like tanks and fail ~very rarely. They are inexpensive, abundnant/available and 'just work' The one time I had hardware in one go weird, I just pulled the 2.5" SSD HDD out and popped into a ~similar unit / and it booted up fine and kept on trucking. I've got them running standard Debian SBC Latest.

2) Beelink are a standard amazon-mini-PC-vendor I've bought a bunch of machines from in the last few years, and generally "They just work well" and are modest price if you want a 100% new part with a warranty from vendor. Even the 'basic' N100 (or similar) modest price units that cost around $300CAD or less on sale work just fine - quadcore, energy efficient CPU, 16gb ram is overkill and 8gb is plenty for an SBC. These things just work fine and I think the vendor has 3 year hardware support/warranty which is nice

3) For sites where I have access to a physical server running a hypervisor (ie, for me that is generally ProxmoxVE but Xen or VMware or whatever - it all works fine - then a simple Debian SBC VM instance is easy-and-works just great.

--Tim

 

[fxbastler]

My preference would be for a NUC-style headless machine, running the Debian 12 3CX SBC ISO.

if you want it to be a standalone device then my recommendation is: a fanless small PC, like a Minis Forum N40 or something similar - as long as the performance is sufficient
no nuc, no tiny, no beelink n100 with fan