Trust Phone System

[nathan]

I'm looking at implementing a trust phone system based on FreePBX, of the 13 primaries we have 3 schools with a 100mb leased line. I know there's a few people on here that have used open source pbx software based on FreePBX, i'm wondering on the following.

 

- Redundancy, I don't really want to pay the HA addon for FreePBX but i'm planning on having 2 servers. 1 at each school with a 100mb line. Has anyone done this setup as a "warm backup". I.e backups replicated from master to slave and we would have to manually change a DNS setting.

 

- I know on other systems we can have multiple SIP trunks and the DDI is applied to the outgoing call based on the extension number. This would mean we could reduce the number of SIP trunks needed.

 

- Any other comments on this proposed system?

[FN-GM]

We use FreePBX in our MAT. Sounds like a similar setup to you.

 

We have 1 VM on a HA cluster. We are recover the machine from a backup in 20 mins if need be.

 

You have 1 trunk and multiple channels. Although people referrer to the channels as trunks as well. You just lease the number of channels based on how many external lines you need at 1 time. If you have 2 channels you can only handle 2 external calls at a time.

[nathan]

We use FreePBX in our MAT. Sounds like a similar setup to you.

 

We have 1 VM on a HA cluster. We are recover the machine from a backup in 20 mins if need be.

 

You have 1 trunk and multiple channels. Although people referrer to the channels as trunks as well. You just lease the number of channels based on how many external lines you need at 1 time. If you have 2 channels you can only handle 2 external calls at a time.

 

Thanks for the reply, did you buy any of the freepbx addons?

 

Also what's the stability like? I've had an Elastix version installed in one of our primaries and we haven't had any issues since it was setup.

[2ilent8cho]

I've had a box running Elastix for 7 schools (110 extensions) since 2009 with ISDN trunks, it only missed a beat and needed a reboot once, so you should find Elastix stable and reliable. I'm going to change it to VM when we remove ISDN.

[FN-GM]

Thanks for the reply, did you buy any of the freepbx addons?

 

Also what's the stability like? I've had an Elastix version installed in one of our primaries and we haven't had any issues since it was setup.

 

The only thing we have that costs (but got it free when it was on offer) was sysadmin pro. Makes it easier to update.

[nathan]

I've had a box running Elastix for 7 schools (110 extensions) since 2009 with ISDN trunks, it only missed a beat and needed a reboot once, so you should find Elastix stable and reliable. I'm going to change it to VM when we remove ISDN.

 

Do you mean a Virtual Machine or is that some other distro?

[2ilent8cho]

Do you mean a Virtual Machine or is that some other distro?

Yeah i mean Virtual Machine, its currency running on a Dell PowerEdge 2950, but i want to move it to HyperV once we can say goodbye to the ISDN card.

[nathan]

Yeah i mean Virtual Machine, its currency running on a Dell PowerEdge 2950, but i want to move it to HyperV once we can say goodbye to the ISDN card.

 

Makes complete sense, I've just come from a school and they have an extra 2 PTSN lines that they have no idea what they are for - ruled out the usual's such as redcare. Hate schools wasting money

[nathan]

Last question, is it possible to attach a DDI to an outgoing call based on the trunk?

[FN-GM]

Last question, is it possible to attach a DDI to an outgoing call based on the trunk?

 

Yep

 

Each of our schools has their own DDI and they all go down the same trunk.

[2ilent8cho]

Last question, is it possible to attach a DDI to an outgoing call based on the trunk?

 

The option is there on the trunk settings but i have never used it. I apply the caller ID on each extension (so it overrides the outgoing number to display the main school number instead of the extension).

[FN-GM]

The option is there on the trunk settings but i have never used it. I apply the caller ID on each extension (so it overrides the outgoing number to display the main school number instead of the extension).

 

I set mine on the outbound route and that applies based on the extension number, each school has its own range.

 

1000 - 1099 - DDI 1

1100 - 1199 - DDI 2

1200 - 1299 - DDI 3

etc.

[nathan]

apologies, I did mean on each extension but thanks for the answers both. It was a great help.

[nathan]

I don't suppose anyone has tied in their MIS system, so when the phone rings it picks up the caller id and checks for a name from the MIS data?

[Jamman960]

We've imported from sims into the freepbx phonebook but haven't been able to get a live link in place. We now get "Parent of Smith(8AY)" for instance on the phone for landlines or "Mr J Smith, Smith(8AY)" for mobiles

[nathan]

Last question, promise!

 

I'm looking at SIP trunks with bundled minutes (5000 landline, 2000 mobile), if there were 1 trunk with say 10 channels how does that work with the included minutes? would there just be 10x the 5000/2000?

[Edu-IT]

Last question, promise!

 

I'm looking at SIP trunks with bundled minutes (5000 landline, 2000 mobile), if there were 1 trunk with say 10 channels how does that work with the included minutes? would there just be 10x the 5000/2000?

You'd need to ask your supplier to be sure but I'd say its across all 10 not each so 500/200 each but in a shared pot.

[FN-GM]

The channels are just the limit of concurrent external calls you have. They are not separate lines so you won't get that allowance for each channel.

[Jamman960]

Check with the supplier, it could well be per "trunk" as its generally a price per channel at the same rate rather than 1st one at X then others at another price. we've gone for a 3 year deal which included unlimited local, local, national and mobile calls

[nathan]

Just heard back from our supplier and it indeed per channel. £4 per channel and £4 to add the call bundle to each. So for them it's per channel.

[Wave9_Stuart]

Hi Nathan,

 

Have you considered a centrally hosted solution where all the central administration is cloud based?

 

This type of solution offers flexibility for agile working and can be easily scaled.

 

Please also keep in my mind that ISDN lines will reach their end of sale life 2020 with support up to 2025.

 

If you would like to discuss in further detail please send me a private message.

[nathan]

Hi Nathan,

 

Have you considered a centrally hosted solution where all the central administration is cloud based?

 

This type of solution offers flexibility for agile working and can be easily scaled.

 

Please also keep in my mind that ISDN lines will reach their end of sale life 2020 with support up to 2025.

 

If you would like to discuss in further detail please send me a private message.

 

We are installing a centralised solution, it's hosted at one school and all the extensions connect remotely. We'll support it ourselves as it will end up far cheaper.

[Wave9_Stuart]

Hi Nathan,

 

I guess there are few things to consider when implementing the kind of solution you're considering;

 

Managed/Support overheads

Bandwidth

Scalability

Redundancy

Backup

Diaster Recovery

Staff are becoming agiler (as I touched upon earlier)

[nathan]

Hi Nathan,

 

I guess there are few things to consider when implementing the kind of solution you're considering;

 

Managed/Support overheads

Bandwidth

Scalability

Redundancy

Backup

Diaster Recovery

Staff are becoming agiler (as I touched upon earlier)

 

We've been running a system for the last year, so have a pretty idea on most things.

[Edu-IT]

We've been running a system for the last year, so have a pretty idea on most things.

Sounds an interesting setup and given food for thought.

 

I'd be interested to know how are you dealing with redundancy or do you already have redundant internet connections into the schools?

 

Are you connecting sites over the internet or VPN/VPLS?