To me the value of AstLinux is that it combines a
gateway/router/firewall/voice PBX all in one compact package. I can place
it on a low-cost box an connect it directly to the internet and my local
LAN.
Running AstLinux inside a VM might make sense for the Voice PBX part, and
then as others have pointed out only if you have control of the underlying
h/w to manage overcommit. But if doing that you might as well just run a
standard Linux distro with standard Asterisk. Or consider Asterisk inside
a Docker Container on a standard distro. And there are other
complications... I really don't want Asterisk behind a NAT, I want it
facing the internet directly. Most SOHO and SMB are not going to be able
to do that from a VM environment (my cable provider for example is not
going to issue me two public IP addresses, only one). Placing Asterisk on
the gateway/router gives the best of both worlds... directly connect to
internet and directly connect to the internal network. If all you need
your Voice PBX for is internal phone devices then maybe the NAT issue isn't
an issue.
Another case for AstLinux in a VM is testing / prototyping and for that it
is useful.
Let me turn this discussion on its head. As Lonnie knows I've been playing
with making AstLinux itself work as a KVM host. The bits to do this are
all in the SVN but you need a custom build. It works really well. I can
run Ubuntu server in a VM on top of AstLinux on a PcEngines APU1 and it is
very usable. Why would I want to do that? Well my current use case is to
run the UniFi Controller s/w for their WiFi AP's -- something that I think
is quite relevant in an AstLinux environment.
I have even proven that we can run AstLiunx in a VM on top of AstLinux as a
KVM host (complete with multiple network interfaces)
I personally think that AstLinux should stick to its roots as a bare metal
/ appliance environment. But as such devices get more capable should look
beyond Voice PBX as "applications" that run on it / along side it... but
rather than pick specific applications, provide an environment that would
support "anything" so, for example Docker Containers host or KVM host.
That would make for a powerful and expandable environment.
[sidebar... I don't know if Docker is viable on a busybox but if it is...
we could start by moving Asterisk into a container]
David
On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 6:59 AM, Michael Knill <
michael.kn...@ipcsolutions.com.au> wrote:
> My 2 cents worth:
> 1)
> Bare Metal Pros:
> - A known and reliable quantity.
> - Simple architecture
> - A router or firewall replacement
>
> Bare Metal Cons:
> - More expensive if a VM Host exists
> - Redundancy is harder
>
>
> VM Pros:
> - Simple redundancy
> - Simple deployment (can build a template)
> - Ability to run some other apps e.g. Ubiquity Controller alongside
> Astlinux
>
> VM Cons:
> - I think that most customers would not like their VM Host Internet facing
> even though Virtual Switches should be secure. My only VM I have deployed
> has a Public IP Address but sits behind a firewall
> - The constant concerns of a virtualised appliance passing Real Time
> traffic. Resource management is important and features like Snapshots and
> VMotion can cause unacceptable delays.
>
> 2) Im sorry but I really don’t see the point of using a small host to run
> a VM. Most advantages of virtualisation is reaped through economies of
> scale. Realistically I am seeing less and less onsite servers for
> businesses. This is the beauty of Astlinux. One box onsite to provide all
> your communications needs and you can have a NAS if you have slow Internet.
> Why bother with anything else?
>
> 3) Yep as above for VM Cons.
>
> Don’t get me wrong here, I really see a huge future for Astlinux in VM but
> I only plan on using it in a controlled environment with guaranteed
> resources.
> Give me a dedicated APU2 anytime with plenty of resources to spare!
>
> Regards
> Michael Knill
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 16/03/2016, 3:15 PM, "Lonnie Abelbeck" <li...@lonnie.abelbeck.com>
> wrote:
>
> Brainstorming...
>
> Time to time it is good to take a forest view of the landscape, so I would
> like everyone reading this to offer their insights, brainstorming rules, no
> bad ideas.
>
> Background:
> =========
> It seems x86 platforms to run AstLinux has never been better, for example
> the PC Engines new APU2 appears to be a great match, as well as Virtual
> Machine solutions.
>
> One recently released appliance is based on a Xen hypervisor - beroNet
> Telephony Appliance 2.0
> http://www.beronet.com/products/telephony-appliance/
>
> Our new AstLinux 'genx86_64-vm' board type should work well with that
> beroNet appliance, or alternatively an enterprising integrator could put
> Proxmox VE or XenServer on Jetway's new Celeron J1900 based 4x NIC network
> appliance and offer a similar solution. CPU support for Intel VT-x /
> AMD-v virtualization is quite common anymore.
>
> Questions:
> ========
> 1) When should AstLinux be bare-metal and when should it run as a guest VM
> ?
>
> 2) For SOHO and SMB deployments using VM's, what kind of guest VM's would
> run along side AstLinux ? Would these be typically Windows Server
> situations that would need more than a 2 GHz J1900 or are there other Linux
> based services that could efficiently offer an office full of solutions ?
>
> 3) Would you trust your edge network router/firewall to be running as a
> guest VM ? Possibly dependent on the deployment size ?
>
> Please discuss...
>
> Lonnie
>
>
>
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