Ranga

As far as I know there is no failover as such. In an HA system two servers run 
an instance of sipXproxy and sipXregistrar each. Two is what we typically test, 
but in theory it could be a larger number of servers. These servers load 
balance on a per transaction basis using DNS SRV name resolution. If a server 
fails, in progress transactions will fail. As the phone's retransmit, the DNS 
SRV resolution will point to another server that is still alive. That way no in 
progress calls are lost and the user does not notice that a server failed.

Only one instance of sipXconfig runs per system, but sipXconfig is not required 
for the PBX to perform. Also, currently only one instance of media services run 
per system. Therefore, calls to AA, VM or other media related services will 
fail and the respective service will be unavailable if that server fails.

The registrars involved in a redundant setup exchange state information using 
XML RPC.

I think there is a spec somewhere about how this all works. Some of it is 
explained here:
http://sipx-wiki.calivia.com/index.php/High-Availability_Installation. For an 
HA system to work we require a properly configured DNS server with SRV records 
for all the components involved.

http://sipxecs.sipfoundry.org/ViewVC/sipXecs/main/sipXregistry/doc/HaSetup.pdf

Given that the NAT traversal function now is part of the proxy, the media relay 
should run alongside it. This would mean that media is routed to the media 
relay using DNS SRV so that if one media relay is no longer available, another 
one could take over. In-progress calls of course would fail, but calls could be 
redialed immediately using another relay.

Hope this makes sense
--martin


-----Original Message-----
From: M. Ranganathan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sat 6/7/2008 6:28 PM
To: Martin Steinmann
Cc: Robert Joly; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [sipX-dev] Questions re: NAT traversal configuration
 
On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 2:18 PM, Martin Steinmann
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>> How would this work in an HA system? Can there be two media relays, one
>>> per
>>> call server, to support NAT traversal for a redundant system?
>>> --martin
>>>
>>
>> In principle, it can work as follows: the sipxbridge service does not
>>start on the backup until the failover occurs and the backup takes
>>control. We need some discussion on this mechanism ( for my benefit ).
>>
>>Ranga.
>>
>
> Yes, it would be great to discuss this some more. Since NAT traversal is a
> function of the proxy now it would be desirable if media relay services
> would run alongside the proxy (master and distributed server). It would be
> acceptable to loose the calls that are anchored in a specific instance of
> the media relay upon a server failure. However, redialing should immediately
> allow to re-establish the calls using a media relay on the redundant
> machine.
> --martin
>


Can somebody shed some light on how sipx handles failover? I should like :

1. A signal upon failover ( when the new replica starts ) OR
2. A  start of the sipxbridge process on the replica machine so I can
re-register.

I think 1 is the preferred way to operate to save on startup time.

I need some notification one way or another that a new primary server
is running so I can re-register and do whatever else needs to be done.

As for the port range discussion, I am in favor of :

1. Hard coding the port range that sipxbridge manages and just making
that a read only part of the GUI for nat traversal.
2. Hard coding the port assigned to the XML RPC server that runs as
part of sipxbridge. That way the remote client always knows where it
can find the service.

This way everything that the media relay service needs is known
apriori. There is nothing to configure.

Also, in case there is a strong argument for actually separating the
media relay and signaling functionality into two separate processes (
sipx services ), I can do so ( will cost re-implementation of
something that already works)  but I should like to understand the
motivation first. Apologies if my previous mail on this thread
(response to Damian) sounded strident. It was not meant to be so, but
perhaps was too strongly worded. I think we are firing up a lot of
processes and hence would like to examine the motivation for adding
one more. More processes is less efficient and is harder to manage.

Thanks

Ranga






>



-- 
M. Ranganathan

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