122 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
122 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
The Asterisk Realtime Architecture
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----------------------------------
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The Asterisk Realtime Architecture is a new set of drivers and
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functions implemented in Asterisk.
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The benefits of this architecture are many, both from a code management
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standpoint and from an installation perspective.
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Additional information on the configuration of Realtime with Asterisk
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can be found in doc/extconfig.txt
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The ARA is designed to be independent of storage. Currently, most
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drivers are based on SQL, but the architecture should be able to handle
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other storage methods in the future, like LDAP.
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The main benefit comes in the database support. In Asterisk v1.0 some
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functions supported MySQL database, some PostgreSQL and other ODBC.
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With the ARA, we have a unified database interface internally in Asterisk,
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so if one function supports database integration, all databases that has a
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realtime driver will be supported in that function.
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Currently there are three realtime database drivers:
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* ODBC: Support for UnixODBC, integrated into Asterisk
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The UnixODBC subsystem supports many different databases,
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please check www.unixodbc.org for more information.
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* MySQL: Found in the asterisk-addons subversion repository on svn.digium.com
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* PostgreSQL: Native support for Postgres, integrated into Asterisk
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* Two modes: Static and Realtime
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--------------------------------
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The ARA realtime mode is used to dynamically load and update objects.
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This mode is used in the SIP and IAX2 channels, as well as in the voicemail
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system. For SIP and IAX2 this is similar to the v1.0 MYSQL_FRIENDS
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functionality. With the ARA, we now support many more databases for
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dynamic configuration of phones.
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The ARA static mode is used to load configuration files. For the Asterisk
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modules that read configurations, there's no difference between a static
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file in the file system, like extensions.conf, and a configuration loaded
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from a database.
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* Realtime SIP friends
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----------------------
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The SIP realtime objects are users and peers that are loaded in memory
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when needed, then deleted. This means that Asterisk currently can't handle
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voicemail notification and NAT keepalives for these peers. Other than that,
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most of the functionality works the same way for realtime friends as for
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the ones in static configuration.
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With caching, the device stays in memory for a specified time. More
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information about this is to be found in the sip.conf sample file.
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* New function in the dial plan: The Realtime Switch
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----------------------------------------------------
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The realtime switch is more than a port of functionality in v1.0 to the
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new architecture, this is a new feature of Asterisk based on the
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ARA. The realtime switch lets your Asterisk server do database lookups
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of extensions in realtime from your dial plan. You can have many Asterisk
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servers sharing a dynamically updated dial plan in real time with this
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solution.
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Note that this switch does _NOT_ support Caller ID matching, only
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extension name/pattern matching.
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* So what can you do?
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---------------------
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The realtime Architecture lets you store all of your configuration in
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databases and reload it whenever you want. You can force a reload over
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the AMI, Asterisk Manager Interface or by calling Asterisk from a
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shell script with
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asterisk -rx "reload"
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You may also dynamically add SIP and IAX devices and extensions
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and making them available without a reload, by using the realtime
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objects and the realtime switch.
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* Configuration in extconfig.conf
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---------------------------------
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You configure the ARA in extconfig.conf (yes, it's a strange name, but
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is was defined in the early days of the realtime architecture and kind
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of stuck). Please see doc/extconfig.txt for database schemas.
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The part of Asterisk that connects to the ARA use a well defined family
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name to find the proper database driver. The syntax is easy:
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<family> => <realtime driver>,<db name>[,<table>]
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The options following the realtime driver identified depends on the
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driver.
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Defined well-known family names are:
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* sippeers, sipusers SIP peers and users
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* iaxpeers, iaxusers IAX2 peers and users
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* voicemail Voicemail accounts
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* queues Queues
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* queue_members Queue members
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* extensions Realtime extensions (switch)
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There is documentation of the SQL database in the file
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doc/extconfig.txt in your Asterisk source code tree.
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For voicemail storage with the support of ODBC, there is a
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doc/odbcstorage.txt documentation file.
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* Limitations
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-------------
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Currently, realtime extensions do not support realtime hints. There is
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a workaround available by using func_odbc. See the sample func_odbc.conf
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for more information.
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* FreeTDS supported with connection pooling
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-------------------------------------------
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In order to use a FreeTDS-based database with realtime, you need to turn
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connection pooling on in res_odbc.conf. This is due to a limitation within
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the FreeTDS protocol itself. Please note that this includes databases such
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as MS SQL Server and Sybase. This support is new in the current release.
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