121 lines
4.8 KiB
Text
121 lines
4.8 KiB
Text
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The Asterisk Realtime Architecture
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The Asterisk Realtime Architecture is a new set of drivers and
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functions implemented in Asterisk 1.1dev (and the following v1.2 stable).
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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 README.extconfig
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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 cvs archive on cvs.digium.com
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* Res_perl: Found in the asterisk-addons cvs archive on cvs.digium.com
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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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There is some work to create a solution for Realtime SIP devices that
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loads from database and stays in memory for the duration of a call or
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a registration, but that work is not integrated into Asterisk yet.
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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 let's 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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* 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).
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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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* iaxfriends IAX2 peers
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* voicemail Voicemail accounts
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There is documentation of the SQL database in the file
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README.extconfig in your Asterisk source code tree, the /doc
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directory.
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For voicemail storage with the support of ODBC, there is a
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README.odbcstorage documentation file.
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* Please test this architecture in order to make it stable
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-----------------------------------------------------------
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The Asterisk CVS head, v1.1 dev, is there for you to test. In order
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to move it forward to a stable release (v1.2) we need more tests,
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more bug reports and more fixes.
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You will find download instructions for Asterisk CVS head on
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the www.asterisk.org web site. As usual, do not install a
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development version on a production server.
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If you have any questions, the developer team is available almost
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around the clock on the #asterisk-dev channel on irc.freenode.net.
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