[Serusers] Questions about SER+SERWEB+SEMS deployment

[Greger V. Teigre]

See inline.

> Few days ago I just finished installing SER 0.8.14 and serweb stable
> with mysql authentication and accounting. Seems to be working well.
> I'm moving my focus to SER 0.9.0 with "centralized" Radius accounting
> and SEMS (if possible). I still have several deployment questions
> about that though.
> For the "fifo_db_url" parameter in 0.9.0, what feature(s) does it
> enable?

I haven't really looked closely, but I believe the database FIFO was 
introduced to allow a unified FIFO-based access to the database.  Up to 
0.9.0, serctl was implemented by running actual mysql commands, now it can 
communicate (using a generic protocol) with the FIFO.

> About RADIUS accounting, several users posted their problem in not
> being able to run the RADIUS server on a different host, but seems
> there were no answers to their inquiries. Is that true?

I saw a post a while ago mentioned a third file clients.conf where the 
clients had to be entered, but haven't tested it yet.

> For SEMS, Greger mentioned that it "uses a full ser instance as its
> front-end". Does it mean that it can be run on a different host so it
> can serve as a "centralized" media server for several different SER
> proxies?

Yes.

> I planning to test out an announcement feature - users need
> to hear an audio before their call will be established with the
> callee. Somewhere in the list I saw people said that this can only be
> accomplished with the use of a B2BUA. While SER+SEMS have an
> announcement feature, is it a different feature than "Pre-call
> speech", or SEMS cannot be run as a centralized media server for such
> purpose without some re-programming?

I don't really know this, as I haven't used SEMS, but I believe your first 
statement is correct.  There is a difference between playing a message and 
*then* establishing the call and just playing a message, because in the 
first scenario you actually have three parties in the media streams.

g-)

>> From: "Greger V. Teigre" <greger at teigre.com>
>> To: "matt morris" <mmorris36 at hotmail.com>, <serusers at lists.iptel.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Serusers] Questions about SER+SERWEB+SEMS deployment
>> Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 09:34:59 +0100
>>
>> Dear Matt,
>> A small group of ser users have started to write a Getting Started
>> document that will address many of your questions.  A date for a
>> first draft is not yet set, but the draft will be posted to this
>> list. To your questions:
>>
>>> I'm a new user of SER. Just some questions about how I could deploy
>>> SER+SERWEB+SEMS, possibly on separate hosts, as I plan to have more
>>> than one SER proxy server with a centralized web server and
>>> media/voice mail server (1) Basically what features will I be
>>> missing if I decide to omit the fifo functions (if possible) in
>>> serweb? ( aliases, add new contact SIP address and who are online
>>> would be three features, right?)
>>
>> Standard ser does not have network-based  FIFO functionality. Various 
>> initiatives have worked on this issue.  Meanwhile, my advice
>> is: Do not start with this complexity. Use FIFO (only thing serweb
>> supports today), install serweb on the same server as ser, get it up
>> and running and start the learning curve.
>>
>>> (2) I saw in one of the threads that there is a  fifo_server.php
>>> file available for fifo-Internet relay, but not quite sure how to
>>> use it. Could someone give me some pointers?
>>
>> cvs 0.9.0 in the utils directory.
>>
>>> (3) Somewhere in the mailing list I saw the "fifo_db_url" global
>>> declaration, is it a feature only available in version 0.9.0? And is
>>> there a serweb version that will work with ser 0.9.0?
>>
>> Yes.  And no, I believe serweb is not yet fully functional with
>> 0.9.0.
>>> (4) I have not tried SEMS yet, but since it also communicates with
>>> SER via fifo, I would assume it has to be in the same host as SER,
>>> right? Are there any existing modules/plugins that will allow SER
>>> and SEMS on different hosts? If not, would it be more scalable if I
>>> build an Asterisk box to handle voice mails?
>>
>> No, sems uses a full ser instance as its front-end. See examples
>> supplied. There are different opinions as to whether sems is mature 
>> enough to
>> handle voicemail. It depends on your needs. In the Getting Started
>> doc we will use Asterisk.
>>
>>> (5) If I have multiple SER proxy servers on different hosts, how
>>> could UA Alpha registered with SER proxy A be able to call UA beta
>>> which registered with SER proxy B? What setup/configuration would I
>>> need?
>>
>> There are no short-cuts to accomplishing what you want. You need to
>> fully understand how proxying and other things work.  Start out with
>> a tutorial, read the admin manual, and go through the serusers list
>> on mail.iptel.org. http://www.iptel.org/ser/sipintro.html
>> http://www.iptel.org/sip/
>> http://www.iptel.org/ser/admin.html
>>
>> g-)
>>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Scan and help eliminate destructive viruses from your inbound and
> outbound e-mail and attachments.
> http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines
>  Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the
> first two months FREE*.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Serusers mailing list
> serusers at lists.iptel.org
> http://lists.iptel.org/mailman/listinfo/serusers