Cluster

ViciDial Setup Order

  • Database server

  • Web server

  • Telephony server

All clusters start with the primary Database server since everything starts there. Afterwards the web server is installed to provide services needed by the Telephony server. Lastly the Telephony server is installed and will setup portions of ViciDial needed by other servers. Any additional servers can be setup after these three are working together as a cluster.

The hostname for each server in a cluster is used as that server’s name in the ViciDial database. Because of this each server must have a unique hostname. The recommended naming convention is to use ‘DBX’, ‘webX’, and ‘dialX’ as the prefix for the hostname, I.E. ‘DB1’, ‘web1, ‘dial1’, etc. This designates the servers role as well as which one it is if there are multiple of that type in the cluster. How to change the hostname can be found in the Configure Static IP section.

Tip

While it might sound good to use greek gods, disney characters, or transformers for the hostname of your servers, don’t. Being told that Optimus Prime went down but Megatron is handling it now is just confusing. And yes, that is based on a true story of an 11-server cluster. Optimius Prime was the primary database, Megatron was the replicated backup. Bumblebee was the web server and Starscream was their primary telephony server. No numbers either, so the second telephony server was Skywarp I think. Don’t be that guy.

Planning

With vicibox-install the different roles of ViciDial can be ran on multiple servers. These servers can then connect with each other across the network to scale. By doing this a ViciDial Cluster can scale up to 500 agents.

The examples in this section will be for the three initial servers needed to make a ViciDial Cluster. This is the starting point upon which any size cluster can be built. To add more servers just repeat the install as needed.

If there are only two servers available for a cluster it is advised to have the Database and Web server role running on the more powerful of the two servers. To accomplish this the Web server role would also be selected during the setup of the Database. Fun fact, if you were to select all 3 roles on the same server you would end up with an Express Box.

A ViciDial cluster can only have one primary Database server. The primary Database server is what all Web and Telephony servers will connect to. More information on the Database server role is available in the Hardware section.

Cluster Information

Server

IP Address

DB1

192.168.50.4

web1

192.168.50.6

dial1

192.168.60.10

Database

  1. If not already, login as the root user to get to the # command prompt.

  2. Type vicibox-install and press ENTER to start the ViciBox installer.

  3. Type Y and press ENTER at the ViciBox install prompt.

  4. Type Y and press ENTER at the expert installation prompt.

  5. The installer will attempt to find a LAN IP address to use for the cluster. If the IP shown is correct type Y and press ENTER. If not type N and press ENTER and follow the prompts.

  6. Type Y and press ENTER at the the Database prompt.

  7. Type N and press ENTER at the Slave Database prompt.

  8. Type Y and press ENTER at the DB settings prompt. If you want to use different database settings type N and press ENTER to follow those prompts.

  9. Type N and press ENTER at the Web server prompt.

  10. Type N and press ENTER at the Telephony server prompt.

  11. Type N and press ENTER at the Archive server prompt.

  12. Type N and press ENTER at the built-in firewall prompt.

  13. A summary will be listed of all selected options. Type in Y and press ENTER to accept and install.

  14. Type reboot and press ENTER to reboot and cleanly load vicidial.

  15. Login as the root user to get to the # command prompt.

  16. Type screen -ls and press ENTER to show running screen sessions. There should be three listed like in the screenshot

This will create an entry under Admin ‣ Servers called DB1. Do not delete this entry as it’s needed for ViciDial to function properly.

Screenshots

Install Database
Login as root user, run 'vicibox-install'
Verify screen sessions
Verify the three screen sessions are running

Web

  1. If not already, login as the root user to get to the # command prompt.

  2. Type vicibox-install and press ENTER to start the ViciBox installer.

  3. Type Y and press ENTER at the ViciBox install prompt.

  4. Type Y and press ENTER at the expert installation prompt.

  5. The installer will attempt to find a LAN IP address to use for the cluster. If the IP shown is correct type Y and press ENTER. If not type N and press ENTER and follow the prompts.

  6. Type N and press ENTER at the the Database prompt.

  7. Type in the Database IP address and press ENTER, I.E. 192.168.50.4. If the installer is unable to connect to the Database server it will error out. Correct any issues and run the installer again.

  8. Type Y and press ENTER at the Web server prompt.

  9. Type Y and press ENTER at the Redirect Page prompt.

  10. Type N and press ENTER at the Telephony server prompt.

  11. Type N and press ENTER at the Archive server prompt.

  12. Type N and press ENTER at the built-in firewall prompt.

  13. A summary will be listed of all selected options. Type in Y and press ENTER to accept and install.

  14. Type reboot and press ENTER to reboot and cleanly load vicidial.

  15. Once the server has rebooted, verify you can reach the web interface by going to the server’s IP address in a browser, I.E. 192.168.50.6, and press ENTER

  16. Click on Administration and login with Username 6666 and Password 1234 to continue with the ViciDial Initial Setup.

It is recommended to give the 6666 user all Admin permissions before continuing. If there are multiple web servers in the cluster these instructions can be repeated on any additional servers.

Screenshots

Install Web
Login as root user, run 'vicibox-install'
Reboot
Verify the three Database screen sessions are running
Verify web interface
Verify the web interface comes up
Login with default user
Login as the default user to continue
Continue to ViciDial Initial Setup
Continue on with the ViciDial Initial Setup

Telephony

  1. If not already, login as the root user to get to the # command prompt.

  2. Type vicibox-install and press ENTER to start the ViciBox installer.

  3. Type Y and press ENTER at the ViciBox install prompt.

  4. Type Y and press ENTER at the expert installation prompt.

  5. The installer will attempt to find a LAN IP address to use for the cluster. If the IP shown is correct type Y and press ENTER. If not type N and press ENTER and follow the prompts.

  6. Type N and press ENTER at the the Database prompt.

  7. Type in the Database IP address and press ENTER, I.E. 192.168.50.4. If the installer is unable to connect to the Database server it will error out. Correct any issues and run the installer again.

  8. Type N and press ENTER at the Web server prompt.

  9. Type Y and press ENTER at the Telephony server prompt.

  10. Do stuff here?

  11. Type N and press ENTER at the Archive server prompt.

  12. Type N and press ENTER at the built-in firewall prompt.

  13. A summary will be listed of all selected options. Type in Y and press ENTER to accept and install.

  14. Type reboot and press ENTER to reboot and cleanly load ViciDial.

  15. Once the reboot is complete, log back in as root to get to the # command prompt.

  16. Type screen -ls and press ENTER. While it might take upwards of 5 minutes, eventually there should be 8 Sockets in /run/screens/S-root

  17. Type asterisk -r and press ENTER to connect to the Asterisk console. There should be different processes like sendcron logging on and off.

  18. Type quit and press ENTER to exit back to the # command prompt.

The Telephony server is now installed. If there are multiple telephony servers in the cluster these instructions can be repeated on any additional servers.

Screenshots

Install Telephony server
Login as root user, run 'vicibox-install'
Reboot and verify Asterisk running
Verify the three Database screen sessions are running