Howto15r1:Implement PBX with zero downtime using IPVA and VMWare Fault Tolerance

From innovaphone wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
There are also other versions of this article available: Howto | Howto9 | Howto15r1 (this version)

Applies To

This information applies to

  • IPVA 15r1
  • VMWare ESXi (vSphere) 6.7 - 8
  • VMWare vCenter Server 6.7 - 8


More Information

Problem Details

The standby functionality implemented in the innovaphone PBX enables to start PBX software on the standby gateway in fail over scenario. A drawback in this implementation is following - since the standby PBX is running on other physical gateway, all active calls and connections are interrupted while switching from master to standby. The switch to standby hardware takes a while, so the downtime about 2 minutes must be considered additionally.

To be able to implement a PBX with zero downtime on hardware failures, a VMWare Fault Tolerance(FT) feature of the VMWare vSphere can be used. Therefore the PBX must be implemented on the innovaphone Virtual Appliance (IPVA) and the Virtual Machine running IPVA must be hosted on a FT-enabled VMWare Cluster.

System Requirements

The VMWare infrastructure must fulfil following requirements to be able to run FT-enabled VMs:

  • VMware vSphere Advanced or Enterprise Edition (FT Support included in this editions)
  • The CPU and chip-set of the Hosts must support Fault Tolerance.
  • The ESXi/vSphere hosts must be equipped with same CPU type and be part of FT-enabled Cluster

Prepare your VM

If you want to use FT you need to use the IPVA Version which includes SCSI-Disks, it's not possible to use the "Old" IPVA with IDE-Disks. To Run the SCSI-IPVA on VMware, you need to do Following steps:

  • Download and unzip ipva-vmx-scsi.zip
  • Convert all 4 disks to the VM by using the following command.
vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/datastore/current-VM-folder/disk.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore/new-VM-folder/disk.vmdk
  • Now you need to attach the New Disks to your VM:
  1. You need to detach your old Disks from your IPVA in the settings of your IPVA itself.
  2. After you removed all the old Disks, you now need to open the Settings of your IPVA itself again and attach the new Disks.
  3. You need to make sure the Disks are on the correct SCSI controllers
  4. The Disks need to be on following Positions
    1. hd.boot.vmdk SCSI-Controller 0 0:0
    2. hd-cf.vmdk SCSI-Controller 0 0:1
    3. hd-flash.vmdk SCSI-Controller 1 1:0
    4. hd-dump.vmdk SCSI-Controller 1 1:1

Installation

For detailed implementation of FT-enabled VMWare infrastructure, please refer to the VMWare documentation.

On the IPVA side no special settings or changes must be performed to enable FT.

We have tested the FT functionality with following setup and also in our cloud setup:

ft_test_setup.png/


While testing the Softphones where in a conference and also calling a WQ. While in an active call, a failure of ESXi/vSphere host was simulated. While testing multiple times, there were some noticeable interruptions in the media stream were realized, while the failover. Even with Video streams there were no problem and everything worked without noticeable problematic behavior.

Migration

To Migrate your system, you can download your Config and upload it to a Fault Tolerance Compatible IPVA.

Known Problems

The Fault Tolerance does not protect the system from software failures(e.g. trap of the IPVA).

Related Articles

Retrieved from "https://wiki.innovaphone.com/index.php?title=Howto15r1:Implement_PBX_with_zero_downtime_using_IPVA_and_VMWare_Fault_Tolerance&oldid=75888"