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Table of Contents
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4psafasttrack
NameFast Track

Unfortunately, there is no Fast Track. Deploying and managing a distributed infrastructure requires highly advanced knowledge. In this section, we only cover the particularities of the VoipNow distributed infrastructure. We do not cover the fundamentals of service distribution.

If you are not convinced about the distributed deployment, check the single node installation. It is still flexible enough and able to support thousands of users.

Understand our cloud

We have already detailed why you would want to use a VoipNow system installed on multiple computers.

To keep things short, it looks like you need massive scalability that goes beyond the possibilities of a single hardware machine and you still want to have a single system to manage, not multiple autonomous systems.

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Low level

The current document does not aim at describing is not meant to describe how a reliable infrastructure should be built. This is not its purpose. We will only be looking at the container, as the computing entity that runs the software. Since this is a virtual machine, it is highly abstracted and standardized, so we do not care what lies behind it. Basically, it is the same philosophy you adopt when buying many IaaS services.

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  • Flexible: they can be started and stopped and resources can be changed (even without reboot), etc.
  • Part of the infrastructure: In many cases, they are the only exposed part of itpart, which is exposed.
  • Given at least a network address (only private, only public, or both types).
Tip
Do not confuse our container terminology with specific virtualization techniques that call their virtual machines "containers". Our containers are abstracted abstract entities , which that can be deployed using any virtualization technology.

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The Node is a Software entity, while the Container is an Infrastructure entity. The Node requires a Container in order to run, but it does not require a specific container. It might change during the software lifetime operation and the software will not complaingive error messages.

Role

VoipNow has a lot of functions. It is a complex software which that covers many flows. It is absolutely clear that Nodes must be specialized - some Nodes are specialized. Some handle database functionality, some handle the web management interface, while others cover signaling for telephony functions, etc. We call such a specialization Role.

So, when you have to manage nodes, you will see that each node is assigned a specific role!.

Sounds too complicated?

Think of the Infrastructure and Software like a courier company. Each company has many employees delivering stuff. Some are specialized in delivering to customers, others are delivering between hubs, contractors, etc.

The employee is responsible with delivering the packages. Usually one drives a car, but the car might be shared between shifts, the car might break down, etc. It is just a method to fulfill the goal, it can be replaced, taken out of service, etc.

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It does not matter if you run your own infrastructure or you use a public cloud service. The following conditions must be met:

  • You must be able to provision virtual machines easily.
  • The hardware specifications of the virtual machines must be flexible enough because, based on the role of the node, they might require more CPU power, memory or I/O.
  • Both public (routable) and private (non-routable) network are required; it . It is in your best interest to keep some traffic private and to expose only the services your customers will use.

As virtualization is necessary, it does not really matter what hardware is used as long as it is supported by the virtualization technology vendor. Naturally, if you use a cloud service, hardware should be the last of your worries.

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When running distributed, VoipNow is compatible with the Linux distributions:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Update 6 and newer 7.x (x86_64)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Update and newer 8 (x86_64)
  • CentOS 67.6 x (x86_64)
  • CentOS 7.1 8 (x86_64)

What's next?

There are many things you must become familiar with before going further with the deployment. Start in the following orderTake it step by step, as follows:

  • Software Roles: Learn more general things about the Roles in VoipNow.
  • Roles Requirements: Review the requirements of each role, roleand what you must do in order to implement each of them.
  • Storage: Learn how you should implement storage.
  • Start the Installation: Learn how to perform the installation of a distributed environment.

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Except where otherwise noted, content in this space is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.