RECOMMENDATIONS Available Server Hardware??

[JayG30]

Hello,

So I'm going to be purchasing some hardware and was looking through what was available to make a system that would easily and reliably support 50 extensions, 8 outgoing/incoming calls, and maybe a bit of call recording. As technology has advanced a lot of the systems people have used aren't available for purchase anymore. So I'm spec'ing various business class servers from SuperMicro.

E3-1200v3/Haswell i3 Build
$400: 1 x Supermicro SYS-5018D-MF
$100: 1 x 8GB DDR3 1600 ECC Unbuffered RAM
$90: 1 x 120 Samsung EVO SSD
$250: 1 x E3-1230V3 quad-core
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Total: $840
This is the most powerful setup I was looking at. I think this is overpowered for just a PBX for a midsize business. I'm not sure but was thinking this might serve well as a small VM machine (maybe put pfsense or Samba4 as an AD on it). Does anyone have a ballpark on what this machine could do as strictly a PBX (extensions, concurrent calls, etc)?

C2000 Atom Build
$535: 1 x Supermicro 5018A-TN4 (C2750 Atom)
$90: 1 x 8GB 204pin DDR3 1600 ECC RAM
$90: 1 x 120 Samsung EVO SSD
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Total: $715
From what I've read the C2000 line is about twice as powerful as the old D500 series Atom processors while using the same or less watts. So it is very power efficient. The 2750 is an 8 core Atom. This also has 4 x 1GbE ports which might be a nice feature. However, the mITX form factor means they are using 204pin DDR3 and since it is a server grade motherboard it requires ECC RAM. I found it extremely difficult finding 204pin EEC DDR3 1600 RAM. Otherwise, I really like this combination and don't see much downside. What do you think?

D525 Atom Build
$315: 1 x Supermicro 5015A-EHF-D525
$75: 1 x 8GB 204pin DDR3 1600 ECC RAM
$90: 1 x 120 Samsung EVO SSD
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Total: $480
I think this is a setup that many people have used for their PBX, so it is a tested system. I've read that the system will actually recognize and use 8GB even though it only lists 4GB support. The RAM support is only DDR3 800 so I'd expect the DDR3 1600 to run slower. I've read the D525 will support a SMB of 50 extensions fine. Will be about half the performance of the C2000 build with no power consumption savings.


So what do you think? I'm leaning towards the C2000 build. Would be nice if I could get the new 5018A-MLTN4 or 5018-MHN4 since they are uATX form factor. The one comes with a 4 core C2550 which would be fine or the C2758, but the advantage is it uses 240pin DDR3 ECC RAM which would be easier to get I think. However, I can't find these available for sale yet.

 

[atsak]

I used option 3 for exactly the type of deployment you suggest you are making 3 years ago and have not touched it since. Not even once. Only difference is I used a mechanical hard drive because SSD's were really expensive. I used a Rhino interface card for the lines, but you could use an external FXO gateway (Sangoma Vega) as well if you like for 8 lines.

 

[atsak]

PS the RAM speed isn't relevant, and you don't need 8GB, 4 is fine. I don't know why my edit button in Firefox doesn't work, so sorry for the two separate posts.

 

[JayG30]

Oh, the 8 lines would be VoIP lines, not traditional POTS lines. Although I'll probably have to add a few of those for simpler fax and emergencies. I was going to address that down the line. I doubt I'd need more then 4 POTS lines (if I did, I'd get an external FXO gateway like you mentioned).

The nice thing with the D525 is that it is a tested setup that others have used. The 2nd setup with the C2750 would offer a lot more potential without drawing much power and I'd expect could handle a situation if growth happened to 100+ extensions. I'm not sure if I'm missing anything that throw a wrench in using it.

 

[Mark D. Montgomery II]

Something like option 3 is what I've had my eye on to replace my current desktop box with a rack box when I can afford to grab the parts to build it, although I'd probably just move my existing disk over to it (or pull out that old SSD I replaced from my laptop last year...).

 

[magna.vis]

We're finally seeing the new Atoms trickle out, and I'm really excited for them. They boost Atom into the true micro-server realm. It may be overkill for a PBX, but I would get it just for the ECC alone. I'm in enterprise management though, so that may be my anal retentiveness speaking. It just kills me when people run business services on consumer hardware and expect it to last forever, and is something I've had to come to terms with in many of the communities like these that I participate in. Really, there wasn't a good alternative (at a similar price point) before now.

My vote is option 2. I like SUpermicro as well, and I have several 1U servers running Server 2012 (Core) on them with AD & DNS as backup servers for domains.

 

[Mark D. Montgomery II]

I typically start out with consumer level hardware and then move up to proper server grade stuff when I can afford it (like finally moving from 2 Obi110's to the Sangoma card).
I'm also running most of this stuff at home, not at a business...hah! (hey, gotta learn and play somewhere!)

 

[JayG30]

Sorry, made a mistake. The Supermicro 5018A-TN4 in option 2 is actually $535 not $400. I forgot to change the cost of that when typing it up.
So it's ~$230 more then the D525 setup. There is also the SuperMicro 5018A-FTN4 which is the same except for the I/O ports are on the front of the case. It can be found a bit cheaper right now at about $505.

I'm curious which people would like better for a PBX, I/O ports on the front or the rear?

 

[Mark D. Montgomery II]

Personally, I prefer the IO ports in the back for my rackmount stuff so it looks neater. It generally gets hooked up to a KVM anyway.

 

[matthew]

Whatever your hardware, virtualize. It makes it easy to pick up your PBX and dump it on another machine if you have to. A business with 50 extensions won't like being down for any appreciable length of time.

 

[Mark D. Montgomery II]

Whatever your hardware, virtualize. It makes it easy to pick up your PBX and dump it on another machine if you have to. A business with 50 extensions won't like being down for any appreciable length of time.

Can you pass through specialized hardware like the Sangoma/Digium/etc. Cards to a virtualized instance?

 

[leemason]

You can't pass through cards like that on VMware. Not sure about other methods of virtualisation.

 

[phonebuff]

Can you pass through specialized hardware like the Sangoma/Digium/etc. Cards to a virtualized instance?

You could / should look at the Sangoma VEGA, AudioCodes MP, or a number of other higher end PSTN to VoIP adapters in place of cards.. Much more flexible for redundancy anyway.. For home use a SPA or OBI can do everything the on board card can do..

 

[atsak]

Can you pass through specialized hardware like the Sangoma/Digium/etc. Cards to a virtualized instance?

No, not the cards. The things phonebuff mentions can be used instead.

 

[JayG30]

It sounds to me like virtualizing doesn't really provide much advantage in this case. It sounds like it might be better to just perform off site backups of the configuration and have a spare machine ready to go in case of a problem. Or better yet, a high availability setup with failover to the secondary machine. One of the issues I have with ESXi is hardware. In many cases you would be hard pressed to get it running on a spare laptop in a jam, and would take considerable longer then just installing PIAF or whatever Linux Distro. With a backup of the PBX configs I could use a spare laptop with PIAF in a VirtualBox VM even.

I'm just curious in what ways does virtualizing help us here?
In my situation, I won't even have a secondary machine to push the VM to in case of a failure.

I think I'm going to go with Option 2. Not sure if I should go with a HDD instead of the SSD though.
And does anyone have any insight in where to purchase some compatible 204pin EEC DDR3 RAM?

 

[It's all good]

My recent installations have been with the Supermicro X10SL7-F, it has an integrated LSI 2308. CPU has been E3-1220V3.

Rackmounted, I prefer ports on the front. I'd go with this case if using the C2000 board, 505-203B

 

[JayG30]

My recent installations have been with the Supermicro X10SL7-F, it has an integrated LSI 2308. CPU has been E3-1220V3.

Rackmounted, I prefer ports on the front. I'd go with this case if using the C2000 board, 505-203B

Can you comment on how large of installations you've used this setup on?
It seems like an E3-1200 CPU could be overkill for a SMB that might need 100 extensions and maybe 16 simultaneous calls?
Also, what advantage to you see in having the LSI 2308 for a PBX?

Thanks.

 

[JayG30]

Also, FYI, it looks like the 204pin EEC DDR3 RAM (Kingston KVR16LSE11/8) I linked above will work with the Supermicro boards. It's the same RAM they used over at servethehome.com for their reviews.

 

[JayG30]

Also, while looking at stuff I came across a machine I think would be pretty nice for anyone who;
1) Doesn't want a rackmount system
2) Doesn't want "server grade" hardware
3) Just wants something cheaper

$168: Gigabyte GB-XM14-1037

Add RAM and SSD. It has a Intel Celeron 1037U which should be more powerful then the D525 people use while still having roughly the same power consumption. Can take 16 GB of DDR3 1600 RAM also. I think it would be suitable replacement and offer a bit better performance then the Foxconn Atom D525 systems that have been posted in the past.

 

[GomezAddams]

With virtualization you get:
1. Hardware agnosticity (I guess that is a word - chrome spell check likes it). In case your hardware fails, you can plop the virtual disk file onto anything (desktop, laptop, etc) and be up and running in minutes.
2. Dead simple disk image backups. Without taking the PBX down.
3. Snapshots. Want to try making major changes, but want to be able to revert easily no matter what? Snapshots.
4. An easy way to build a new system with the latest PiaF and run it in parallel with the old until you are ready to switch.