Updated : Raid your Elastix!

Updated with the link tot the document.
Elastix RAID setup, including how to recover from a failure.
A new document has appeared on Elastix Application notes, that will take you step by step, through the process. It covers the setup of RAID at Elastix install time. Without going in to complex RAID setups that fail to recover ultimately, the document will guide you how to setup software Linux RAID that is a part of CentOS, which is Elastix distribution based on.
Document covers following sections and I find 'recovery' inclusion a great asset. You can also adapt the same method to other Asterisk setups.

Foreword
Overview
What is RAID?
Hardware requirements for RAID
The Concept of what we are about to commence
RAID Configuration – Setup of the partitions
RAID Setup – Populating the RAID Sets and setting Mount Points
Confirming that your RAID is working
Management of your RAID
RAID Recovery
Trademarks
Disclaimer
Document History

Hospitality Management System For PIAF, Incredible PBX, ELASTIX, FREEPBX

Hospitality Management System For Asterisk Based Systems.

Seeing that there is an interest on out post "Manage Your Hotel Switchboard With Elastix, Easily" I decided to revisit the subject.
Yes the project is very much alive and seem to have continued support on Ward Mundy's PIAF forum and seem to have survive a bunch of upgrades to the related systems. The blog post we pointed to on Elastix is still there but comments are filled with junk so could not find if they continue to support it. The content seemed be fine and validated by the original author on PIAF forum.
What is more is that code is now on GITHUB under PIAF-HMS and could be downloaded from there as well as the resource link provided by / on PIAF forum. Don't just stop at the first page, traverse a bit further and learn about changes that were made by various members.
Ward had this to say about the software;

This is a phenomenal piece of software. I've unfortunately been sitting on it for several months waiting for a spare moment to review it on Nerd Vittles. Anyone in the hospitality business will love it. Period!

Happy Voiping.

Elastix-2.0.4-beta4 Brings Elastix Addons Module To Help With Integration With Elastix Marketplace To Add New Modules.

Elastix, elastix addons, Elastix Marketplace http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Elastix 2.0.4 Beta is bringing a new module to assist Elastix users with adding modules to the Elastix server. The new module, Elastix Addons module will allow adding new solutions fully compatible with Elastix from the Elastix Marketplace. These extensions will allow users of Elastix to take it even further than what Elastix already provides with the knowledge, that they are safe and seamlessly integrates with Elastix distribution.

This feature can be found in the addons module available in the Elastix-2.0.4-beta4 release. This module provides users with a simple path to integrate third party modules to the Elastix.

Now since the Elatix Marketplace is launched, many developers and entities could offer solutions to the installed Elastix server base, enriching and extending the Elastix experience. The Elastix Addons module is developed to provide the best path for the user to add and remove new modules that provides additional features to Elastix..

There is one requirement to use this module,   before downloading a commercial addon, one need to register your Elastix server. This registration will generate an installation id necessary to make transactions in the Marketplace.
There are some certified addons already in the market place:
- FOP2
- Visual Dial Plan
- Queuemetrics

Elastix team is in the process of adding more solutions and  your feedback is welcome as always.

Elastix

Grandstream’s Broad Portfolio of IP Voice and Video Solutions Certified With Elastix

Grandstream, Elastix, http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Grandstream announced today that it's VoIP IP Telephony portfolio has been certified with Elastix of Elastix Project, an IP-PBX Distribution for Unified Communication Server Solutions.

Press Release;

Grandstream’s Broad Portfolio of IP Voice and Video Solutions Certified With Elastix
Interoperability Gives Resellers, Integrators and SMBs High Quality, Turn-Key Solution

For Implementing Innovative and Cost-Effective Unified Communications

IT Expo, Miami, FL, Booth 817 (February 2, 2011) – Grandstream Networks, the leading manufacturer of IP voice/video telephony and video surveillance solutions, today announced that its award-winning SIP based voice and video CPE endpoints are fully certified and interoperable with Elastix, the largest open source software solutions for unified communications in Latin America. The coupling of Grandstream’s high quality and innovative endpoint solutions with Elastix’s unified communications software for IP PBX’s results in exceptional turn-key voice, visual communication and security surveillance solutions for resellers, integrators and small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) worldwide.
Interoperability assures implementers of telecom solutions are utilizing the most reliable and feature-rich endpoint equipments for business networks. It also provides a level of confidence that the CPE solutions being installed can be automatically provisioned through the Elastix software. A host of Grandstream’s advanced CPE solutions were rigorously tested and approved including the new GXP2120 and the GXP21xx and GXP14xx series enterprise HD SIP phone, GXP280 single-line phone, GXW IP analog gateways, GXV3611 and other GXV35xx/36xx series video surveillance camera, and the widely popular GXV3140 and GXV3175 IP multimedia phones.

“We are having much success to date fulfilling customer telephony needs utilizing a wide variety of Grandstream voice and video endpoints with Elastix,” said Edgar Landivar, CEO of PaloSanto Solutions, the company behind the Elastix Distro. “Grandstream is one of the first hardware manufacturers to support our certification program. We look forward to working with Grandstream and evolving Elastix’s telephony solutions to include new communication alternatives that make organizations more productive and efficient.”

“We are excited about our partnership with PaloSanto Solutions and the popular Elastix platform. Our relationship will benefit the many channel providers of Elastix unified communication solutions and business customers around the globe seeking ways to easily incorporate time and money saving technology, “ said David Li, CEO of Grandstream. “We will continue to deliver innovative SIP-based endpoint devices that fit the needs of all SMB and enterprise customers.” 

Grandstream IP CPE solutions will be visible in Grandstream Booth# 817 and Elastix Booth #1009 at ITExpo, February 2-4, 2011 in Miami, FL.

About Elastix
Elastix is appliance software that integrates the best tools available for Asterisk-based PBXs into a single, easy-to-use interface. It also adds its own set of utilities and allows for the creation of third party modules to make it the best software package available for open source telephony. These characteristics added to the strong reporting capabilities make it the best choice for implementing an Asterisk-based PBX.

About PaloSanto Solutions
PaloSanto Solutions is an Ecuadorian company dedicated to development and support of open source solutions. Since 2006 is the company behind the Elastix Project, an IP-PBX Distribution for Unified Communication Server Solutions. PaloSanto began its operations in 1999 and now distributes its services through Ecuador and an extensive reseller network in America and other countries around the world. Visit www.elastix.org for more information.

ABOUT GRANDSTREAM NETWORKS
Founded in 2002, Grandstream Networks is the leading manufacturer of IP voice/video telephony and video surveillance solutions. Grandstream serves the small-to-medium business and consumer markets with innovative products that lower communication costs, increase security protection, and enhance productivity. Our open standard SIP-based products offer broad interoperability in the industry, unrivaled features, flexibility, and price-performance competitiveness. Visit www.grandstream.com for more information.
# # #
CONTACT
Lorena Leonard
Grandstream Networks
marketing@grandstream.com
617-566-9300

ElastixWorld 2010 17-19th November 2010

#ElastixWorld 2010 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
One of my favorite IP Telephony projects are launching their own conference this year, ElastixWorld 2010. 
ElastixWorld is where all the Elastix community around the world, including but not limited to end users, manufacturers, resellers, developers, supporters, come together. The event will span three days presenting conferences, awards and new products and solutions related to VoIP IP Telephony and Elastix in particular.
According to the organizers, the event will be organized every year in different locations around the world, and the venue for this year is Quito, Ecuador, home of Elastix, as a starting point for this ambitious project.

If you want to present papers at the event, you can request by filling out a elastixWorld 2010 Speaker Submission Form.
For sponsors wanting to collaborate with Elastx on the event, please follow this link for more information.


elastixWorld 2010

Start date:
Thursday, 17th of November, 2010
Time: 15h00 -5gmt (Ecuadorian Time)

Date of conclusion:
Friday, 19th November, 2010
Time: 20h00 -5gmt (Ecuadorian Time)

Venue 2010:
Hotel Sheraton Quito
Quito
Ecuador
South America

Organizer:
PaloSanto Solutions

Price:
Free prior registration till the 9th of October of 2010
USD$70 from the 10th of November of 2010

Manage Your Hotel Switchboard With Elastix, Easily

Elastix, the other Asterisk http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
If you are familiar with Elastix, A member of the Elastix community has cooked up a configuration based off PBX In A Flash (PIAF) Hospitality Management System . They have made some minor adjustments make the project work with Elastix.
The Hotel Room Management system for Elastix is a very complete on with abilities like restrict the calls from Ext’s when they are not checked in, per-second billing etc.
Follow the links to get it running on your favorite incarnation of Asterisk.

Elastix Hotel management system could be found here.
If you prefer, the PIAF Hospitality Management System by claudiopizzillo is here.

Setting Up An SIP Extension In Elastix (Video)

Elastix How to snapvoip.blogspot.com

Adding extensions makes one of the first task of setting up an IP PBX.  In this video you can see how to add one of the basic extensions, a SIP extension to Elastix. It is presented in very clear and to the point by Scott Wittenberg. This method is the way you add any simple extensions to Elastix. We will be posting more videos from the Elastix Youtube Channel. in the future.

Put Asterisk On Steroids, Get Elastix!

Elastix Project snapvoip.blogspot.com
We all know about Asterisk and totally grateful for the Digium and the Asterisk community but it is not the easiest system to setup and configure. There have been countless attempts make the deployment of Asterisk easier but one such system, "Elastix" stands out.
Elastix has a great following and the community is very active. Elastix makes it possible to install Asterisk in few minutes and get it running. But that is not all because Elastix includes other related open source projects such as  FreePBX, Postfix, Hylafax, and Openfire and  email, fax, and Jabber instant messaging becomes part of the communications solution for a small business or a solo office.
But the main reason I wrote this is to point you to an article on sourceforge.net blog, where Elastix is hosted. Getting published on the Sourceforge blog is it self a feat as not all 230000 projects get featured on the blog, which is very selective and reserved for the best.
So head over to sourceforge to find out why Elastix put Asterisk on steroids.

Sourceforge Blog
Elastix

64BIT Elastix 1.5 Beta Ready For Testing

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The elastix core development team and much thanks to Alex Villacis, the first beta version of 64bit Elastix 1.5 have been made available for download. They are getting ready for the first RC but this beta will provide much better Elastix performance in 64 bits OS.

Elastix 1.5 is using Dahdi instead of zaptel and following are the major components of the system;

• FreePBX 2.5.1
• Asterisk 1.4.23.1
• Dahdi 2.1.0.3
• Linux 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5

If you do test the system please submit any bugs that you come across to bug track system.

Tags: Freepbx, IPPBX, VOIP,elastix