As you may be aware, ARI Recording warns and does not display messages when there are more than 3,000 msgs in the /monitor folder. This is obviously a really serious and bad limitation to ARI Recording because 3,000 recorded calls is nothing even with 10 users in an office where all calls are recorded.
I have created my own script where calls are saved into organized folders using FreePBX 2.5 General Tab => Run After Record field. However, I would like to still use ARI Recording and I think it is a really neat interface.
If we are to record 100, 000 calls over 1 year what do you suggest should be done? If I move files, ARI Recording won’t read them anymore. If I don’t move them then Ext3 file system won’t support that many files and it will also mess up the system where there are so many files in a single folder.
Is there a filed in MySql that I can specify in ARI Recording as to where files are stored?
My current script saves files in the following format as an example:
It has come up a few times in the past.
there have been postings at the forums and folks have done scripting to move the files off the server to remote storage.
But I do not know of anyone working with the ARI gui to solve the issue
someone had done some PHP work to make gui to display / search / play the files
not sure which forum but it was YEARS ago.
Thanks for the input. You are giving me some ideas. I have a script that moves files into folders. What would a search command look like in this case? maybe I will get this part of done too and then post it up for everyone.
I am amazed that FreePBX still survives despite a really serious shortcoming like this. I guess it’s built to last only 1 year and then scrap the server and install a brand new one. With all the complains and trying to work around no one cares to pay attention to an issue where it can become a serious load issue for a server that is running FreePBX. 3000 recorded files and say “Good Bye” to your ARI Recording. What a great system?!
Thanks for the URL. It explains how to enable ARI Recording to read more than 3000 files but it does not address the problem of having TOO MANY files in a folder which has Ext3 format. If you keep recording 100, 000 of files in a year your system will go ballastic. This is what makes me think if FreePBX is long term viable and sellable solution to call centers at all. And I am not talking call centers like ViciDial, but simple office setting.
Well, this is my own opinion on the matter (and not as a developer):
Don’t mix FreePBX with ARI as those are two separate programs. They are bundled as a courtesy to those who record some calls.
ARI was never designed to keep track of one year of recorded files. Thus having the limit of 3000 files to begin with. It was expanded sometime to deal with more files but it was never intended to cope with 100,000 files.
Feel free to look at the code and perhaps come up with a solution to the problem. That would be nice
Thanks for the input. I am looking to develop a solution for this and I have already done a script move files into folders. I guess I have to come up with my own GUI display of recording. However, I do not agree with you on the fact that because ARI Recording is a courtesy bundle it should be very weak. FreePBX is used in quite a few Asterisk flavors and recording set to Always is a feature of FreePBX. It would be fair to say that the expectation is to have FreePBX word with at least 20 users system fairly well. 20 users * 30 calls a day * 261 days (considering days off) and that is a minimum of 156,600 calls recorded. I think that is a very fair number of users to play with and to assume that a project with FreePBX’s magnitude should handle. In all posts that I searched no moderator or FreePBX developer cared to offer a solution when it repeatedly came up.
