CDR Issues in FreePBX 2.11.0 (AsteriskNow 3.0)

General Help
1

Hi,

We have installed AsteriskNow 3.0 which uses FreePBX 2.11.0. For the life of me I can’t get the CDR filters to work. It doesn’t matter what I put in any of the fields, it returns no records. It only returns records when all the CDR fields are empty.

The more pressing issue is that the DID field is not populated. Can someone please advise on how I get this fixed ? I would think that this “should just work out of the box” ?

Given that these are enterprise type installs, I would prefer to steer away from -custom “hacks”

Thanks,

Pieter

2

Pieter, I think you need to have far more knowledge if you are doing “Enterprise Type Installs”.

One can also make the assumption your are being compensated. FreePBX training is coming up in a month. You should avail yourself of that training prior to hanging out that shingle.

To answer your question, Asterisk now is put together by the Asterisk folks. The FreePBX must be configured wrong.

Our distro works out of the ISO

3

Hi,

This is my job and given that I am in New Zealand, training in the US is not an option at this point in time.

I was hoping that with AsteriskNow, we would get support for the whole appliance, not just the Asterisk part (from digium that is). Digium is happily pointing the finger at FreePBX, claiming they just package it with the product. I have no problem in hacking the code and fixing the issue, however, there is 2 show stoppers:

  1. My avail time
  2. I need to hand this over to “normal” support staff, so I am trying to make it easier

I’ll go off and look deeper.

Cheers,

Pieter

4

The FreePBX distro is designed for integrators, and the CDR’s (and everything else) works out of the box.

5

Turns out that the mysql modules for Asterisk wasn’t loaded.

6

Pieter,
Thank you for using AsteriskNOW and FreePBX! I am sorry to hear that “Digium is happily pointing the finger at FreePBX, claiming they just package it with the product.” I am curious - would you be able to share where you encountered this message? (Did you call Digium technical support? Post on the AsteriskNOW forums? Post an issue in the AsteriskNOW issue tracker? IRC Chat? etc…)

" was hoping that with AsteriskNow, we would get support for the whole appliance, not just the Asterisk part (from digium that is)" I’d also like to know if you are willing to share - what type of support are you interested in?

AsteriskNOW is available free of cost and is community supported software. There are AsteriskNOW forums and an AsteriskNOW issue tracker:
http://forums.asterisk.org/viewforum.php?f=14&sid=596112c81dfc6e8b784731d1c5a3b582
https://issues.asterisk.org/jira/browse/ANOW

Is there another avenue that you feel is reasonable that isn’t currently being offered? How can we better serve you?

If you are looking for commercial support, then it is true that Digium only offers commercial Asterisk support options for Asterisk and Certified Asterisk.

If you are using Digium products - cards, gateways, IP phones, etc… then all of these products are supported regardless of if you are using Asterisk, AsteriskNOW, FreePBX Distro, etc…

In terms of your CDR bug this sounds like it is a problem specifically related to the packaging of AsteriskNOW. Perhaps the same issue as this https://issues.asterisk.org/jira/browse/ANOW-175
If this is the case, then it is already in the issue tracker and being triaged.

Again I apologize if the wrong message was sent. I do know that our Technical Support crew regularly sends prospects over to Schmooze when people call in and are using the FreePBX GUI. We view this as a collaborative relationship and a friendly way to say, “Schmooze is a great company and they offer commercial support for the FreePBX GUI. If you are using the FreePBX GUI and are looking for commercial support you should purchase it from them - we like those guys. Also, we hope you will use Digium IP phones, Cards and Gateways with your Asterisk-based FreePBX system as we feel they are the best products on the market. We gladly provide technical support for these products in addition to commercial support options available for non-GUI, vanilla Asterisk/Certified Asterisk.”

  • Billy Chia
    Asterisk Marketing Manager, Digium
7

Billy

I could not have said it better. No difference then when we send people over to Digium for support on your products like Phones, Cards and Gateways. I dont think most users realize the amount of collaboration their is between Digium/Asterisk and Schmooze/FreePBX these days.

8

Hi Billy and Tony;

“…I am curious - would you be able to share where you encountered this message?” <-- Digium support call and online chat (I can forgive the online chat, as that is more sales)

“I’d also like to know if you are willing to share - what type of support are you interested in?” <-- My project has budget to buy the Multi-System Level 3 support (we have 4 servers). We also added in some extras incase we needed to get something that isn’t covered (a few hours from other vendors perhaps etc). In a nutshell, I wanted someone to say - “We will gladly fix your problem for $X or if you have this support contract” - Now, I don’t throw money at a problem and hope it goes away, but enterprise customers expect that you can buy a support contract and that “everything in the box” is covered, e.g. AsteriskNow, which includes FreePBX - more on this later* - It gives them a warm fussy feeling.

“AsteriskNOW is available free of cost and is community supported software” <-- Not what I was lead to believe from the Digium support chat - I asked if AsteriskNow was covered under the support contracts and the answer was yes. Perhaps they mis-understood me and I them, not a big issue either way.

“If you are looking for commercial support, then it is true that Digium only offers commercial Asterisk support options for Asterisk and Certified Asterisk.” <-- Why not extend this to AsteriskNow, aka FreePBX. You ship the appliance, you take time to package it all up etc. The only thing you need to add is FreePBX support - CentOS support can be offloaded to CentOS but given it is “Redhat” it will already be pretty darn stable.

“If you are using Digium products - cards, gateways, IP phones, etc…” <-- I am and the company that I work for has been blown away by the support contacts - I am the one that reported the issue with the TE133 and HP Servers. I have had your support spend hours on it, all included in the price - AMAZING !

“Perhaps the same issue as this https://issues.asterisk.org/jira/browse/ANOW-175
If this is the case, then it is already in the issue tracker and being triaged.” <-- I am “YellowTech” :slight_smile:

https://issues.asterisk.org/jira/browse/ANOW-174 <-- That is the cause of this Issue

“Again I apologize if the wrong message was sent. I do know that our Technical Support crew regularly sends prospects over to Schmooze when people call in and are using the FreePBX GUI” <-- Not the message I got (sorry) - I would have gladly taken the call to Schmooze

Tony - The message I got from SkyKingOH’s post is “Ditch AsteriskNOW, use the FreePBX ISO” - that, imho, doesn’t sound like working together (and on a personal note, I don’t like the fact that the FreePBX ISO turns on every single module :slight_smile: )

“I dont think most users realize the amount of collaboration their is between Digium/Asterisk and Schmooze/FreePBX these days.” <-- A Bitter pill for me to swallow after all of this.

In a nutshell, perhaps Digium and Schmooze can get together (on a more public front ?) and come up with a support contract for “Enterprises”. I would gladly pay up to $6k/year for combined support of Asterisk and FreePBX (aka AsteriskNow :slight_smile: ) - Throw in “proper” DUNDi or Clustering support and that could easily jump to $20k/year. A hell of a lot less than Cisco/Nortel/etc.

I think both companies are sitting on a gold mine here if they play their cards right :slight_smile:

Happy to talk more about this offline :slight_smile:

9

I’d like to talk more offline also, PM sent!

10

I can only comment generically, certainly the AsteriskNow distribution includes FreePBX and that blurs the line.

The FreePBX distro is what the FreePBX developers test with. They don’t have AsteriskNow and PBX in a Flash, they use the Distro. Prior to that it was “roll your own”.

Integrating a distro and keeping it current is a major undertaking, by nature the other distro’s will allows lag the official distro. It is up to those creators to create and communicate their own value.

To me, after being at this for a long time, it is interesting how users want the benefits of Open Source (and the economies) but the accountability of a commercial product. Everything is about striking a balance. Schmooze puts principal before profit and personalities enough times that the community can appraise their motives accurately.

I am sure that this has done nothing but confuse. I should also say, relationships evolve and everyone on the team is hoping this bears fruit.

As an observer I got to see Mark and Tony together at Oshkosh last week, Mark is the CTO and founder of Digium. There is very open lines of communication. I am very excited at the steps everyone is taking. Cooperation is key for the ecosystem to be healthy.

If you are anywhere near Vegas I strongly suggest you come to FreePBX world at IT Expo, two days of seminars and total immersion in all things FreePBX. This would be your best opportunity to get candid with the team.

11

Hi SkykingOH (Like the plane ?)

“Integrating a distro and keeping it current is a major undertaking, by nature the other distro’s will allows lag the official distro.” <-- FreePBX updates itself independent of AsteriskNOW :slight_smile:

“To me, after being at this for a long time, it is interesting how users want the benefits of Open Source (and the economies) but the accountability of a commercial product.” <-- I agree and isn’t this a way to ensure that open source lives on ? Most open source projects that I have been part of is done in the spare time of the devs. Take Digium as example, if they didn’t have support contracts, where would they be today ?

It is an easy nut to crack - both distro’s have rock solid bases. FreePBX “doesn’t just break”, nor does Asterisk, nor Centos. All that the enterprises want is that warm fuzzy feeling, that they can call someone 24/7 if they have an issue (the only issue is that the support hours might be burned up with “how do I add a user to the system…” - but basic training - even online - can solve that)

As for the training, yeah, New Zealand is a tad far away from Vegas :slight_smile: I would have loved to attend (perhaps next year) but given that we also in the middle of a 300 device roll out I don’t think my manager will allow that one.

I have replied to Derek’s request, let’s see where that goes.

Cheers,

Pieter

12

Everything you say is correct, except that the quality of the integration of FreePBX is relevant. FreePBX has many external dependencies that the distro builder has to manage.

CDR problems and Asterisk now have been around for years.

This is an interesting time as Digium and Schmooze are clearly working close together based on recent comments.

However Jason Parker, now works for Schmooze and he was a major part of Asterisknow.

Please also be aware the even though my company is a very active reseller with Schmooze and I know some of the guys personally, I don’t get the inside track more than anyone else. I have started many a conversation with Tony with “how come you didn’t tell me about that” I do have a feeling that the next few months will be very interesting and I am as excited about FreePBX world (10 days and counting) as anyone else.

13

Hey SkykingOH;

Right - I have just spotted the difference between “us” - and I am assuming here :slight_smile:

You work (own perhaps) for a company that resells/installs and supports FreePBX/Asterisk/etc. My day job is “a project resource in IT/IS”

Once this project is done, the only time I will ever touch this install is as 3rd level support. If I can’t fix it, I need someone to hand over to.

If I was doing “this” as my day job, I would have gotten/demanded a lot more training and relationship building with FreePBX/Schoomze/Digium/Asterisk (I highlight the OSS parts as I believe in giving back)

All things aside, I think I raised my points, so let’s see what actions we get from that :slight_smile: