FreePBX under VMware

I’m trying to install the FreePBX distro in a VMware Server environment (not for production use) and am running into the following errors, which abort the install:

[code]There was an error running your transaction for the following reason(s): file conflicts.

ERROR: file conflicts: file /lib/modules/2.6.18-194.17.1.el5/dahdi/xpp/xpd_pri.ko conflicts between attempted installs of kmod-dahdi-linux-2.4.1.2-1_centos5.2.6.18_194.17.1.el5.i686 and kmod-dahdi-linux-2.4.0-1_centos5.2.6.18_194.17.1.el5.i686
ERROR: file conflicts: file /lib/modules/2.6.18-194.17.1.el5/dahdi/xpp/xpp.ko conflicts between attempted installs of kmod-dahdi-linux-2.4.1.2-1_centos5.2.6.18_194.17.1.el5.i686 and kmod-dahdi-linux-2.4.0-1_centos5.2.6.18_194.17.1.el5.i686[/code]

Google hasn’t turned up anything so far, so I thought I’d ask here. Anyone encountered this and found a solution?

What version did you install?

FreePBX 1.8.1.4 on VMware Server 2.0

Just did another install in VMware ESXI on the 1.8.1.4 with no issues. I am not sure how it is trying to install 2 different versions of the same package. Is anyone else seeing this.

VMware ESXI is a paid product and not the same as open source VMware server. It’s more like a XEN server. On VMware the distro install works if you select the beta installer but it fails with the production installer. What’s different?

ESXI is not a paid product. It is free.

What beta installer are you talking about?

To add my knowledge to this thread:
ESXI 4.1 is a FREE product. All you have to do is to register to get a FREE license key. ESXI installs on your computer and ERASES all disk to install it’s own operating system.

From VMware’s FAQ:

                                VMware Server 	                                VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXI)
Architecture                    Hosted, installs as an application on the OS 	Installs bare metal, OS independent
OS Requirements 	        Windows or Linux 	                        None
Typical Use Cases 	        Test & Dev 	                                Production, Test & Dev
Dedicated Server Required 	No 	                                        Yes
Centralized Management Option 	No 	                                        Yes, if upgraded to paid editions of vSphere
Ease of Use 	                High 	                                        High
Performance 	                Good 	                                        Best
Scalable to VMware vSphere 	Easy. Convert virtual machines to run           Easiest. 
                                on ESXi/ESX using VMware Converter.             Virtual machines and hypervisor are 
                                Install ESX or ESXi as the hypervisor.          compatible with paid editions of vSphere.

I run at the moment eight (8) FreePBX installs on ESXI on an old dual core Asus motherbpard, 8 Gb of memory and 750 Gb harddisk.

I have installed and tested almost every FreePBX distro that is released, none have failed to install.

My bad. We thought ESXI was a paid product. The point I am making though is that VmWare Server, and Virtualbox, which are not the same as VmWare ESXI, are not out of the box compatible with the distro installer. We installed VmWare server and Virtual box hence all the problems. The forum had references to all of these products so we picked the wrong one to start.

Not sure about the beta installer. My tech said he found an alternate install on the kickstart iso we donwloaded which installed ok. I’ll have to ask him if he is talking about the original beta we downloaded or something else.

I just tested it with FreePBX ISO 1.8.1.4 and VirtualBox 4.08 and it work as it should.
The older 1.8.1.2 ISO does not work on VirtualBox but work perfectly in ESXI.

What I think of VMware Server 2.0 I don’t dare posting on this forum :slight_smile:

The Original post says (not for production). Has anyone installed a virtual FreePBX for production, Are all the systems mentioned above just for testing.
I see companies like Rentapbx offering hosted systems I would imagine this is probably a virtual setup, I ask because I have bin thinking about setting one up for some of my small customers that only require a few phones. I have looked around at a few different distos and no one seems to talk about a stable production level machine on virtual box. All seem to say it can be done BUT not for production. I’m not looking for someone to tell me exactly how to do this although that would be nice, but more along the lines that they currently do this and its been stable for them.

Gary

The virtual machine providers have custom Asterisk and DAHDI running hacked up Kernel’s and still have issues(in my opinion).

It’s just not worth the trouble.

I have PIAF running Asterisk 1.4.41 in 4 doctor’s offices and in my home on VMware player with no issues whatsoever. They use both SIP trunking and Media Gateways to interface with the POTS lines. They are all dedicated machines. The doctor’s office uses brand new HP Laptops running Win 7 64-bit. We use the VMWare simply for convenience - its incredibly easy to backup a VMware machine, and VMware’s shared folders

I’ve tested my home unit with as many as 10 calls to various Podlinez services all transferred to the conference bridge, and then I checked my voicemail, with no issues. And that’s on a four year old Dual Core Sony Laptop that came with Windows Vista.

There’s no doubt that running it through a VMWare requires more resources. For example, when I tried it on an atom powered machine running Win 7 Starter, the system had trouble when I did a page to the entire house (11 local phones, with 2 remote phones over VPN). However, when run on a Core i3 machine or even the 4-year old dual core laptop I’m using at home, it appears to work flawlessly.

I’m running the the standard Centos 5.6 install on PIAF. Before that, I was using AsteriskNOW.

The only kernel related changes that I made were the best practices timekeeping changes recommended by VMware for Linux hosts and the installation of VMWare Tools.

Also, I’ve also installed the FreePBX Distro on a VMWare machine created by VMware Player at least a dozen times. I plan to implement it at my home within the next week or so.

So far, I’ve just been installing as each new version was released, and using it as a testing system to try various tweaks as I’ve been revising the FreePBX documentation. I’ve never had it fail to install.

I will say that if you install using the VMWare Player, do not initially point to the ISO when you create the new virtual machine. This will cause VMWare Player to do something called an “Easy Install” and then install will fail. It is better to create the VMWare Machine empty. Then, before booting, point the DVD Drive to the ISO file.

Doesn’t the VMWare player run as a Windows application? I can imagine running a Doctor’s office or any business on a Windows laptop with the phone system running in a VM. It strikes me as absurd.

This is my personal opinion, I will be interested in the feedback it generates.

“The only kernel related changes that I made were the best practices timekeeping changes recommended by VMware for Linux hosts and the installation of VMWare Tools.”

I just wanted to highlight and emphasize the above. If you fail to do those things you may get choppy audio and other weirdness. Also, when installing VMWare Tools, make sure to follow the instructions shown at the end of the installation for updating your network card to use the VMWare driver - it will print a few commands on the screen that you will need to enter from the Linux command prompt.

Well, sir, there are a lot of us doing it successfully, whether you consider it absurd or not. Also, keep in mind that once the system is up and running you can set up SSH access to get you to the Linux command prompt, and of course FreePBX runs from a web interface, so the need to use the VMWare software that only runs in Windows is actually quite rare (unless you are constantly creating new VM’s).

If you are saying that it REALLY sucks that WMWare doesn’t offer a Mac or Linux version of that software, I would very much agree!

My point is that you are running it on top of Windows not that you have to use windows to access the Vconsole.

As far as your doing it successfully, that is very subjective.

With regard to Linux based VMWARE, ESXI is Linux based.

I would never run a production system on VMWare, ESXI or anything else like that. We see issues weekly from people trying to do so in the FreePBX Support Site and once they move to dedicated boxes all the issues go away. This is foolish and you are not doing your customers any justice and setting yourself and your customer up for failure and giving Asterisk/FreePBX a really bad name.

Keep up the good work guys. Glad to see so many clueless people selling systems to customers who get screwed in the end.

Well you are crazy and will give all of us a bad reputation. Asterisk does not handle well in a KVM style Virtualization. I know because we spent months testing with real world dialplan and stress test and ended up going a different route with a custom kernel that we maintain for our hosted platform.

Good luck with your endeavors but after 4 years of dealing with Asterisk and running the FreePBX Paid Support I can promise you it will cause problems and I would not continue doing it.

Tony/others:

I used the VMWare Player solution in my home office for 3 months before I deployed it. It works fantastically. When I offered to help my doctor friend replace his phone system in his four offices, I offered him the option of going with a dedicated box vs. VMWare. He chose the VMWare option and it has worked great for him. In fact, its rate for a day to go by without him calling me to tell me how much he likes the system. As far as I can tell, it has exceeded his expectations. It certainly works fine for me.

Today, I installed a VMware Player FreePBX Distro at a vacation home for a friend. He doesn’t have any extra computers, so we installed it on his Media Center PC. It uses a networked HD Tuner. Even while recording 2 full HD streams and playing back another one to an Xbox 360, all over the network, the VMWare machine was able to handle 3 calls to the echo test without missing a beat.

Of course, I’d never deploy that in a production environment - this was just messing around. But, if it works that well when sharing ticks with a Windows 7 doing its Media Center duties, I’d say its ready for primetime…